First Trailer for THE HOBBIT: THE BATTLE OF THE FIVE ARMIES

At this point, is anyone besides those either deep in Tolkien lore or who have seen the other five films interested in Peter Jackson's last journey through Middle-Earth? It is hard to tell as even the trailer for the final chapter in The Hobbit trilogy feels somewhat exhausted. The newly minted Battle of the Five Armies will surely run almost three hours and feature plenty of giant battle sequences, but the whole thing just feels rather tired at this point. I was never a huge fan of The Lord of the Rings trilogy though I certainly found appreciation in each of the films and while I feel like I'm in the minority who enjoyed An Unexpected Journey more than The Desolation of Smaug I don't know that I'm exactly looking forward to what the final installment has to offer. They are visual wonders, to be sure, but I certainly feel the overwhelming sense of CGI and extension of the story has turned this second trilogy into more of a financial than artistic endeavor. Don't get me wrong, I hope Jackson has something up his sleeve and proves my pessimism wrong, but if the trailer is any indication they may go out with more of a whisper than a bang. The first full-length trailer for the film is the same that premiered at Comic-Con over the weekend and is slow-paced, again featuring “The Steward of Gondor”, which was also used in The Return of the King. The film is being touted as the defining chapter of the Middle-Earth saga and so we will have to wait and see if the final product lives up to this claim or if the marketing simply hopes to cash in on the finale. The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies stars Ian McKellen, Martin Freeman, Richard Armitage, Evangeline Lilly, Lee Pace, Luke Evans, Benedict Cumberbatch, Stephen Fry, Cate Blanchett, Ian Holm, Christopher Lee, Hugo Weaving, Ken Stott, James Nesbitt, Orlando Bloom and opens in theaters on December 17th.

THE HOBBIT: AN UNEXPECTED JOURNEY Review

It is important to state that I have never been overly fond of the fantasy world. The ideas of dwarfs, goblins, wizards, and elves has always been one of great mystery in their appeal. They are stock ideas put into thousands upon thousands of different stories and adventures by a multitude of writers over a long period of time. What makes one different than the other? There is probably many people, many an avid fan of J.R.R. Tolkien or George R.R. Martin that would be glad to write an essay on why this all works so well and reaches such a wide fan base, but despite the mountain of proof they could likely provide, the insight they would divulge, I would likely still not understand the inherent ability to love such strange, silly stories. In the end, that is what The Hobbit feels like; just all a bit silly. I loved the Harry Potter books, don't get me wrong, but that was a series I grew up with and that grew up with me. I have never read any of Tolkien's work and wasn't even familiar with the titles until the first Peter Jackson motion picture trilogy became such a grand deal eleven years ago. I went, I watched all three of those films and I enjoyed them well enough even if I did feel slightly outside the loop in doing so. I never felt as if I "got" what "it" was all about or why the story was so special despite the films being greatly entertaining and beautiful to look at. As the years have passed, as I have become better acquainted with film in general, I can see the merit the original trilogy has and how skillfully they were crafted. This, in itself, is reason enough to be excited for Jackson's return to middle earth. Unfortunately, this return is so far marked by stretching things a little too thin. There seems no need for this to be the first part of a trilogy, but instead a fitting start to a more easily resolved adventure than we encountered with The Lord of the Rings. Too bad, Jackson seems to have decided the fatter the better rather than the slimmer the winner.