Long, Talky And Full of CGI

It’s for fandom, “The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies.” Anyone who hasn’t seen Peter Jackson’s first two films about the adventures of little Bilbo Baggins will be baffled by this finale. Of course those who have read “The Hobbit,” J. R. Tolkien’s first book, a prequel to his magnificent “Lord of the Rings” trilogy, will also be baffled by Jackson’s manipulation of a concise, lovely book that introduced readers to Middle-earth, hobbits, dwarves, elves and orcs into a bloated, three-film spectacle of computer generated images and effects. 

While the first film, “An Unexpected Journey,” traveled very, very slowly nowhere, the second, “The Desolation of Smaug,” was enlivened by the CGI dragon voiced fearsomely by Benedict Cumberbatch, one of the many A-list actors appearing in all “Hobbit” movies. And, happily, Smaug is back, if briefly, in the best sequence in “Five Armies”: before the opening credits, the giant lizard angrily rains spectacular, fiery destruction on Lake-town in a bravura example of Jackson’s skill at its best and most controlled. Alas, Smaug isn’t in the rest of the movie thanks to Bard (Luke Evans), a family man and bowman. (Ah, you guessed what happens, didn’t you?)

Instead, the film is filled with nearly two- and-a-half hours of dull expository or emotional dialogue and brooding, obviously CGI backgrounds. The gorgeous sweeping landscapes of the “Ring” movies have given way to a computer-game sensibility. Even Jackson’s attempts to be panoramic feel fake. Because they are.

The action, too, is better suited to video games, all weightless running and jumping: in an extended scene, one of the film’s heroes — there are many — leaps unrealistically here and there among tumbling rocks. As for the final battle, there are goblins, bats, eagles, trolls, even giant creatures like the sand worms in Frank Herbert’s sci-fi masterpiece, “Dune.” And those five CGI armies, and lots of banging and clanging that goes on so long you think it will never end.

Fortunately there is the hobbit himself, an innocent and buoyant Martin Freeman. His Bilbo is persevering, tireless, moral to a fault as he engages the themes at the heart of all Tolkien’s work — the corruption of power and the change, almost illness, that riches can bring to anyone — with a sprightly levity and total self-effacement. And there is the reassuring, wily, old-but-ageless wizard, Gandalf, played by the ageless Ian McKellen. When he and Freeman are together on screen, time flies.

So Jackson’s journey with Tolkien, which began 13 years ago with the première of the first “Lord of the Rings” movie, has ended. Along the way he invented new characters, led the way for performance capture — which seamlessly combines human acting with computer graphics, but failed to persuade studios or audiences that 48 frames-per-second is better than 24 frames-per-second, the movie industry standard for the last 90 years. He also won Best Picture and Best Director Oscars. The first five Tolkien films earned $1 billion each at the worldwide box office. It appears “Five Armies” may earn even more. Go figure.

“The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies” is playing widely. It is rated PG-13.