The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies Review
I have finally, FINALLY, seen the final part of the hobbit! Took me bloody long enough!!
(If you still haven't seen it and don't want to know what happens, look away ;D)
Ohmygod, I don't know where to begin. I love how it started smack bang in the action, right after we left it in The Desolation of Smaug, and those scenes were stunning. I know dragons aren't real and it was all special effects but I loved it. In fact, I think they killed Smaug off a little too quickly. And I still don't understand how Benedict Cumberbatch came up with that voice for him!
To be honest, I think the entire cast nailed their respective roles and I'm going to have to go into detail for a couple of them (probably will be more than a couple actually, whoops)!
Can I just start with Alfrid (Ryan Gage)? I know he's not even a main character but I think if an actor can make you loathe a character as much as he does (in this and in The Musketeers as King Louis, can I add?), that he is a brilliant actor. I just can't believe how much I disliked him in this. Yes, he had his funny moments, but he was such a coward. I thought he may have had a change of heart towards the end, but I was wrong!
And then there's Bard (Luke Evans), wow. He is just beautiful (and his slight welsh accent kind of does it for me). I loved how he was always looking out for his family. I particularly enjoyed the scene where he rolls down a hill in a breaking cart into an ogre/monster and stabs it right in the heart. Brilliant.
Okay, now onto the really important characters. Having read the book a good few years prior, I remember well that my three favourite dwarves get killed off. Thorin (Richard Armitage), Kili (Aidan Turner) and Fili (Dean O'Gorman) were phenomenal. I think Armitage played Thorin exceptionally well, especially when the dragon sickness was taking hold of him. He always seems to play bad guys well, but I loved seeing him in a character battling against himself as well as others. I have to admit, at the turning point in his character, when he returns to his normal self and goes out to fight with his company, the tears started - and they didn't stop until I left the cinema!
Bilbo. Ah Bilbo. What an actor Martin Freeman is. I think (except for Ian Holm of course), Freeman is the perfect Bilbo. He's funny, gives good heart-warming speeches and is just plain cute, if I do say so myself. Some of his mannerisms throughout were adorable and I couldn't quite figure out whether they were a part of the character or the actor!
The rest of the cast - Ian McKellan, Orlando Bloom, Cate Blanchett, Hugo Weaving, Christopher Lee, Lee Pace, Evangeline Lily, Stephen Fry, Elijah Wood, Andy Serkis to name a few! - were also amazing. This has to be one of my all time favourite casts, they are all so talented!
Right, now onto the content.
Considering I didn't review the first two films, this may go a bit off track, but, I quite liked the added character of Tauriel and her little love sub-plot with Kili. I'd read reviews before going in and some weren't keen on it and I thought it might let it down a little. But my dad also had a theory that there would be some dramatic love/death scene involving the two of them (as we both knew Kili at least had to die), and he was right. For a while I did think she would get it too, but the scene with Thranduil broke my heart (he is gorgeous as well!). But, my god, I cried a lot at that bit.
I also loved how they interweaved Legolas and Frodo's characters into the narrative and how they tied it all up at the end with Thranduil telling Legolas to go and seek Aragorn! And then Saruman saying he'd take care of the situation with Sauron, the cheeky devil. LOVED IT.
Ooh ooh! & I also got a little vibe between Gandalf and Galadriel(?!). This wasn't really highlighted in The Lord of the Rings, although I don't really remember their characters coming across each others paths, but still, was there a slight romance going on there??
To be honest, for the majority of the film I had to pee and couldn't pick a good point to leave, so I didn't! And as soon as Dain appeared I was trying to work out who bloody voiced him for an age! And then I worked it out and was happy at seeing Billy Connolly's name in the credits (which were just as stunning as the final Lord of the Rings credits)! I'm surprised I managed to keep up with the film through all of that.
Overall, I loved the action-packed finale and bawled my eyes out like a little baby. I'm so sad that it's all over! Will just have to wait to get all three extended editions to add to my Lord of the Ring ones and then try to watch them all in one day - challenge accepted! ;D
I hope I didn't ramble too much; I get a little overexcited when it comes to Middle Earth, oops.
Hope you enjoyed the review anyway, would love to know what anyone else thought?
:')
I watched the movie at Imax theatre and OMG I was blown away
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It was amazing, wasn't it? :D x
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