There are more bridges and staircases in “The Hobbit: Battle of the Five Armies” than in an Escher lithograph.
And a battle is fought on each one. Yet there are no narrative bridges to connect what we are seeing to what came before.
This disjointed, top heavy third film based on the book by J. R. R. Tolkien relies on familiarity with the franchise. Anyone who has not seen the first two films will feel adrift, as will anyone who can’t remember previous developments.
It is not the sum total of what preceded it or of any creative urge, but of a pathological need to squeeze every dime out of the franchise at the cost of narrative cohesion and momentum.
The film contains a telling metaphor about this very thing in its portrait of the dwarf king – the central figure played by Richard Armitage – whose lust for gold is as powerful as the one ring that poisons Frodo in “The Lord of the Rings” films.
While director Peter Jackson was rightfully lauded for the “LOTR” trilogy – the final film won the Oscar for best picture – they were an act of addition by subtraction.
He condensed those books to fit a different medium.
But he expanded “The Hobbit” to enhance profit.
The five army battle in the film takes up just ten pages in the source material, and the Orc – played by Manu Bennett – leading the underworld army doesn’t even appear in the book. Nor do characters played by Cate Blanchett and Orlando Bloom.
The archer played by Evangeline Lily is an invention and her relationship with the dwarf played by Aidan Turner is a contrivance. The leader, played by Luke Evans, of the town destroyed by the flame breathing dragon Smaug, is given three children who do not appear in the book.
Both are examples of Jackson trying to make loss and sacrifice feel meaningful in events he has drained of feeling.
None of this would matter if there was a sense of coalescing instead of colliding. But none of the characters are developed. You wouldn’t be able to tell the dwarves apart if not for their beards or hairstyles.
Even though the title character Bilbo, played by Martin Freeman, stands in the middle of everything he feels peripheral, as does the wizard Gandalf, played by Ian McKellen. Not until the dwarf cavalry and its plain-spoken general played by Billy Connolly arrives, do a character’s motives, actions and personality feel genuine.
Jackson fills the void with manufactured spectacle, some of it graphic for a PG-13 rated film, filmed in a 48 frames per second format, twice the usual, to improve image clarity. The running time of the three films based on the single “Hobbit” book is 530 minutes. The “LOTR” films based on three times the material, is just 58 minutes longer.
Two Stars **
With Richard Armitage, Martin Freeman, Lee Pace, Evangeline Lily, Ian McKellen, Aidan Turner, Hugo Weaving, Billy Connolly, Stephen Fry, Ian Holm, Ryan Gage , Luke Evans, Orlando Bloom, Cate Blanchett, Manu Bennett.
Produced by Carolynne Cunningham, Peter Jackson, Fran Walsh, Zane Weiner.
Written by Fran Walsh, Phillipa Boyens, Peter Jackson, Guillermo del Toro. Directed by Peter Jackson.
Rated PG-13; pervasive fantasy violence. Approximate running time: 144 minutes.
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