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The Hobbit: The Battle of 5,000 Animators

Dec18

Title: The Hobbit: The Battle of Five Armies

Director/Stars: Martin Freeman (Actor), Peter Jackson (Director)

Genre: Fantasy

Watched: December 18, 2014

Summary: More is more is more is more!

What happens when you expand 44 pages at the end of a novel into 144 minutes of film? Well, in the case of The Hobbit: The Battle of Five Armies, a whole lot of fighting. Enough to provides sustenance for an entire generation of computer artists. Smaug, arguably my favorite character in this second trilogy, regrettably bites the big one (and he is a big one) about ten minutes in. Aside from about 5-10 minutes at the end the rest is one big battle — in several waves, with several giant duels. With a lot of Moping and Brooding Thorin inserted for good measure.

The film looks utterly gorgeous. We expected that, but perhaps this one looks better than ever. It’s the only Peter Jackson Tolkien movie without a whole lot of travel. Basically, the sets focus on Laketown, The Lonely Mountain, Dale, and panning views all around the above.

The movie uses a WHOLE bunch of reoccurring Tolkien plot devices, including all of the following, but not in any way limited to: creepy cowardly advisors with bad teeth, kings under the sway of madness that delays the inevitable in the name of drama, Gandalf being rescued, greedy dwarves, wraiths, stuck up elves, inter-racial love, orcs, bigger orcs, tougher orcs, and the ever popular Eagle rescue.

There are too many Peter Jackson favorites to count as well, but leading offenders are: overhead shots, helicopter shots, the eye of Sauron, ugly orc leaders, amazing dwarf hairstyles, Legolas, and semi-comic orc death.

Tell me this WOW mount from years ago didn’t inspire the hill climbing mounts in BOFA? And in WOW, they’re even a dwarf mount!

I loved the pig mount. The mountain goat mounts were also cool, and clearly seem an example of reverse artistic pollution as so many things in LOTR influenced the art (and sound) design of World of Warcraft, but the goat is surely borrowed right back. Touché!

The extended duels at the end were some of the best parts of the film. The complex Azog on Thorin and Legolas/Tauriel vs Barg? fights. But Thorin could have learned a lesson from Game of Thrones Season 4, never count out your hideous boss opponent until he’s really really dead. Or wear your mithril.

And Evangeline Lilly looks even better as an elf than as a human.

Some nitpicks. The Gandalf rescue was perhaps the scene that bothered me the most, partly because it just doesn’t fit with the mythology, and partly because it felt like an excuse to cameo Saruman, Elrond, and Galadriel. Really, if the group of them fought off the ghostly ring wraiths and banished Sauron why did Gandalf need to run around like crazy at the begging of Fellowship to figure out what was going on? And why was it so hard to convince them of the menace? It’s one thing to foreshadow in order to blend the franchises, another to make it inconsistent.

Also, what’s with amping up new orc techs that are then NOT used by Sauron with his even bigger army in the “future” (aka in ROTK)? Examples, the Dune style earth worms, the big guys with catapults on their backs, and the wall breaking headache loving troll. We know this was just Peter Jackson wanting to amp it up.

Yeah, same rams

And why do Thorin and crew charge out to the battle WITHOUT their nifty dwarf armor? Or even a few sets of mithril shirts? Would have come in handy when Thorin AND Kili got STABBED to death!

Overall, not as good as Smaug, but still good fun.

Lastly some technical bits: Again I saw The Hobbit in HFR 3D (at the Arclight). Two years ago, I found this new flickerless tech fascinating, hyper realistic, and more than a little disquieting. This year, either I’ve gotten used to it (thanks to my 120hz TV) or Peter Jackson and crew really worked the solve the problems. I’m pretty sure it’s the later. Sure, the film was crystal clear, and sure, you could still count every pore on the actor’s faces, but it no longer looked as crazy fake. I suspect they added a lot of motion blur. I bet it cost a lot of money.

Read my review of 2012’s Unexpected Journey and 2013’s Desolation of Smaug.

For more Film reviews, click here.

ps. I guess that wolves on ice chasing the chariot from the trailer will have to wait for the extended cut.

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By: agavin
Comments (2)

Posted in: Movies

Tagged as: Bilbo Baggins, Lonely Mountain, Martin Freeman, Middle-earth, Peter Jackson, Smaug, The Battle of Five Armies, The Hobbit, The Hobbit: The Battle of Five Armies, Thorin Oakenshield

Fargo’s Dark Fable

Sep10

Title: Fargo

Genre: Dark Crime Dramedy

Cast: Martin Freeman (Actor), Billy Bob Thornton (Actor)

Watched: Late August, 2014

Summary: Evil Walks the Earth

ANY CHARACTER HERE

I’m generally a big Coen brothers fan — as I like things both dark and surreal. Certainly the movie Fargo was a great film, but this show, without redoing anything, replicates a bit of the feel of the film while taking it to the next level. Perhaps this is due to the current Golden Age of narrative television, and the subject matter’s relatively inexpensive nature. The longer form format of television (10 hours instead of 2) allows for a greater depth of character.

Now, you have to do it well, and Fargo (the show) executes in spades. From pitch perfect casting, to great writing, to dark moody music, to overall feel — this is television at its best.

