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“You are only quite a little fellow in a wide world, after all,” Gandalf reminds his companion at the end of “The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies.” The avuncular line has a cozy feel that evokes the bedtime-storytelling of J. R. R. Tolkien’s 1937 children’s classic — now better known as the trilogized prequel to a 21st-century fantasy phenomenon. Gandalf’s sentiment is also all too apt for Peter Jackson’s vexing conclusion to his oddly apportioned adaptation: Bilbo Baggins is indeed quite a little fellow in Mr. Jackson’s wide world here — less a central hero on a quest than a supporting player in a film bookended by destruction and war in gray, grim lands.
“在这广大的世界上，你毕竟只是个小家伙，”在《霍比特人：五军之战》(The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies)结尾处，甘道夫(Gandalf)这样提醒他的伙伴。这句长辈般慈爱的台词带给人一种舒适安心的感觉，感觉就像J·R·R·托尔金(J. R. R. Tolkien)在床边讲起这部1937年的童书经典。如今这个故事已经被改编为21世纪奇幻电影现象级大作的三部曲前传。而甘道夫的情绪也适用于彼得·杰克逊(Peter Jackson)这部改编作品令人恼火的结局，它的比例有些怪异地失调——在杰克逊宏伟的世界里，比尔博·巴金斯(Bilbo Baggins)的确是一个小家伙，在这部发生在阴郁冷酷国土之中，以破坏开始，以战争终结的电影里，他不像是一个探险的英雄，更像是里面的一个小配角。
“The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies” follows hot on the heels of last year’s film, with the dragon Smaug giving Lake-town its promised end by fiery devastation. It’s a rip-roaring opening spectacle of burning buildings and refugee villagers, with Smaug (voiced by Benedict Cumberbatch with baroque cruelty) thundering over streets like a runaway bomber, until he is felled by Bard the bargeman. Bilbo (Martin Freeman) watches from a distance beside the dwarfs he traveled with to Erebor.
《霍比特人：五军之战》的情节紧跟去年的前作，巨龙史矛革给长湖镇带来了命中注定的大破坏。影片开头是喧闹的大场面，建筑被烧毁，村民成为难民，史矛革（本尼迪克特·康伯巴奇[Benedict Cumberbatch]配音，带着奇异的残忍）像失去控制的轰炸机一样咆哮着飞过街道，最后被船夫巴德射杀。比尔博（马丁·弗里曼[Martin Freeman]饰演）身在孤山，和矮人们在一起，他从远处目睹了这一幕。
There, the headstrong leader Thorin Oakenshield will install himself in hoarding splendor, a slave to “that terrible need” for treasure. And so on, and so forth. Mr. Jackson returns to the variably hirsute action figures of Middle-earth for the latest, and presumably last, adventure. Gandalf (Ian McKellen) makes his way back to center stage from imprisonment, with Cate Blanchett and Christopher Lee swooping in to lend supporting gravitas. The Elves and the Orcs converge on Erebor, as seemingly everyone — though especially Thorin — feels the pull of the dragon’s riches, which seem to attract all possible conflicting parties to the Lonely Mountain and neighboring Dale in dire preparation for the film’s title.
在孤山，刚愎自用的领袖索林·橡木盾置身财宝之中，成了对财富“狂热渴求”的奴隶。之后发生了诸如此类的情节。在这部最新，或许也是最后的中土故事中，杰克逊再次回到头发胡须蓬乱的角色大打出手的场面。甘道夫（伊恩·麦克凯伦[Ian McKellen]饰演）从囚困中脱身，返回舞台中央，凯特·布伦切特(Cate Blanchett)和克里斯托弗·李(Christopher Lee)也加入进来，为影片增色。精灵与半兽人汇聚孤山，似乎所有人——特别是索林——都感受到巨龙财富的诱惑，它吸引着一切有可能产生冲突的各种势力来到孤山和附近的河谷镇，以便凑齐影片标题中的“五军之战”。
Part of the problem with Mr. Jackson’s accordion-expanded “Hobbit” is just that gravitational pull: At the film’s core is not really the engaging Mr. Freeman as Bilbo, ever twitchingly alive, as you might expect. Instead, the story insists upon the hoary sentiment of filthy lucre’s overriding all reason and friendship, like an opera without song. Erebor is an imposing castlelike (or cathedral-like) stronghold, containing Thorin like a crazed Macbeth in the labyrinth of his desire, but outside, the gathering of armies feels like a hurry-up-and-wait stage setting by another cast of computer-generated thousands.
