There And Back Again: Review of "The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies"

The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies

It was a Christmas tradition for us in the last decade to head to the theater to see each "Lord of the Rings" installment.  For the last three years, it also became our tradition to see the latest episode of the "The Hobbit".  This Christmas was no different.  We headed out into the cold December air to see "The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies".

I actually went to see this movie twice.  The first time, I felt disappointed and let down.  The second time, I enjoyed it.

Of course, I have read "The Hobbit".  Many. many times.  It was the first novel I ever read at age 7.  So I knew that they had taken many artistic licenses with the story.  I know that they had converted two movies into three.  But this felt really stretched thin.  In the book, the whole battle takes place after Bilbo (Martin Freeman)is knocked unconscious, and he awakens to the aftermath.  This movie deals mostly with the battle, and, as fever-pitched as it gets, it is still not as cool as any of the battles in "The Return of the King" - giant "Dune" sandworms (hey, wrong movie!) or troll-mounted catapults notwithstanding.

The first two films did a great job of building up characters, but characterization took a back seat to the the epic battle.  Some of the dwarves didn't even have any speaking parts in this movie.  Even Bilbo's character seemed sketchy in this film, taking a back seat to Thorin (Richard Armitage).  I couldn't help but feel let down.

Then I saw it a second time with my kids.  And they loved it.  Believe it or not, I enjoyed it, also.  Probably because I had fewer expectations.

The conclusion of the Smaug (Benedict Cumberbatch) conflict was really cool.  And the confrontation between Galadriel (Cate Blanchett) and the Necromancer(also, Benedict Cumberbatch)?  Totally epic.  Scottish dwarves riding pigs?  Classic.  Legolas (Orlando Bloom) using a ginormous bat to fly?  Awesome.

This movie was all that my kids hoped for, and more.  It left me kind of sad that our Christmas visits to Middle Earth are now at an end.  Oh well.  There is always "Star Wars".

Interstellar Is Out of This World

Interstellar

"Interstellar" was such a great movie that I went to the theaters twice to see it.  It was definitely the best movie of the year.

I think that is because most boys of my generation, in the wake of man setting foot on the moon, wanted to be astronauts when we grew up.  Astronauts were like rock stars back then.  Whenever a movie came out about space, it truly spoke to kids like me.  "2001: A Space Odyssey" was way cool, even with its trippy, psychedelic ending.  Okay, "Apollo 13" made me not want to go to space.

When the teaser trailer first came out for "Interstellar", it was cryptic enough to not know what the movie was about, but I knew it would be good, directed by Christopher Nolan, director of the Dark Knight series and the masterpiece, "Inception".

The story deals with a dystopian society not too far in the future where climate change and blight are killing our crops and reducing the population to dangerously low numbers.  Matthew McConaughey is at his best as Cooper, a washed out pilot recruited by a barely-functioning NASA to go into space through a freshly-discovered wormhole to scout for potential planets to relocate the human population.

The story is complimented by laudable, if sketchy, performances by Michael Caine, Wes Bentley, Jessica Chastain, John Lithgow, and Casey Affleck.  Anne Hathaway, as usual, was highly annoying.

The science of this film is spot on.  It is refreshing to see realistic portrayals of space, gravity, and celestial bodies beyond the Star Wars genre of space movie.  The visuals and the anticipation of seeing what they encountered held me breathless.  Especially the end, when Cooper descends into the black hole, which was slightly reminiscent of the end of "2001", except that the filmmakers actually tried to make sense of it.

The most triumphant part of the film, however, is the human element - the anguish of a parent being separated from his children by billions of miles and the ravaging effects of quantum mechanics and time dilation.  There were moments so poignant to me that I had to fight back tears.

That does not mean that everyone will love this movie.  I went with my mother, and she really didn't understand the movie.  My daughter thought it was overhyped.  But I loved it.  If you have not seen it, believe me when I say - it is out of this world.