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gKs8DzjPDMU]

Fargo is a show about a “normal” small American town and what happens when Billy Bob Thornton’s rivetingly evil trickster of an assassin arrives, strewing chaos and blood in his wake. This character isn’t so much human as a force of nature, a malevolent spirit of concentrated hitman, or perhaps the overcoat wearing incarnation of Loki, Norse trickster god. By crafty manipulation (always a dark riot) he pulls people strings and sets in motion a year long orgy of murders.

Fargo - Episode 1.03 - A Muddy Road - Promotional Photos (2)

Weak-willed Lester braces a pair of hitmen, the right one is deaf, and they argue constantly in sign language

The characters have that Coen Brother over-the-top quality, with a touch of the comic. Yet the best ones, like Lester (the weasly guy), the talented nonsense female deputy, and Colin Hank’s doe eyed patrol officer are deftly drawn and fully realized humans. This, combined with the fine, fine acting, and the amazing dark comic tone, really make the show hard to stop watching. It’s also filled with references to itself, Coen movies, the film Fargo, and more than its share of parables, allegories, riddles and the like. A David Lynch murder mystery that actually makes sense, these elements are fully in balance. A use of a certain amount of parallelism and coincidence transcends cliche to become art.

Malvo (right) is the evil force around which the plot whirls. Really, one of cinema/television’s best villains yet

Like the people, the setting is just nailed. The Minnesota accents. All that cold. The snow. The heavy coats, boots, and hats. It might be okay in the summer, but why would anyone want to winter there? But in a show, the town and the surrounding woods and lake become almost actors in of themselves. And it’s worth mentioning the music, which is almost reminiscent of The Last of Us, and equally effective. The both event include this “ching” sound which punctuates the starkness to draw your attention.

So if you liked dark comedy, and appreciate a good hour of tension, with an almost everyday horror quality, tune in.

Check out more TV reviews

fargo-s-allison-tolman-colin-hanks-tease-satisfying-season-finale1

The deputy (right) is fabulous, and to her left, her boss, is played by Bob Odenkirk, who is almost as good here as he is as Breaking Bad’s shyster lawyer

By: agavin
Comments (1)

Posted in: Television

Tagged as: Billy Bob Thornton, Coen brothers, Fargo, Martin Freeman, Television

Dragon in the Hole

Dec16

Title: The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug

Director/Stars: Martin Freeman (Actor), Peter Jackson (Director)

Genre: Fantasy

Watched: December 15, 2013

Summary: More is more!

First some technical bits: Again I saw The Hobbit in HFR 3D (at the Arclight). Last year, I found this new flickerless tech fascinating, hyper realistic, and more than a little disquieting. This year, either I’ve gotten used to it (thanks to my 120hz TV) or Peter Jackson and crew really worked the solve the problems. I’m pretty sure it’s the later. Sure, the film was crystal clear, and sure, you could still count every pore on the actor’s faces, but it no longer looked as crazy fake. I suspect they added a lot of motion blur. I bet it cost a lot of money.

I’ve also gotten used to the 3D, although there were some technical glitches with my Dolby glasses. They only work well in the center, and I had to keep my eyes in the middle of the large screen to keep the whole frame in 3D. Plus, every time I tilted my head slightly to the side it began to degrade. I found this considerably more distracting than the HFR. The 3D is still a bit dim. Popping them off (and the projection actually looked ok — however 2D — to the naked eye) and I could appreciate the brightness.

But how was the film? Again, it’s interesting to see how Peter Jackson (and his 3 other co-writers, including Del Toro) have taken a 275 page novel and expanded it into roughly 8 hours. Smaug is a long movie, 160 minutes, and it takes its time to luxuriate with the material. This is more than just the middle section of the fairly self contained novel, but has swelled to become part Hollywood blockbuster, part piece of the Tolkien Universe. This world is rich enough, so they drew on earlier (later?) films and copious extra Tolkien material to plump it up. Frankly, it works.

The film luxuriates in the bits and pieces of this world: Bilbo on top of the Mirkwood surrounded by butterflies, Warg riding orcs on top of mist covered peaks, the dark dank stone of the crypts of the nine, an elf king’s crown, a giant dragon curled beneath a sea of gold.

Straight from the cover of The Dungeon Master’s Guide

For me this transcends the deviances from the book. Gandalf chanting in Dol Guldur belongs, and Lost‘s Kate is surprisingly good as an elf captain. If the tone has shifted, becoming more Peter Jackson and less Tolkien, well then at least it’s consistent with the other films. Smaug is considerably darker, faster paced, and overall better than the previous installment.

The pacing is pretty relentless, with just brief little spells of calm. It’s a quest story. The dwarves are chased, captured, chased, captured, chased, captured, and fight a dragon. The action sequences are breathless with that Jackson signature camp (shades of Dead Alive). Dwarves in barrels plummet down a river while elves dance on their heads shooting at orcs. In other hands, it might be cheese, but again, it works. Then Bilbo’s cat and mouse game with Smaug. Then dwarves fighting him with their furnaces. I’m just such a geek.

Love it.

Read my review of last year’s Unexpected Journey.

For more Film reviews, click here.