《霍比特人》被杰克逊大大加长了，它的问题可能有一部分是来自于其重心：影片的核心并不是集中在弗里曼饰演的比尔博身上，尽管如你所料，这个角色更加生动鲜明了。相反，这个故事建立在一种古老的情感之上：不义之财战胜了所有理性与友谊，就像一首没有歌咏的歌剧。威严的孤山像是一座城堡（或教堂）般的要塞，把索林拘禁在里面，就像麦克白被拘禁在自己欲望的迷宫之中；但在外面，由电脑创造出来的成千上万名“演员”汇聚为一支支军队，形成迫不及待、跃跃欲试的场景。
When the Dwarfs, Elves and Orcs — those dumpy, evil forces that appear constantly to need the direction from their rabble-rousing leaders to go forth and “slay them all” — finally engage, Mr. Jackson’s massed set pieces shift between stirring visual salvos and general panoramic swarming. It’s only as individual good guys peel off for death-defying face-offs with Orcs on ledges that the routine violence crackles again with genuine danger and deft showmanship.
半兽人是一股身材矮小的邪恶势力，通常需要在蛊惑人心的领导指引之下，才能集结起来“杀掉所有人”，如今，它们终于同矮人和精灵们开战了。杰克逊的大场面景象在纷乱的视觉场面与拥挤的全景之间切换。只有当个别的正面角色挺身而出，蔑视死亡，与半兽人在矿脉中对峙的时刻，例行公事的暴力中才会再度闪现出真正的危险与精湛的演技。
What this adaptation of “The Hobbit” can’t avoid by its final installment is its predictability and hollow foundations. It’s been said before, but Mr. Jackson himself is still haunted by the past: For all the craft, there’s nothing here like the unity and force of “The Lord of the Rings,” which is positively steeped in mythology and features (wonder of wonders) rounder characterization than the scheduled revelations on display here. At times Mr. Jackson expects too much audience investment, whether in a perfunctory forbidden love between the elf Tauriel (Evangeline Lilly) and the dwarf Kili (Aidan Turner), or in the weak comic relief of a grabby Lake-town deputy who illustrates further venality.
改编版《霍比特人》的最后一部无法避免可预见性与空洞的基础。这一点以前也曾被指出过，但杰克逊仍然沉浸在过去之中：虽然影片有着种种精湛的技巧，但不像《指环王》(The Lord of the Rings)那样鲜明地浸淫在神话学之中，有着性格丰满的人物（这堪称奇迹中的奇迹），《五军之战》只是在堆砌按照计划展示的东西，因此也就没有《指环王》的统一性与力量。有时杰克逊对观众投入感情的程度期待过高，不管是精灵陶瑞尔（Tauriel，伊万杰琳·莉莉[Evangeline Lilly]饰演）和矮人基利（艾丹·特纳[Aidan Turner]饰）之间肤浅的禁忌之恋，抑或贪婪的长湖镇副镇长薄弱的喜剧穿插（他在这部影片中展示出更多的腐败）。
It’s especially a shame since Mr. Jackson’s original knack for world building (not to mention the sense of humor in his early films) is often missing in the ever-proliferating superhero-franchise worlds that his own vastly successful endeavors no doubt helped encourage. Bilbo may fully learn a sense of friendship and duty, and have quite a story to tell, but somewhere along the way, Mr. Jackson loses much of the magic.
特别遗憾的是，杰克逊原本具有构建世界的技巧（更不必说他早期电影中的幽默感），却往往迷失在不断繁衍的超级英雄大片世界里，而他自身的巨大成功对这个商业大片世界的形成又不无助益。比尔博或许学到了友谊与责任的意义，有了一个好故事可以讲述，但在这个过程之中，杰克逊却损失了很多原有的魔力。
“The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies” is rated PG-13 (Parents strongly cautioned). Extended sequences of intense fantasy action violence, per the title.
《霍比特人：五军之战》被标记为PG-13级（强烈建议家长注意），如片名所言，有大量强烈的奇幻暴力场面。
