December 27: Super Early Special Hobbit Movie Review Edition (Merry Christmas, Lynnette Martini!) When I told Jack I was going to write my review, he mockingly said I would write It was sad. Lots of people died. Bring tissues. Which is pretty darn accurate. Then he said to call him directly for a real review. That being said... This was my favorite of the three Hobbit films. Perhaps because the expectation was pretty simple. Smaugs assault on Laketown. The Battle of Five Armies at Erebor. The White Council vs....ok, avoiding possible spoilers...dark thingies at Dol Guldur. How successful were these? The attack on Laketown was awesome. Smaug was indeed a WONDERFUL cinematic dragon, in appearance and action and malicious character. And as much as I wouldve enjoyed a more thorough treatment on the greater city of Dale (shown in the first film), it was epic if brief. Cant say too much more because Im told somehow it would be a spoiler...not enough people have read the book already. The White Council at Dol Guldur - I had higher hopes for this once the subplot was being included. The climax felt abbreviated and forced, although I was still glad that story was expanded upon in the film. The Battle of Five Armies - this, to me, was AWESOME. I would have to watch the LOTR films again to be sure, but this may have been my favorite battle of all of Middle Earth portrayed on screen. One thing I especially appreciated was the detailing of the strategic aspects of the battle - the forces involved, how they were drawn in and arrayed, the tactics involved, how they worked together or not, individual moments of valor, etc. These were not at all glossed over, and I thought it was VERY cool. Ill save you a little grousing later - Beorn gets gypped. Look, the Azog thing still chafes me, but seemed a little less awful in this film. Tauriel still didnt belong at all but I actually did enjoy her story arc in this film and shared her emotional weight. Super-Legolas is a good character and fun to watch and was apparently necessary to create an easy link to the LOTR films, but still took too many other characters roles in the battle. And that Alfred guy, the Master of Laketowns lackey, really was the evil Jar-Jar of the film. But there were so many POSITIVE character moments, especially concerning Bilbo and his interactions with the dwarves, and Thorins descent into madness and recovery, and Bard-who-could-be-king-but-was-too-good-a-man-to-claim-it, among others - those items overran many of my misgivings. The sad? Jennas favorite part was Bilbos return to the Shire. Jack cackled away at interesting violence and mourned the death of the moose. But me? I cried for about half of the film. Because I knew what was coming, and then it actually happened, and some ways it was a story I couldve written - or am writing - momentum building to final tragedy and disaster, regardless of to whom goes the actual victory. (Lack of sleep and lowered resistances and illnesses and stuff didnt help. A little emotional now. Deal with it.) A definite MUST SEE, mes amis. Unless you have an issue with decapitated orcs. But then youre no friend of mine. Because the ONLY good orc is a dead orc.
Posted on: Sat, 27 Dec 2014 01:36:28 +0000
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