Peter Jackson has once again outdone himself, but this time it is in multiple different facets. Firstly, he has outdone himself in terms of spectacle. BOFA is splendorous and absolutely captivating from the first minute.
Personally, I watched it in 2D and that was enough for me, the sweeping panoramas of beautiful rolling hills and craggy outcrops is sure to warm the soul. Not content with a film for landscape fetishists, Jackson endeavoured to fill every inch of the screen with war, and the mighty heroes who cut a swathe through the battlefield.
One qualm I do have with said heroes though, is that some of their feats of glory are becoming preposterous.
Legolas, (who my editor has asked that I don’t go on about) shouldn’t technically be in this film, yet he is. In one scene alone he manages to defy gravity several times, and whilst I’m agreeable to the fact that these heroes are more than mortal man – I’m fairly sure Middle-earth isn’t on the Moon. The final straw was Legolas somersaulting onto the head of a peg-legged mountain giant, and then using a sword to the brain to drive him into a wall – this sequence of events had me giggling in disbelief, which is not what I want to take away from a Tolkien film.
The show however, is completely stolen by Thorin Oakenshield, played by Richard Armitage. Not for a long while have I seen such a brilliant portrayal of madness, even Jack Nicholson would be impressed. His transformation from beloved leader into warped pariah is magnificent to bear witness to, and dwarves the performances of those around him, pun not intended.
One scene which completely blew me away, involves Thorin being alone with his insanity, on a vast floor of gold. The gold is shifting and warping, and Thorin is hallucinating dramatically. The whole scene has a tremendously disassociated feel to it, like a salvia trip or the deepest recesses of a ketamine binge. It perfectly envisions what I imagine madness and delusion to be like, and this one scene alone made the film worthwhile for me.
Unfortunately it’s not all positive. There was a bizarre pantomime feel to a lot of the story, with the sycophantic coward Alfred ending up as a strange washerwoman and the humans of the story constantly embroiled in being nothing more than fools and usurpers. Not to mention that this film was a 12a, so if the intention was to try and make it more accessible to children, could Peter Jackson please explain why there is very nearly a LYNCHING in the first ten minutes of the film?
All in all I would strongly recommend watching this film if only for a sense of closure. It wraps up the story in a nice little bow, and helps potential Lord Of The Rings fans to better understand the events which preluded Frodo’s quest. The visuals are pretty, the fights are bloody, and the characters are mostly believable – even Legolas.
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