The Final Third of the Six

Rating: 9/10 (11 December 2014)

Quite a set of years ago, I heard that Peter Jackson was finally jumping into the Hobbit convoy to take up the reins once more. I as many had been struck by the ever going miracle that were his three installments of Lord of the Rings and, no least, King Kong. The miracle that all of them had been done at due time, without losing anybody on the way. Many thought that it couldn't be done again.
In my opinion, it was no question that the introduction of another director could achieve to herald such a heritage, and I simply stepped away. But P Jackson coming back sounded like a duty crawling up its claim : Bilbo had to be done by the ones who made the Ring. At this stage, my remembrances of the book were far and sparse, and I decided to read it again, something i did not with Lord of The Rings, which I had never read ; but the movie-making of LOTR had so much impressed me that I saw an opportunity to estimate, out of this new beginning, the challenges of such an adaptation.
Soon after reading the book it soon came to my mind how parallel the two stories were : a long journey East, launched by a cohort of undersized characters, ending with a huge battle. How could anybody succeed in meeting the public expectations out of a prequel as much similar as a draft ? For me, the 3D-HFR stuff came as an obvious answer. As legendary as LOTR was, those did only show a flat-screen Middle-Earth. That technological shift had so the potential to bridge the gap of consistency between the Hobbit and Lord of The Rings. Without 3D, there surely wouldn't have been three, and maybe even two movies : fifteen years ago, the first draw had only planned one movie.
So the challenge this time was not about choosing which part of the book was to be cut off, but which stuff had to be added. Enough said : People cringing about the additions and blaming the Jacksons for them just don't get their necessity. Some day, they'll end realizing the emptiness of calling for two movies when one-book-to-three-movies had to be pioneered.
Three movies we have now. And the Battle of The Five Armies appears, not exactly as the extra-one, but really as the defining one for the three. This movie was the movie I was the most afraid about.

First, it had the most to add to the book out of tiny bits

Second, it had to show a battle which was described as an unexpected one, as an inextricable chaos.

Third, it had to plunge into this battle in a full-scale HD+3D+HFR

Fourth, this battle had to challenge the two mighty battles of Helm's Deep and Pelennor, without overwhelming them.

Fifth, The Hobbit was still supposed to be a children movie, PG13, without too much blood I didn't expect I could want to see such a movie. I didn't expect I could stand such a movie. I didn't expect I could enjoy such a movie.

So, how did it came out ? For me, perfectly fine. In fact, audiences see the least possible of the full-scale battle. Five minutes of scrums maybe, but not much more ; instead of the never-ending slaughter, we have many, many, many victorious close-ups. Many, many episodes which are NOT the battle :
We see the sickness of Thorin inside Erebor, which is NOT the battle in front of Erebor
We see Legolas and Tauriel in Gundabad, which is NOT the battle in front of Erebor
In Bree, we see women of Laketown sent by Bard to a shelter, which is NOT sending them into the battle
We see again and again Alfrid Lickspittle, who is doing all his best (or his worse) to AVOID the battle
We see Thranduil fighting almost alone, unattained by foes, then walking alone among the dead corpses, which is AFTER the battle
We see Thranduil fed up with the blood spent, quitting the battle to come, which is another time AVOIDING the battle
We see Thorin, out of his madness, jumping into the scrum and soon meeting with Dain : that is not FIGHTING into the scrum
We see trolls, hit by arrows, falling down by the numbers even BEFORE any struggle against dwarfs and elves
We see Azog giving orders with his Chappe Telegraphe, setting so himself a as FAR away from the battle as a chief can be
We see much of Bilbo getting in or out of Erebor, talking with Gandalf, and wandering here and there without being PART of the battle
We see Legolas jumping here and there, even flying under a giant bat, and emptying off his quiver, i.e. killing AT A DISTANCE from the battle
We see many characters being saved by other characters, which is avoiding being VICTIMS of the battle
We see the heroes climbing the Raven Hill where they meet their fate one by one, killed sparsely (only three die) FAR AWAY from the main battle.
We see only A GLIMPSE of the Eagles arriving and ending the battle after throwing Beorn into it
Almost all the warriors, elves, dwarfs, orcs included, are HIDDEN under heavy armory (orcs get killed by Laketown women nevertheless)
As I remember, I've seen only ONE orc's head rolling somewhere in front of us at the end of the battle.
So, that's what we have : a tragic battle, but not a graphic bloodshed shaking us with nightmarish close-ups.
That was NOT was I expected, and that's precisely why I'm so happy of what I have seen. The rest was just splendor everywhere.