The Hobbit Trilogy
Since all three of The Hobbit films are finally out, I want to talk about it as a fan of these films (this is a spoilers warning!). I was in high school when The Lord of the Rings trilogy films came out, and they have let a big impression on me. Before the films I had an English teacher who lend me The Hobbit as his personal recommendation for me. Although I didn't appreciate as much since well being a teen was a silly phase, but the movies have opened my eyes to what the Tolkien world really is: magical.When I heard The Hobbit has been greenlit I was so very excited! Especially when hearing that Guillermo del Toro is working on it too, but he had to leave. Then the news that the film will be a trilogy was quite controversial, but I can understand why they made that decision. The wait have been long, but I was stoked when seeing teasers of the first film, and production vlogs.
An Unexpected Journey had a great beginning for Lord of the Rings fans with having new scenes of Bilbo's birthday, and having Frodo there. The first ten minutes is of Bilbo telling the back story of the Erebor, the dwarves home and how they lost it. After there's a nice transition of time to the past where this story is set. I do find Martin makes a great younger Bilbo, but since I've seen a few of Martin's work I mostly see him than Bilbo. The first hour is the buildup to get Bilbo to start on this journey. Hobbits are known to not like adventure and rather stay at home, and I think Martin did a fantastic job of portraying that trait in Bilbo.
They change the detail of Thorin being part of the singing to making him arrive late and change the mode to be more serious. The first hour some may find boring or uninteresting though it is necessary to describe the history and the world to the audience. Sadly, the first movie seems to be the only one with singing. Once Bilbo joins the dwarves, we learn about the enemy, the orcs, mainly one name Azog. Azog was briefly mentioned in the book. I'm not a big fan of Azog, but I can see how essential he is to the movie. Next Radagast the Brown, another wizard, is introduced and we see that he is faced with evil disrupting the woods he lives in. This is the prequel to Lord of the Rings so it makes sense to clue in on the evil powers of Sauron awakening.
I do like how the movie is portraying Thorin. The other dwarves are also well done in how unique they are. I was expecting more Gimli copies, but they're not thankfully. It is unfortunate that they didn't get much screentime or development individually. Though as a race I like how they show how having no home to belong to gives weight to their quest. The biggest on didn't even get lines due to thinking it be funnier this way which I disagree personally. Though I do enjoy his scenes. I do highly recommend watching the extended versions of the movies for the deleted scenes as they have more dwarf scenes. So this first movie has some iconic scenes which are the three trolls and the riddles in the dark with Gollum. The trolls scene was quite gross but there are a couple scenes throughout the trilogy that's pretty disgusting. It does seem strange to see trolls talk and turn into stone by the sun since all the other trolls we seen in these movie series don't do those. The group loot the troll horde where Gandalf, Thorin, and Bilbo get their swords. I like the wisdom Gandalf gives to Bilbo "True courage is knowing not when to take a life but when to spare one" which would be vital to know for Bilbo's encounter with Gollum.
Just like LotR, the group travels to Rivendel and the Misty Mountains while being chased. Rivendel is the same and it even showed Bilbo looking at the shards of Narsil like in LotR. The Misty Mountains has a city size settlement of golbins and rock giants. The movies definitely got more creative and expanded the Middle Earth world it almost seems like a different place from LotR to me. The golbin town is quite complex looking, and it reminds me of Dark Souls' Blighttown which was just a horrible experience. I hate areas like these with rock cavern with messy scaffolding like wooden buildings. Its nice that Galadriel is getting screentime and just the white council in general. Their scene in this movie was nice as a fan of LotR.
The first movie ends after the group escaped from the Misty Mountain's ordeal. Thorin finally accepts Bilbo after he shows how serious he is with helping them. Its quite touching which really makes these movies really nice despite whatever faults people find in them. I find this first film to be a great adaptation of the book.
The Desolation of Smaug is the second film where we finally get to see Smaug the dragon. The first ten minutes is a like a flashback before the quest of Gandalf meeting Thorin in Bree and it gives a good recap of their mission. The group is still running from the orcs and they find a safe home from them though its the home of a skinchanger who hates dwarves. I can't highly recommend seeing the extended versions of the movie especially this one since the delete scenes make this movie more fluid. The Beorn scenes with the introduction of the dwarves is one of my favorite scenes. Beorn gives Gandalf more reason to go on his quest to search for the Necromancer and leave the dwarves behind. Also the deleted scenes of the group getting lost in mirkwood has the Bombur falling asleep like in the book. Though overall the Mirkwood acid trip scenes is awkward.
With no weapons, the group meets Bard and pays him to smuggle them into Laketown to get away from the orcs. As they enter Laketown we meet some more new characters like Bard's children, Laketown's greedy Master, and the Master's advisor. The Men of the story. The Master and the Advisor will the source of Bard's trouble since they do not like him. We learn about Black Arrows which are strong enough to pierce a dragon's hide. Bard just figures out about what the dwarves are in town for, and tries to stop the dwarves since there's a prophecy hinting the doom of Laketown. But Thorin wins the hearts of the Master and the people by promising the share of the mountain's wealth. Some of the dwarves stayed in Laketown since Kili's condition gets worse thus Tauriel arrives and saves his life leaving Legolas to fight the orcs.
