I have seen this film and it is glorious. Spoilers ahead if you have not seen the film.
I may be biased in my assesment of the film since I adore the Middle Earth Peter Jackson has created and the stories/character arcs he chooses to tell, but I really do love this film. To be fair, my reactions and analyses may change or become more in depth over time. This is just my first reaction to it.
One thing that frustrates me is critics who analyse these films as individual films. Just like Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings, which is one book split in three for publication, Peter Jackson's films (and this applies to both LOTR and The Hobbit) are one film released over three years, in three parts. It's one continuous story. This is just the climax of the adventure and I think it is a fitting ending for this trilogy.
The scene between Bard, Bain and Smaug where Bard finally kills the dragon was amazing. It is so tense, the acting is wonderful and Benedict Cumberbatch is just the perfect choice for Smaug because his voice gives me chills.
I like the way Thorin's madness is portrayed and how that is the reason for his unreasonable deeds. In the book he never really made an impression on me, but now he has an arc, he is slowly spiralling out of control and his death actually makes me sad.
I still hate the love triangle. But I think that has more to do with the fact that I hate love triangles in general, no matter where I see them. Also romantic love seems really out of place in these films. It works better in LOTR, but in the end these film trilogies are about friendship, loyalty and platonic love between friends, and so a love triangle, involving two elves no less (who as a race are not very expressive in their emotions) just feels misplaced.
While I love the White Council sequence, I don't know how I feel about the way Galadriel looks when using her powers. She looks exactly the same as she did in Fellowship when drunk on the thought of the power of the One Ring and imagining herself as the ruler of the world. Therefore I always thought that when using her powers/the power of Nenya she would not look like that. So this scene seems weird to me. However, best shot of the entire film: wide shot of Galadriel arriving at Dol Guldur, wearing white, contrasted with the blackness of the fortress.
Bilbo meeting Thranduil was amazing. "So this is the halfling that stole my keys?" "Yeah... Sorry about that..."
I'm glad Tauriel survives this because, let's face it, it would have been a shitty move to kill one of the very few female characters in the trilogy. But I am a bit disappointed that she was not allowed to kill Bolg. I get it, cinematic symmetry and all so Legolas is obviously the one to kill him since he failed earlier, but still. It would have been nice to give Tauriel the kill.
Things I want to see in the extended edition
- Thorin's funeral (and Fili and Kili's)
- Thranduil returning the Arkenstone to Thorin
- Aftermath of the battle (what happens to Bard and people of Lake Town)
- More White Council. This seems to be the point where Saruman fully allies with Sauron and I want to see it happen
- More dwarves! The only ones that got bit of an arc were Thorin, Balin, Kili and Dwalin. I'm not counting Fili since he pretty much just got a death scene.
Tying it with The Lord of the Rings
- I love that this film ends where Fellowship starts. It made me smile and feel very nostalgic.
- I'm pretty sure I can add another moment to my list of scenes that make me cry in LOTR. Balin's tomb has never been an emotional scene from me since I have no connection to the character, but now that I have a relationship with him I think the scene in Moria will be sad.
- Thranduil sending Legolas to search for Aragorn is pretty awesome. Speaking strickly about the film canon, Council of Elrond makes it clear that Aragorn and Legolas have a relationship and know each other well. Of course, at this point, Aragorn is still young (according to book canon he would have still been living in Rivendell when all this happened) and he has a lot of hardship and wandering ahead of him, so it is nice to think Legolas was present at least for some of that.
Parting words
Billy Boyd's song is perfect and it is a beautiful goodbye to Middle Earth. The song made me cry all over again.
I can't wait for next year when I can have a proper marathon of first The Hobbit extended editions and then continuing with The Lord of the Rings EEs. That will be a brilliant few days!
The last thing I want to say is that I think the message these films (and definitely Tolkien's novels) wish to convey is the idea of home, happiness, friendship, and that money cannot buy you happiness. And I wish more people would remember it. So I'll leave you with Bilbo's thoughts from The Fellowship of the Ring that I try to live by:"It is no bad thing to celebrate a simple life".
No comments:
Post a Comment