The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies Review - Spoilers!

I know I'm late to the game. This is the only Tolkien movie that I did not see at midnight on release day. That has to do with the whole hospital thing and especially the no driving thing. But yesterday after church I finally got to see it in RPX 3D! I have many thoughts but mostly I loved it.

Spoilers after the poster!

Image: Wikipedia.com

I didn't get a chance to re-watch the first two movies. But over my lifetime, I've probably read The Hobbit more than a dozen times. So I remember what is suppose to happen. The Battle of the Five Armies is actually not too off the mark as far as the book goes.

I remember watching the first movie and just loving Thorin. In the book he just seemed like kind of an ass, but Richard Armitage bring so much life to the character. I was sad watching the first movie because I knew what happens.

Thorin and his craziness were spot on. The crazy eyes were especially good. Richard Armitage is an excellent actor.

The 'love' triangle between Killi, Legolas and Tauriel was stupid. Like I said, I don't remember the 2nd movie that much, but did Killi and Tauriel have that much time to 'fall in love'? I remember some jail cell banter but not much else.

But thankfully it didn't take up much time in the movie. I think part of the reason they did it was to make Killi's death all that more tragic. In the book, both Filli and Killi get one line about their death, that basically says they are dead. I think some of the other dwarves should have dead but didn't, but that's a minor thing.

I did spend a lot of the battle, which is a bulk of the movie think 'Where are the eagles? Where the heck are the eagles?" I was really hoping they wouldn't leave the eagles out and count the 2nd orc army as the 5th army. But in the end, Radagast did come with the eagles. And we get to see Beorn dive bomb into the battle while turning into a bear, which was awesome.

In the book, Gandalf goes away and then shows back up at the end. I really loved how they showed what Gandalf was up to - book purists probably didn't but I like it. I found it pretty funny to see Saruman fighting for the side of good.

We get to see the setup for several things going into Lord of the Rings which was interesting. And my favorite part was at the end. Because they actually included the sale of  'dead' Bilbo's things.

I wasn't sure they would include this because they cut out the Scouring of the Shire out of the Return of the King movie. But at the end, was a confused Bilbo and then some confused hobbits because here he was, back from the dead. After it ties everything together - going from young Bilbo to old Bilbo on the day of his 111th Birthday.

It really didn't have a lot of flaws, and it was an excellent movie. I'm happy I got to see it in the theater and I cannot wait to see all six movies in order! That will be an awesome marathon for some weekend!

The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug

I’m a huge Tolkien fan and have been since I was a kid. I adored the Lord of the Rings movies and I loved the first Hobbit movie. I was able to see The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug at the midnight premiere and it didn’t disappoint.

Now I’m going to let you know, I’m not a huge fan of The Hobbit as a book. I always preferred Lord of the Rings. I re-read The Hobbit after seeing the first movie, and it is really lacking in some area. Character development is a big one and a lot of things seem rushed near the end.

After the image, there will be both book and movie spoilers.

Image: http://en.wikipedia.org/

Desolation of Smaug was very good. I think what I like best about the Hobbit movies are that they try to give the dwarfs beyond Thorin some character development. Kili gets his own subplot with the new elf character, Tauriel. I like the character of Tauriel a lot but they were a little heavy handed with trying to compare her to Arwen near the end.

Beorn and Bard were awesome to see come to life, as well as the barrel ride. Bomur actually got to shine in that scene. The subtle and not so subtle hints that Thorin is starting to lose it were extremely well done as well.

Smaug was so good and that entire sequence where the dwarves and Bilbo are trying to evade him to get out of the mountain was brilliant. It was just a lot of fun to watch. I was also happy to see more of Gandalf once he left the company. That was one of the biggest things that bugged me about the book is that Gandalf goes off but in the book itself we don’t know what the heck he did.

The only issues I have with the movie is that they built up this whole subplot with Kili being poisoned and Tauriel having to save him. But Kili dies in the book during the Battle of the Five Armies. Annoying enough in the book we don’t see the death, it’s just mentioned that him and Fili had died like an afterthought. It makes me wonder if the movie will let them live.

Beyond that, the movie was great. I was hoping to see Bard against Smaug but the movie ended right before that. I’m very excited to see the 3rd movie next year!

The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey

Image: http://www.thehobbit.com/

Since The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug comes out this week, I thought I'd share my review of the first movie from last year!

-------------

I’ve been a fan of J.R.R. Tolkien nearly all my life. One of my earliest memories was my dad reading The Lord of the Rings to me. I would sit on the arm of his old red chair as my father brought to life the story of Frodo and the ring. When I heard that movies were going to be made, I was very excited. While there were parts of the story left out in The Lord of the Rings movies, I loved all three and saw each one several times in the theater.

