Film Review - The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies

Battle Royale

Film: The Hobbit:The Battle of the Five Armies

Cast: Martin Freeman, Ian McKellen, Luke Evans

Directed by: Peter Jackson

Duration: 2 hrs 24 mins

Rating: *  *  * 

The Hobbit trilogy of films finally comes to an end with The Battle of the Five Armies. Directed by Peter Jackson, this prequel to the Lord of The Rings is just one book, and not too thick one at that, but Jackson managed to stretch it into 3 parts and that too of considerable duration in length. At 2 hours 24 minutes, this wrap-up film is the shortest compared to the other two.

The obvious problem of stretching a book so much is that the intensity goes missing and plus there is a lot of flab. The previous installment The Desolation of Smaug ended on a high and promised a high octane finale. It starts off with the dragon cutting loose and unleashing its fury on Laketown till an ace archer Bard  (Luke Evans) manages to put it to rest. Bilbo (Martin Freeman) and the dwarfs can only look from a distance while all the breathtaking action unfolds.

Once the opening act is over, the screenplay looses steam. Thorin (Richard Armitage) is all starry eyed and obsessed with the discovery of gold and even turns a blind eye to the word which he had given to Bard. Meanwhile Gandalf (Ian McKellen) manages to escape from Dul Guldur and makes an appearance when the fight to the finish begins. Bilbo Baggins pretty much becomes a spectator to everything that is happening around.

The battle of the armies is the most eye catching piece here and it lasts for over an hour. Jackson surely knows how to pull off a spectacle and the visuals are impressive. The finale is indeed the saving grace as there are portions which will appeal strictly to Tolkien fans.  There is also bit of romance thrown in for good measure between the Amazonian elf Tauriel (Evangeline Lilly) and lovestruck dwarf Kili (Aidan Turner). 

Compared to The Lord of the Rings, The Hobbit trilogy is a slight letdown primarily because it has not been sustainable from a storytelling point of view. Jackson has lived upto the challenge of using superior special effects as a creative tool.

But all said and seen, am glad he is done with The Hobbit. Now he can go back to making films again. 

Published in The Navhind Times on 14th Dec 2014

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Film Review Dracula Untold

The Vampire Strikes Back

Film: Dracula Untold

Cast: Luke Evans, Dominic Cooper

Directed by: Gary Shore

Duration: 1 hr 32 mins

Rating: * * 1 / 2

Directed by Gary Shore, Dracula Untold makes frail attempt to give a background story to the most popular vampire. The end result is that the product looks like a mix of a Dracula and the routine superhero film. With the exception of the Twilight series (which made money thanks to teenagers), among vampires, only Dracula is a back draw at the box office.

Luke Evans plays Dracula who was born as Vlad Tepes, after serving in the Turkish army he returns to Transylvania. Mehmed (Dominic Cooper) the King decides that he needs a stronger army and recruits more young men from Transylvania, including Vlad’s son. This makes Vlad unhappy and he decides to go to war. 

Considering that he doesn’t have a strong force Vlad strikes a deal with the Master Vampire who gives him extraordinary powers but then there are no free lunches, Vlad has to make a compromise.

While the film starts off on a positive note, the CGI dominated finale is a letdown and all the initial good work is undone. Also, it hardly pays a nod to Bram Stokers classic and you would expect that if the film has Dracula in it. There have been interpretations of Dracula but the story here goes a bit too far in trying to twist it.

It has been a while since we saw anything impressive related to Dracula. Sadly, even with this film, the wait continues.   

Published in The Navhind Times on 19th Oct 2014

www.twitter.com/sachinchatte