There and Back Again

I am so so sad that our adventures in Middle Earth have come to an end. The Lord of the Rings films are all complete and now The Hobbit films are done too. Obviously, I'm going to rewatch the movies and maybe even reread the books, but there will be no new Peter Jackson film installments. Last night, I said farewell to Tolkien's amazing universe.

Overall, I thought the final film (The Battle of the Five Armies) was wonderful and it definitely gave me the closure I needed. All things considered, it remained fairly true to the book. The characters were great and there were even some cookies for those that really know the LotR series. I would go see it again right now if I could. I'm going to go through the film more in depth so...

SPOILER ALERT

The movie begins with Smaug burning down Lake-Town. I'm afraid of fire so seeing this in IMAX 3D was pretty darn scary. It was very lifelike. I was a little annoyed that Smaug is killed right at the beginning of the movie because it just felt so fast. Either way, the sequence was super epic. I also think that the attractiveness of Bard is seriously underestimated because he looked absolutely great.

One thing that has continued to annoy me and just kept getting worse was the relationship between Tauriel and Kili. First of all, Tauriel isn't even real. Well I guess none of them are real but Tauriel was created by Peter Jackson not by Tolkien. She wasn't even a part of The Silmarillion. It almost seemed like they were trying to force the Aragorn and Arwen love story on these other characters. At one point Kili gives Tauriel an Elvish stone and says "Keep it. As a promise." and there's the whole thing that Thranduil brings up about how they can never be together because he's a mortal and blah blah blah. Then when Kili dies, Tauriel is crying over his dead body and and Thranduil walks over. Tauriel cries, "Why does it hurt so much?!" and Thranduil says "...because it was real." I love the irony of this line since Tauriel isn't even real. I mean I was sad when Kili died too but this was just way too much.

I thought Thorin was absolutely great. The movie perfectly captured his "dragon sickness" and the complete character transformation. The fact that you go from loving Thorin to hating him, but then you are still heartbroken when he dies just speaks volumes. Richard Armitage was incredible. The scene where Thorin dies is super freaky because Azog falls under the ice and you totally think he is dead but then he floats back under Thorin with his bright blue, White Walker-esque eyes and it is so freaky. Thorin is sitting with Bilbo when he dies and he says, "If more people value home above gold the world would be a merrier place." This quote is almost the same as the line from the book and it was such a beautiful moment. The entire meaning of the novel is basically summarized in this one perfect line. Gold is bad, guys. Don't be greedy.

The character of Alfred was the absolute worst and I wanted him to die the very second I saw him. He is even more awful and more useless in this movie. He doesn't deserve to be acknowledged anymore.

I don't even know what to say about Bilbo besides the fact that I love him so much. Martin Freeman is a total genius and I love him a lot too.

My favorite scenes all involved the little bonuses for LotR fans. When Gandalf is trapped, Galadriel, Saruman, and Elrond come to save him. They battle the 9 Ringwraiths and then Sauron shows up. It's all really creepy and intense, especially when psycho Galadriel comes out and gets all scary. Elrond warns Saruman about Sauron and then Saruman says, "You go. I'll take care of Sauron," which is super exciting because we all know what happens to Saruman.

At the end of the movie, Thranduil is talking to Legolas and says, "You should head north. There's a man you should meet. His father, Arathorn, was a good man but I have a feeling he will be a great man. On the road he is known as Strider. You will have to discover his true name for yourself." I started squealing in my seat because I was just so excited. Aragorn is amazing and that line made me want to go home and marathon through all 3 LotR movies (extended edition, of course).

J.R.R. Tolkien created the greatest fantasy universe of all time (and this is coming from a girl that is obsessed with Game of Thrones) and Peter Jackson brought it to life. The only thing to do next is to travel to New Zealand!

I'm going to end this post in the spirit of Bilbo..."And he lived happily ever after, till the end of his days."