Peter Jackson did a great job of bringing Middle Earth to life with The Lord of the Rings, so I was psyched to see what he could do with The Hobbit. I saw The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey in 3D, in 48 fps and I was not disappointed.

The movie had stunning visuals. With the 48 fps, it almost felt like I was in the movie. The extra frames per second was a bit jumpy in several parts of the movie. But overall, I could tell the difference with the faster frame rate, which made it even more defined than just normal 3D.

With the 3D visuals, the rolling hills of the Shire were immediately striking. The battle scenes put the viewer right into the action. For example, when the wargs were chasing after the party, there were  close-ups on the warg’s face and it made me it feel as if I was the one being chased up a tree. And when the party is captured by the goblins, I felt like I was also there under the mountain surrounded by the hoards.

The Hobbit is a lighter story and has a great deal of humor in it, unlike LotR. The movie is the same, especially centered around Martin Freeman as Bilbo. His expressions alone caused me to roar with laughter as he tries to deal with the invasion of the Dwarves in his hobbit hole.

There are more laughs in the sequence when everyone is captured by the trolls and Bilbo must talk his way out of being eaten. Even during the riddle game with Gollum, the humor remains. Freeman was a perfect choice for Bilbo.

The last time I read The Hobbit was a while back, so I was a little fuzzy on the details of the story. The movie seemed to be very faithful to the book but there were obviously some scenes added to the movie, such as the Rivendell sequences that included both Galadriel and Saruman. As noted in the appendixes of the LotR stories, Saruman tries to put the breaks on Gandalf’s work. And there’s a short original scene between Galadriel and Gandalf where she supports his decisions and encourages him to continue.

There was quite a bit of foreshadowing of the events that will happen in the LotR trilogy, but it also worked well in the course of this movie.

While the journey represents the physical one that the dwarves, Bilbo and Gandalf take to the Lonely Mountain, we also see Bilbo’s  emotional journey as he finds out who he truly is inside, which is the heart of the story. Even though there are two more movies to go, Bilbo is transformed from a homebody to someone who is willing to risk his own life to save another’s. This is a story of hope and trying to find your way home.

I would highly recommend everyone to see The Hobbit: The Unexpected Journey. It is a wonderful adaption that I think really captures Tolkien’s story. I would also recommend seeing in 3D with the new 48 fps because it makes the movie so amazingly beautiful, even more so than regular 3D.

How I Became A Whovian

Image - http://en.wikipedia.org

I like fandoms and I have several that I consider myself to be a part of. I’m a Browncoat, which is a fan of Firefly / Serenity / Joss Whedon. I’m part of the Tolkien fandom, especially when a new movie is coming out. And in the last few years, I became a Whovian which is a fan of Doctor Who.

Since today is the Day of the Doctor and the 50^th anniversary episode is airing later this afternoon, I thought I’d talk about how I became a Whovian.

When I was small, I remember seeing Doctor Who on TV and thinking that it was strange. I was a geeky child but the British program was a little out there for me. My dad, the major geek in my family, didn’t watch it regularly which is another reason I didn’t get into Doctor Who as a child.

I grew up and several of my friends were really into the new Doctor Who. I’m a little OCD and I like seeing any series from the beginning. With Doctor Who, I put off watching it because I was tempted to start from the 1^st Doctor. Several friends convinced me that I just needed to start with Nine, at the point of the New Who reboot.

I started watching it on Netflix, and I found the first few episodes a little cheesy. As Nine’s season progressed, I enjoyed it more but I didn’t really become hooked until Ten came along. Ten is my favorite Doctor but by the time I had gotten to his seasons he had already been replaced by Eleven. It took me a while to get caught up. Partly because I didn’t want Ten’s time to be over, and partly because I wasn’t a big fan of Eleven.

Finally I was all caught up and fully a fan of Doctor Who. Even though Eleven isn’t my favorite character, still enjoyed the show because I liked the companions. I was very excited to hear that Twelve would be replacing Eleven during the Christmas episode.

Even my daughter is a Whovian. I have watched some episodes with her, trying to pick the ones that aren’t too scary. Though she picked the episodes that took place in the Library one day, and I was afraid that they would scare her because it had freaked me out. She thought it was funny and kept walking around the house saying, “Hey, who turned out the light?”

Emily’s favorite Doctor is Ten as well and her favorite companion is Donna. I probably won’t watch the simulcast this afternoon while it’s on, but wait until Emily is up from her nap. That way we can enjoy our Doctor Who fandom together.