

Silverlode

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Dec 5 2014, 11:51am





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I have seen it! (Mild spoilers) Can't Post I was given a ticket to a critics' preview of the film tonight, and here is my "review". I'm not going to attempt a typical review - I'm just giving my impressions and reactions to the film. I'm not trying to cover everything, and I'm only giving fairly mild spoilers even in the invisible text, but feel free to ask questions and I'll answer what I can.



I will give my general attitude toward these films up front, so you can understand where I'm coming from. I LOVE The Lord of the Rings book and I loved the movies, despite a few things that bugged and a number of things that I would personally have done differently. I do not have the same attachment to The Hobbit. I have a certain fondness and a liking for it, but it does not strike the same deep chords in my heart that LOTR does. I have never expected to love the hobbit movies more than I love the book, and I have been interested to see what they would do with Gandalf's side of the tale, so I never minded the additions simply because they were additions. I'm neither an apologist for nor a denigrator of these movies, and I'm willing to enjoy them on their own terms. Now you know enough to be going on with.



Overall: I liked it. I found a lot to enjoy, and only a couple of things that bugged - but not enough to ruin the movie for me.



The Battle of the Five Armies is very much the last chapter of the story as it has been told so far. It does not "fix" anything, or to "save" anything - it is simply the end of the story. It is unlikely to change anyone's view of the previous two films, or to be liked or disliked much more than them. I expect the EE to be better, but not because it will fix, merely because it will elaborate and I would like more of several things.



Smaug vs. Laketown was handled differently than I expected; a bit less "action set-piece" and more character-y moments than I thought they would go for.

(Mild spoilers) It's a very cold open, though - there is literally no break and no time at all since the end of DOS and no explanation of what's going on and no build up. I think I had perhaps expected one scene of people seeing the lake turning gold and being excited about the prophecy (maybe in the EE?), but it's just...here we are and there's a dragon attacking.

(Slightly bigger spoilers- Bard/Black Arrow) As has been said, no reference to the windlance but I actually didn't miss it. Besides, it becomes a moot point because by the time Bard gets out of jail, the whole town is in flames and it's already a foregone conclusion that he can't get across town to his house or the windlance tower and doesn't have time. I found the eventual solution to shooting the Black Arrow to be a very interesting famous bowman reference - very reminiscent of William Tell.

(character plot spoiler: Master) I also enjoyed the demise of the Master, having his attempt at escaping with his treasure barge being, er, sunk by the falling Smaug as a backhanded way of achieving the book situation of a bunch of gold and jewels on the lake floor with Smaug even though Smaug did not have his "waistcoat" of jewels in this version . Rather than use Smaug's attack as a great story climax in itself, they use it to propel the story straight into the last chapter. Which, now that I think of it, achieves something like the effect of the book where Smaug's unexpected demise at the hands of a character who comes out of nowhere suddenly swings the narrative away from the dwarves and splits the storyline to start gathering the clouds of war. I'd like more Smaug in the EE, but mostly because I really enjoy this portrayal of Smaug.



The White Council storyline plays out fairly quickly. Galadriel steals the show, but Elrond and Saruman make their mark as well. Saruman's future intentions can be read differently depending on the watcher's knowledge of later events. (spoilers) They definitely went "Nuclear Galadriel", which I was prepared for, but in my opinion they gave her too dark an edge. I would have much preferred a little more light in comparison to Sauron's darkness instead of ambiguity. But I suppose it may serve to make those who see these films before LOTR fear her intentions with Frodo more. I did love watching Elrond and Saruman fighting the Nine. I don't know how much of Saruman in action was Christopher Lee and how much was body double or CGI double, but it looked good. (/spoilers)



Then there is fighting. There is a lot of fighting. This is the longest battle we've seen, but also the most...deconstructed. We actually get relatively few major shots of armies rushing at each other, and they are interspersed with individual skirmishes following various characters, and with character moments and pauses in the action, as well as different stages in the battle. This is not a battle where all of the armies just show up at once and charge in, which means that there is more of a sense of a battle going on for hours and progressing differently in various areas of the battlefield, as each of the "good" armies are fighting in their own areas. I think they managed to make this battle feel significantly different from both Helm's Deep and the Pelennor, and I don't think it will detract from them because it's so different.



There's more focus on the people of Laketown than I had expected going in. There are a number of scenes throughout the film which give various minor Laketowners lines and even once the battle starts, we keep being given little glimpses into what's going on with them as a people, not just their fighting men. I was surprised by how much of this we get, but not displeased. We are definitely meant to sympathize with Bard's people.



Bard comes off really well throughout the film. He's a good leader who doesn't seek out responsibility, but he'll take it and carry it well. He steers his own course between Thranduil, Thorin, and Gandalf, and that wouldn't be an easy balance. I get a little whiff of BookFaramir from him; the incorruptible reluctant warrior. I also liked the little bits of story they gave to Bain. It's too bad the girls didn't get anything comparable, though there is one nice scene involving the women of the town which I think will be appreciated by many here.



