The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies—The third installment of Peter Jackson’s three-part adaptation—and embellishment upon—the Tolkien novel starts off big. The dragon Smaug, voiced by the ubiquitous Benedict Cumberbatch, wreaks havoc on a nearby fishing village and does battle with a valiant local boy (Luke Evans). While I sat there watching this sequence, I thought it was so strong that Jackson would have a hard time topping it, and as it ended I settled in for a long evening of droning exposition and wearying, incomprehensible-to-non-geeks prophesying.
I was wrong. Hobbit Part Two was better than Hobbit Part One, and for my money, Hobbit Part Three is the most exciting of the lot. Title character Bilbo Baggins (Martin Freeman) and his pals the dwarves have taken occupancy in the dragon’s treasure-filled lair, and dwarf king Thorin Oakenshield (Richard Armitage) is going all Treasure of Sierra Madre with gold-fueled paranoia.
Meanwhile four other legions—the elegant, aloof elves, the ogre-ish Orcs, the humans from the fishing village and more dwarves led by Thorin’s cantankerous brother Dain (the great Billy Connolly) converge outside the lair, each with its own agenda involving Smaug’s hoarded booty. At the heart of this bombast, and comically contrasted with it, is the modest sheepishness and goodwill of Bilbo, scurrying around trying to be honest and do the right thing.
When you get past the brilliance and intricacy of Jackson’s staging, I suppose all these tempestuous fight scenes don’t have anything deeper behind them than pro wrestling. But I liked how almost every positive thing that happens in this finale happens because members of different races reach out to each other.
Now that his Hobbit saga is (presumably!) complete, I really hope that Jackson puts the Tolkien on the shelf, at least for a decade or so, and tries something different. Almost anything different will do—a car chase movie, a bachelor party comedy—as long as it doesn’t involve broadswords and shaggy beards. Middle Earth has been very good to Jackson, but I hope that now this incredibly talented filmmaker will turn his attention, and his camera, back towards regular old Earth.
The Phoenix Film Critics Society, of which I am always proud to note that I'm a founding member, has announced our 2014 Award Winners. As always, some of them reflect my voting—despite my gripes about Birdman, for instance, Michael Keaton had my vote—and others don't, but there are plenty of movies worth seeing on the list. I was particularly pleased to see the powerful and artful Glen Campbell: I'll Be Me take Best Documentary.
BEST PICTURE
Birdman
TOP TEN FILMS OF 2014 (in alphabetical order)
A Most Violent Year
Birdman
Boyhood
Gone Girl
The Grand Budapest Hotel
Guardians of the Galaxy
The Imitation Game
The Lego Movie
The Theory of Everything
Whiplash
BEST DIRECTOR
Richard Linklater, Boyhood
BEST ACTOR IN A LEADING ROLE
Michael Keaton, Birdman
BEST ACTRESS IN A LEADING ROLE
Rosamund Pike, Gone Girl
BEST ACTOR IN A SUPPORTING ROLE
J. K. Simmons, Whiplash
BEST ACTRESS IN A SUPPORTING ROLE
Keira Knightley, The Imitation Game
BEST ENSEMBLE ACTING
Birdman
BEST SCREENPLAY WRITTEN DIRECTLY FOR THE SCREEN
The Grand Budapest Hotel
BEST SCREENPLAY ADAPTED FROM MATERIAL IN ANOTHER MEDIUM
Gone Girl
BEST LIVE ACTION FAMILY FILM (Rated G or PG)
Into the Woods
THE OVERLOOKED FILM OF THE YEAR
Edge of Tomorrow
BEST ANIMATED FILM
The Lego Movie
BEST FOREIGN LANGUAGE FILM
Ida
BEST DOCUMENTARY
Glen Campbell: I'll Be Me
BEST ORIGINAL SONG
"Everything is Awesome," The Lego Movie
BEST ORIGINAL SCORE
Birdman
BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY
Birdman
BEST FILM EDITING
Birdman
BEST PRODUCTION DESIGN
The Grand Budapest Hotel
BEST COSTUME DESIGN
The Grand Budapest Hotel
BEST VISUAL EFFECTS
Intersellar
BEST STUNTS
Edge of Tomorrow
BREAKTHROUGH PERFORMANCE ON CAMERA
Rosamund Pike, Gone Girl
BREAKTHROUGH PERFORMANCE BEHIND THE CAMERA
Dan Gilroy, Nightcrawler
BEST PERFORMANCE BY A YOUTH IN A LEAD OR SUPPORTING ROLE: MALE
Jaeden Lieberer, St. Vincent
BEST PERFORMANCE BY A YOUTH IN A LEAD OR SUPPORTING ROLE: FEMALE
Lilla Crawford, Into the Woods
