Chris At The Pictures

Thirteen years since the beginning of Peter Jackson’s odyssey into Middle-Earth, we have reached the conclusion: The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies. The company of dwarves, accompanied by Bilbo Baggins, have reached the lonely mountain and unwittingly released the dragon Smaug upon the nearby Laketown, whilst the forces of the Elves, Orcs and Dwarves begin to converge upon the peak, determined to reclaim the treasure within.

Despite the title and the gargantuan war between armies, the film is centrally a three-hander split between the three actors that now own their roles: Richard Armitage is given front-and-centre stage in this picture, and all the better for it, one particular sequence in which Thorin is drawn into dragon-sickness is extremely well done and brings to mind the ring trances from the previous trilogy. Martin Freeman is Bilbo Baggins, meshing just the right amount of Ian Holm’s performance with the more subtle nuances of a more inquisitive and younger hobbit. Ian McKellen as Gandalf is always fun to watch, and one can only hope that the inevitable extended cut of the film gives us his scenes which we glimpsed in the trailer but were nowhere to be found in the cinema.

The titular battle itself, which takes up the entire second half of the film – with the exception of a lull in the middle where you’re not entirely sure who’s winning – is everything a war sequence should be. Unlike Michael Bay, Jackson understands that the crux of a conflict is both knowing and caring about who is involved, and having a stake in their survival. Though the odd colour saturation that pervaded the previous instalments is still clinging to the frame, there is enough flair in the battle cinematography that it doesn’t distract too much. It is also worth noting that the opening twenty minutes involving Smaug and the razing of Laketown are near-perfect and the much tighter focus somewhat alleviates the problems of the later battle where you find yourself having to count on your fingers to remember who’s involved.

But as intense and enthralling as the battle is, it still doesn’t quite match the awe of the Pelennor fields or even Helms Deep because the grit and grime and blood-stained aura of those battlefields are weirdly absent. There are also several moments of CGI ridicule that threaten to throw you from the immersion, and there are about three too many moments of someone looking on forlornly as loved ones are cut down. Impressively, this smattering of flaws does very little to ruin the experience and I can say with certainty that you won’t at any moment be bored, which is much more than one can say for half the fare currently filling the multiplex.

The Battle of the Five Armies is not a disappointment: Jackson has gone for broke and the spectacle, while flawed in places, is as enthralling as it ever was. Fans of the previous Hobbit films – and those of us who have grown to appreciate them more than the first time – have much to enjoy, and the ending is as satisfying as anyone could ever hope for. 

★★★½☆

Into the Storm is a found footage film that follows a team of storm-chasers, a father and his two sons, plus a pair of hillbillies as a series of cataclysmic tornados rips through the town of Silverton. Sporting a military-grade vehicle covered in cameras, the storm-chasers (headed by The Walking Dead’s Sarah Wayne Callies) attempt to document the phenomena for their next big break while the father (Richard Armitage) is drawn into a race against time to rescue his oldest son before the disaster claims him.

Let’s begin with the positives: the special effects sequences focusing on the apocalyptic power of the tornados are terrific, and the destruction left in their wake is a seamless blend of CGI and enormous sets littered with broke buildings, upturned cars and general debris. The visuals are incredibly striking and are brought to greater heights by the accompanying sound design, creating a sense of immersion rarely felt in a massive blockbuster. The tornado-proof vehicle named Titus is also an impressive addition to the visuals, bridging the gap between the Tumbler of the recent Batman movies and the research trailers from The Lost World.

The film also understands that it is at heart a sci-fi B-movie and keeps itself in check at a sharp 89 minutes, knowing when to pack the punch in terms of effects and develop a story without dragging aimlessly for a further twenty minutes. What a shame it is then, that a majority of those 89 minutes is spent in the company of a completely wasted set of characters. For one, there are far too many, and the division between the three main groups means that little time is devoted to actual investment in their problems, and you find yourself forgetting their names almost instantly.

Secondly, what character development there is has been done a thousand times over and is laughably predictable, such as the father who we all know will find a way to re-forge the bond with this sons thanks to the disaster and the seemingly apathetic storm-chaser who will prove his moral fibre by the end. Richard Armitage is wasted in a role that could easily have been filled by any C-list actor and Sarah Wayne Callies is reduced to the character who sits in the back of the van while all the men storm ahead in the Titus.

Which brings us to the biggest problem the movie has: there is a rampant stream of misogyny that plagues the narrative, where the women are either leered at, seen as a conquest to prove the worth of the teenage son, in need of rescue or – as mentioned previously – are simply given a back seat with regards to the main events, and I for one am frankly sick of this being the case in mainstream action movies. Just because B-movies are typically fond of utilising uninventive dialogue, favouring style over substance and treating women in this respect does not mean it’s allowed.

The found footage element is also hilariously fumbled, with all cameras – whether they’re phones, HD camcorders or CCTV – sporting gorgeous film-quality visuals. There are also several moments when a camera will be focusing on someone, then cut to the other side of the conversation to reveal that there was no camera and the entire scene has been confusingly been filmed live-action style.

To summarise, Into the Storm is impressive on merely a visual and audio level, but the predictable character arcs, confused narrative and irritating sexism render the spectacle quite inert. The final scene involves a shot of a somehow untarnished American flag standing tall above the carnage with the rising sun in the background should, which should tell you all you need to know.

2 stars