The Elves show up as a faceless army (their arrival is a pleasing little moment that I don't want to spoil) and the focus there is on the major characters we already know; Legolas, Tauriel and Thranduil. Ah, Thranduil. He's beautiful, he's deadly, and he's not at all interested in anyone else's priorities, even those of a wizard. I like the contrast from the other elves we've seen, who are very much involved with wizards and politics. Thranduil Does. Not. Care. What. You. Think. Not even if you are Gandalf. Also, I think my favorite stunt in the movie was his final dismount from his elk. Two thumbs up for Lee Pace. He has nailed the Elvishness, and also the "less wise, more dangerous".



I really didn't mind Legolas' role in the story at all, nor did I mind his stunts - until the last one, which is one of the two things in the movie that bugged me. I think it would have been better if they had just done it in real-time but they decided to go all slow-mo and that was a bad decision because it only served to highlight the absurdity and the whole audience just laughed. Alas. They were doing fine until then.



I've been on the fence about Tauriel. I don't object to her existence, I like some of the things they've done with her, and while I'm not a fan of the Romance, I haven't hated it so far. For a moment early on, (spoiler) when Kili is saying goodbye to Tauriel by the lakeside and gives her his runestone, I thought they were going to play it as Kili being infatuated and Tauriel not as much, which I would have liked alright , but unfortunately they were really heavy-handed about the resolution of that storyline and I disliked it. Legolas' last stunt and Tauriel's last scene were the only two things that I would cut from the film, or at least heavily edit.



Thorin, Thorin, how the fangirls shall mourn thee! Thorin's dragon-sickness is explored in some depth, and they don't shy away from the uncomfortable situation among the dwarves as he becomes so unlike himself. We get some nice scenes with Balin and Dwalin, especially. Most of the rest of the dwarves don't say much...but then nobody wants to draw Thorin's ire. Bilbo shows his courage by being one of the few people willing to stand up to him. In fact, the Bilbo/Thorin relationship is one of the strongest character themes in the film. The resolution to the dragon sickness was interesting - I liked the location and some of the imagery a lot.



Because of the focus on Thorin and Bilbo, I think Bilbo's motivations and decisions are explained very well. I liked how they handled this part of Bilbo's storyline very much, and as an added bonus there was quite a lot of book-dialogue that made it in. For those who are worried if there will be "enough Bilbo" - if you determine that with a stopwatch you may be frustrated, but if you determine it by story impact, then I'd say yes. I was pleased with how they handled Bilbo both with the Arkenstone and in the midst of the battle. He is, after all, a small hobbit caught up in great events, but his impact is greater than his size. Martin Freeman does some excellent work here.



The Thorin/Fili/Kili denouement is played for tension (spoiler) separated from the main battle, with a little cat-and-mouse, and some brutal one-on-one fighting, and I think they did it to keep those who already know "what's going to happen" guessing and uncertain as to the when and how. There were some very shocked audience reactions, so I think they succeeded in that, even though it's quite different from what one would picture from the book. Bilbo and Thorin get their farewell scene, though slightly differently than in the book. But have your hankies ready.



With all the controversy over Dain, I inspected him carefully, and it looked to me like the real Billy Connolly in the close-ups, either him or a body double in some hand-to-hand combat shots, and his CGI double in most longer shots. Having got that out of the way, Dain's personality makes its mark in no uncertain terms (much like Connolly himself). There was a bit of dialogue about him between Bilbo and Gandalf which gave me a good chuckle. (Dialogue spoiler) Bilbo, having just escaped from Thorin in the depths of dragon-sickness, asks if Dain is much like Thorin and Gandalf says he's always found Thorin the more reasonable of the two! (mild plot spoiler) We do lose track of him midway through the battle once Thorin charges into battle and they greet each other on the battlefield, so I expect more of him in the EE.



Alfrid has a much larger part than I expected in the film, and was the main source of comedic moments. I probably would have cut a few of them in favor of more time with other things, but they did get consistent laughs out of the audience and they do break up the grim tone of the rest of the film.



And yes, this is grim. This is not the Return of the King; this is the downfall of the King Under the Mountain and the return of the Shadow. There is no sense of eucatastrophe here. This story is as much a defeat as a victory. And that is as it should be. This is the first battle of the War of the Ring, and Sauron will be in the ascendant for another 60 years, until another halfling sets foot on the road and changes the fortunes of the wider world. But it does not end on a sour note. It ends, as it should, with Bilbo Baggins returning home. (spoilers: how the movie ends) I loved seeing Bilbo return home in the middle of the auction. It was short, amusing, and effective, and ended with an unexpectedly poignant last shot of Young Bilbo in an empty Bag End. It was a touch of the bittersweet that I really liked, and a deeper echo of the scene from AUJ where Bilbo wakes up to an empty Bag End and feels...a bit wistful and lonely and left out. Now he's back from an adventure full of dwarves and he's finally home and...feeling wistful and grieving Thorin and like an outsider in his own home. Martin Freeman says a lot without words or even a closeup here. And then we transition to our older, reminiscing Bilbo as there's a knock on the door and we hear the Bilbo/Gandalf greeting from FOTR as we do a last closeup on the map of Erebor. (/spoilers)



This is, after all, the story of a hobbit who got swept up into great Adventures much bigger than himself, and then came back again...changed.

Silverlode







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"Dark is the water of Kheled-zâram, and cold are the springs of Kibil-nâla, and fair were the many-pillared halls of Khazad-dûm in Elder Days before the fall of mighty kings beneath the stone."





