The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies
Dec. 28th, 2014 11:32 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
meteordustAnd here we are, at the end of all things.
Things I liked:
* The whole dramatic sequence with Smaug attacking Laketown. Which was, in a sense, only the prologue to the movie. I love the moment when the arrow finds the missing scale.
* The impact of the destruction of Laketown is so much more visceral here than in the book, with the stunned survivors trying to find food and shelter and deal with the dead and wounded. I cheered when they returned to Dale. Rebuild! Rebuild!
* Galadriel blasting that orc with her powers to rescue Gandalf. And then Elrond and Saruman charging in to melee with the Nazgul. Whatever, I'm just along for the ride.
* The Elven army shining in golden armour. The Dwarven army appearing over the horizon.
* Legolas and his ridiculously improbable stunts. My theory is that is his superpower. Or else he spends all his free time practising the Elvish equivalent of parkour. (I've been lukewarm about Orlando Bloom's other work, but he always gets Legolas exactly right.)
* I could watch a whole movie of Tauriel and Legolas running around Middle-Earth, hunting evil and saving people.
* Bilbo giving away the Arkenstone to try to prevent war breaking out. One of my favourite scenes in the book.
* Thorin gifting the mithril shirt to Bilbo. Another of my favourite scenes.
* Giant sandworms? Okay, whatever...
* Thranduil's elk is pretty damn impressive, but I have no idea how he gets through doorways. The goats that Thorin and company found to ride were pretty cool too, but it was like they showed up out of nowhere.
* Azog gliding under the ice. I was screaming, "Move, Thorin!" but the image itself was haunting.
* The last farewell between Thorin and Bilbo.
* They included the auction scene! And even Lobelia and the spoons.
Things that irked me:
* Galadriel's CGI green power face. It annoyed me in LOTR too - does Peter Jackson not trust Cate Blanchett's acting?
* If I were a Thorin fan, I would be totally pissed off at his character assassination. As it was, I was still really annoyed at the overblown gold obsession, including the vision of him being sucked into a giant whirlpool of gold. And I could not believe he would sit idle while his cousin Dain and his kinfolk fought for their lives against the orcs.
* There were two big moments I wanted from this movie: Bard shooting Smaug with the black arrow, and Bilbo yelling, "The Eagles! The Eagles are coming!" I was slightly disappointed with the latter.
* The book fan in me is annoyed the (1) Legolas decides to leave Mirkwood and (2) Thranduil tells him to go find Aragorn. Because I'm pretty sure that never happened in canon.
It's hard to believe it's finally over. I've complained about various aspects of the films, but all in all, it's an epic I'd never imagined I would ever get to see on screen.
Things I liked:
* The whole dramatic sequence with Smaug attacking Laketown. Which was, in a sense, only the prologue to the movie. I love the moment when the arrow finds the missing scale.
* The impact of the destruction of Laketown is so much more visceral here than in the book, with the stunned survivors trying to find food and shelter and deal with the dead and wounded. I cheered when they returned to Dale. Rebuild! Rebuild!
* Galadriel blasting that orc with her powers to rescue Gandalf. And then Elrond and Saruman charging in to melee with the Nazgul. Whatever, I'm just along for the ride.
* The Elven army shining in golden armour. The Dwarven army appearing over the horizon.
* Legolas and his ridiculously improbable stunts. My theory is that is his superpower. Or else he spends all his free time practising the Elvish equivalent of parkour. (I've been lukewarm about Orlando Bloom's other work, but he always gets Legolas exactly right.)
* I could watch a whole movie of Tauriel and Legolas running around Middle-Earth, hunting evil and saving people.
* Bilbo giving away the Arkenstone to try to prevent war breaking out. One of my favourite scenes in the book.
* Thorin gifting the mithril shirt to Bilbo. Another of my favourite scenes.
* Giant sandworms? Okay, whatever...
* Thranduil's elk is pretty damn impressive, but I have no idea how he gets through doorways. The goats that Thorin and company found to ride were pretty cool too, but it was like they showed up out of nowhere.
* Azog gliding under the ice. I was screaming, "Move, Thorin!" but the image itself was haunting.
* The last farewell between Thorin and Bilbo.
* They included the auction scene! And even Lobelia and the spoons.
Things that irked me:
* Galadriel's CGI green power face. It annoyed me in LOTR too - does Peter Jackson not trust Cate Blanchett's acting?
* If I were a Thorin fan, I would be totally pissed off at his character assassination. As it was, I was still really annoyed at the overblown gold obsession, including the vision of him being sucked into a giant whirlpool of gold. And I could not believe he would sit idle while his cousin Dain and his kinfolk fought for their lives against the orcs.
* There were two big moments I wanted from this movie: Bard shooting Smaug with the black arrow, and Bilbo yelling, "The Eagles! The Eagles are coming!" I was slightly disappointed with the latter.
* The book fan in me is annoyed the (1) Legolas decides to leave Mirkwood and (2) Thranduil tells him to go find Aragorn. Because I'm pretty sure that never happened in canon.
It's hard to believe it's finally over. I've complained about various aspects of the films, but all in all, it's an epic I'd never imagined I would ever get to see on screen.