Gandalf has been busy finding the source of evil. He even has Radagast help him. The extended version has Thorin's father, Thrain, wondering the old fortress and Gandalf finds him. Interestingly enough he was acting like Gollum as in crawling on all fours like a beast. It kind of similar to The Two Towers when Gandalf frees Rohans kig, Theoden, from being under a spell since Gandalf frees Thrain from the spell he was in. We learn that Thrain had one of the seven rings of power which Azog had cut his finger off for. Gandalf gets attacked and captured.
Thorin's company reach the mountain and finally enters the mountain. Now its Bilbo's job to go find the Arkenstone which results in waking Smaug. Bilbo buys time through talk till the dwarves enter and try to kill Smaug. Smaug's design is amazing as well as his voice. The movie ends with Smaug flying toward Laketown planning to destroy it.
The Battle of the Five Armies is the last movie in this trilogy and since it came out a few weeks ago I am recalling the movie by memory. Obviously I can't comment on the extended version since its not out yet. So this part of the post will be updated when that is out.
The movie starts with the people of Laketown panicking as Smaug is upon them. The town goes in flames in no time and Bard escapes his prison cell and tries to take Smaug down. Tauriel lead's Bard's children and the remaining dwarves to saftey, but Bard's son decides to go help his father since he knows where the Black Arrow is hidden. Smaug makes it difficult for Bard by destroying most of the wooden bell tower he and his son is on. Bard improvised by using his son's shoulder to help him aim the arrow as Smaug runs towards them. This is a rather touching moment. Bard is successful in finding the weak spot, and kill Smaug. The people can't celebrate as they are now homeless in the winter. Bard leads them to the Lonely Mountain, Erebor, to seek Thorin.
Now most of this movie is buildup to one big battle scene. Tauriel rejoins Legolas who wants to check out Angmar after recognizing the orc he was fighting with is from there. The remaining dwarves meet up with the others in Erebor, and Bilbo is concerned about Thorin's state of mind. It already started in the second movie with Thorin's obsession with the Arkenstone. They did a wonderful job at the gradual decent to "illness" in Thorin. The other dwarves see him change too though they will still follow and listen to him. We see that Bilbo has been concealing the Arkenstone and has been trying to figure out how to deal with Thorin. We do see a glimpse of the Thorin we know for a moment when Bilbo talked to him about planting the acorn in his garden to remember their journey with. Thorin quickly went back to being "ill" when news of the Laketown men arrival. They take shelter in the ruined city of Dale. There Thranduil arrives and gives the survivors food. Thranduil also brought with him his army to retrieve the starlight stones now that the dragon is dead. Bard tries to avoid war by reasoning with Thorin, but fails to get through to him.
Gandalf is rescued from his imprisonment by the White Council members with quite an amazing fight. Seeing Saruman and Galadiel in action for once is pretty neat. Gandalf immediately heads for Erebor, and warns Bard and Thranduil that an army of orcs is coming. Bilbo shows up and gives them the Arkenstone hoping it would break Thorin out of his "illness" but Thorin sees it as a trick. They stay behind walls as his Ironhill brethren arrive and fight the orc armies. Bard and Thranduil also join on the fighting. Thorin just suddenly sees what he's become ironically by staring and hallucinating at the golden floor where they tied to kill Smaug. They finally join in on the battle, and plan to defeat the enemy by killing the leader. Now the rest of the movie is just the fight between Thorin and Azog, and a few characters against Bolg the other orc leader on a frozen waterfall. The setting is quite unique and amazing though I do find these one on one battles kind of diminish the epic scale of a five army battle. But I feel they really do some justice on what's important, and I definitely teared up. Legolas has quite a bit of screentime, but like I said before I ain't complaining since he got some impressive gravity-defying fighting style. Thranduil also has a bit of development as well, and well I just wished there was more of him as much as Legolas did.
This movie seems more cohesive than the other two since its all about the battle, but I wouldn't say it's the best out of the six movies. I still prefer The Fellowship of the Ring. I really liked that foreboding ending though as it has a nice tie in with LotR which I plan on rewatching once the extended version of The Battle of Five Armies is out. As I said before the extended versions are highly recommended!
Overall, I have fairly enjoyed these films and plan on getting merchandise as I am no longer a moneyless high schooler, haha. Definitely the kind of movies you should watch at least twice since you may have missed some things. I definitely have a much better understanding and appreciating that way. Now that all the movies are out its definitely going to be a better experience seeing them back to back to get a better feel of the story. I highly recommend these movies, though it may not be as iconic as LotR since it hasn't really made timeless internet meme jokes ("One does not simply walk into Mordor", "What are taters precious?", "They're taking the hobbit to Isengard!" etc.) though I would still love more.
0 comments: