World-Building: Epic
Characterization: Awesome
Plot: Perfect pacing
I had my doubts going in to this movie because I feared it would be one huge battle full of annoying CGI and the type of "humor" we saw in the barrel ride in Desolation of Smaug... I was on the edge of my seat the entire time. It was action packed, but at the same time had a perfect plot. It was fast paced, but still took time to make you love the characters. Even Tauriel grew on me in this one, which is difficult for me to admit, but true nonetheless.
The movie stars where the last one left off with Smaug just being unbelievably, destructively, awesome. They changed a couple of things from how it was in the book, but let's be honest, I much prefer Bard struggling hard and then seeing the weak spot in Smaug's armor to a thrush telling him about it because he somehow understands bird language. Let's leave that silliness to Radagast. What I'm trying to say is that the changes they made in this movie were not unwelcome and that the presence of Legolas, Tauriel, and other extra characters were not necessarily a problem. They added a needed personal view into different parts of the battle.
The Thorin storyline was so well done that again, like with Unexpected Journey, I felt like I was watching a story about Bilbo Baggins and Thorin Oakenshield and their friendship... some wonderful acting from both characters and excellent writing really delivered here.
And it was in this movie that I was finally sold on the Dol Guldur stuff. I previously did not care about Gandalf's side adventures and really despised Radagast and I certainly saw Elrond and Galadriel as unnecessary to this story, but it all came together so well here that I understand why they chose to set it up the way they did. There was lots of awesome in that part of the tale.
Thranduil too got some great character development. I hadn't expected him to be so well done, but he was layered and quite a refreshing change from the usual Elrond-type aloof Elves of Rivendell. He felt much more real and much more engaging.
Thankfully the Kili and Tauriel romance wasn't too vomitrocious and I was able to watch it without cringing too much! Also, Legolas was awesome. It was so cool how the story says he's supposed to be in love with Tauriel and so on, and he has these moments where he's supposed to be jealous of them or whatever, but he never lets it get down to a ridiculous low level of movie romance. He treats Tauriel like a friend and fighting companion, and he clearly cares for her, but there are times when they barely look at each other and when he realizes she really loves Kili he just lets it go. I'm not sure if this was more the actor's interpretation than the writer's intent, but I liked it.
Also, Legolas in the battle was great. Some more awesome moments to add to the list of greats (which of course includes that Mumakil climbing in ROTK among others).
But I shouldn't get too caught up in the details. I loved this movie and felt it was an excellent way to round off the Hobbit trilogy of films. It was true, in spirit, to the original novel, much truer than Desolation, for example, and after seeing I have a much more forgiving feeling towards some of the things I didn't like about the previous two movies. Also, the ending song. Thank you, Peter Jackson, that was an awesome decision.
Don't hesitate to go watch this movie!
No comments:
Post a Comment