Director: Peter Jackson
Starring: Richard Armitage, Ian McKellan, Martin Freeman, Cate Blanchett, Aidan Turner, Evangeline Lily, Orlando Bloom, Lee Pace, Manu Bennet.
The final installment has finally landed. This has been touted as the final journey to Middle Earth, but can Peter Jackson resist the temptation to show us even MORE of New Zealand? I guess we'll just have to wait and see.
In the meantime, this is what I thought of the final installment of The Hobbit. SPOILERS AHEAD.
In the meantime, this is what I thought of the final installment of The Hobbit. SPOILERS AHEAD.
Having watched the Extended edition of The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug the night before, we were well prepared for this. It wasted no time picking up where the last movie left off, with the rather annoyed Golden Dragon flying towards the aptly named Lake Town, hell bent on....well, desolation really.
Bard the Bowman (Luke Evans) really rises up and takes charge in the first moments of the movie, fulfilling his destiny of finally taking down the one thing that his ancestor failed to do with the Black Arrow, but this leaves the people of Lake Town without a home and they eventually make their way to the shores of the Long Lake and look to Bard to lead them. With the help of others, they make their way to the ruins of Dale, the city that was destroyed by Smaug the terrible when the Kingdom under the Mountain was taken by the gold loving dragon years before.
All the while, we have Thorin Oakenshield, poor conflicted, angry, not as stumpy as a dwarf should be Thorin. How I love him. I really loved Richard Armitage's portrayal of Thorin, despite die hard Tolkien fans saying he was too young and too tall, I thought he was great. To me, Thorin was meant to be a younger dwarf, broody and mysterious, and that's how Richard played him.
Anyway, I digress. So the Arkenstone and the gold has cast it's spell on poor Thorin, and the rest of the dwarves and Bilbo are a wee bit put out by his behaviour, walling himself into the mountain and not letting anyone in to see him because he thinks they're all there to steal the gold. Hence when Bard approaches with Thranduill (Lee Pace), to make a deal with him, he goes a bit whacko and yells taunts from atop the wall at the entrance to the mountain halls.
Not too far away, a rather sizable army of Orcs is on it's way to kill the dwarves, end humankind and basically wreak havoc. (they REALLY don't like men, except on toast).
And then we come to the title of the movie, The Battle of Five Armies. I really didn't like the title, but I guess it's kind of obvious what the movie is about and I can't really think of another title to be honest.
In a brillant piece of casting, Billy Connolly leads the Dwarf army as Dain, Thorins cousin, on a nasty looking hog. (no, not the motorbike, an actual hog)
Thranduill leads the elves on his magnificent stag, never breaking a sweat, hair always perfect, joining the dwarf army to help defeat the orcs.
After Thorin comes to his senses, he leads some of the dwarves up to the battlements where Azog and his Orcs are waiting. This wasn't in the books from memory, but was really well done. Again, I have read reviews stating that these were characters that we never got the chance to care about so it didn't matter what happened to them, but I disagree. The added story of Kili (Aidan Turner) and Tauriel (Evangeline Lily), gave us a bit of romance that you knew was always going to be doomed.
The final battle between Azog and Thorin is really well done, but be prepared for CG overload.
Did I cry? Yes, yes I did. Was it because it was the last movie? No, not really. Was it the song by Billy Boyd sung over the end credits? No, it didn't affect me the way I thought it would. Was it because two of my favourites died? A little....but strangely enough, the scene that really made me cry was when Gandalf sits down with Bilbo and cleans out his pipe, packs it, and lights it up. This was exactly what my Dad used to do with his pipe and it brought back a flood of memories for me.
See it to say goodbye, if for no other reason.
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