#but doesn’t stop jackson from spamming everyone with calls. where is the logic

[fingertipsmp3]

The sims 2 is so funny because you can do everything right, you can make your sims study cooking and go to work on time and micromanage everybody so that they don’t die in stupid ways, and then the goddamn nanny burns your house down

[sevi007]

I called it, I freaking cried because of the Hobbit movie.

(Since last time I babbled over GotG I spammed a lot of people, let me just sum it up this time and put it under a read more)

“Battle of the Five Armies” was absolutely brilliant and I enjoyed almost every second of it – which is saying something, since I normally cannot sit still for two and a half hour without doing at least tree things simultaneously.

First of all – a big shout-out to the actors. Every last one of them did an amazing job, be it their expressions, little quirks of body language they showed throughout the movie, voice acting or all of it together. Those guys absolutely lived their roles, and I couldn’t have imagined it any better than what they did.

Then the scenery. Good lord, the scenery. Be it the burning city in the beginning, the illuminated Erebor, the darkness of Gol Dulgur, the Shire in the end… It was breathtaking more than once, and I was this close to taking pictures of it or something. (Which shows how enraptured I was because that’s exceptionally silly, even for me.)

And the soundtrack. There was some soundtrack I recognized from LotR, like the Shire theme, and teared up over because it felt a bit like coming home, and then there was the soundtrack belonging to the Hobbit series that made me want to shout “Du Bekar!” alongside the dwarves. “The Sons of Durin”, the one that plays when Thorin joins the fight, is absolutely amazing.

As for the plot – it’s been a while since I watched the other two movies or read the book. (Then again, I guess I can ignore the book, since I firmly believe that book and movies have to be regarded separately from each other.) I feel like the three movies should be watched shortly after each other, since they tell one big story, and it felt a bit strange watching the last one so long after the others.

But all in all, I loved the plot, thin as it may have been (again, I think that’s because the movie are so tightly linked together, this one was all about the battles and the “back again”). It was a battle through and through – the battle between the humans and Smaug, the battle between the Elves, Dwarves and Humans, and the battle between light and dark. The battle inside Thorin’s company. The battle Thorin had to fight with himself.

I won’t go over the whole movie, mind you, I won’t be able to stop, but a few of my absolute highlights:

Smaug was great, not ifs or buts. The whole dragon was beautiful and terrible at the same time to watch, probably the best dragon I’ve seen for a long time. I was almost, almost sad when he died, but then again, that was for a good cause – and showed, once again, where this sickening greed will lead in the end.

(Thumps up to Benedict Cumberbatch, too – I switched to English as long as Smaug was in the movie, just to hear the original voice acting. Amazing.)

Bard, side character that he may be, was very interesting to watch. Next to Bilbo and Gandalf, he is probably the only one of those characters that had bigger screen time who never acted selfishly for a second. He only ever thought of his family, and his people – especially when he broke free in the beginning of the movie and went to fight Smaug instead of fleeing or looking for his family, because it was the only way to stop this dragon’s madness.

The dwarves. I love Thorin’s company, adored them since the first movie, and watching them breaking apart and despairing and finding back together was painful and beautiful to watch.

The way Balin shook and almost cried while he saw the sickness take hold of Thorin. Bofur letting Bilbo go in the middle of the night because Bilbo is his friend, and he half-hoped Bilbo would leave before the battle because he didn’t want to lose him. Dwalin crying when he confronted Thorin one last time before Thorin woke up from his madness. Fili and Kili’s death freaking killed me, I was crying even though I knew they would die.

The rather unusual way the company fights in the last battle was a highlight, too. I was laughing and cheering the whole time, to be honest. Bofur jumping on of the giant orc to control it, Bifur losing his axe and starting to talk again, Balin claiming that he is too old for this and then proceeding to kick ass… it’s so typical for them. They are not an organized army, they are a ragtag bunch of workers, some fighters, friends that grew close over the course of a long and hard journey, and it shows in the way they battle. It’s messy, weird, odd, and it’s built on the trust they have in each other.  

Thorin’s Downfall and his Redemption. The sickness taking hold and morphing Thorin into something like Smaugh was so well done. From time to time, you could see Thorin – the real one – shine through the sickness – a smile, a twitch in his expression, a short hesitation. The look he gave when Bilbo showed him the acorn. When he gave the Mithril shirt away to his friend.

But most time, he even sounded like Smaug (the voice of Smaug being heard when Thorin talked was on point). The viewer can watch the gradual fall of the proud King who seems to be less than he ever was, and it’s heartbreaking to watch.

Thorin waking up when he already lost everything – trust, respect, friends – is very amazingly done as well. The voices echoing in his head and Bilbo’s being the loudest (because Thorin learned a lot from Bilbo on this journey), really showed what was going on inside him. And when he throws the crown away and discards the kingly robes, looking more like a King without them and more like the man and leader he was during the journey, it’s very clear that he is back.

His death was even more painful to watch than Fili’s and Kili’s and that’s saying something. The only comfort I had that he died knowing that Bilbo had forgiven him and was still his friend. He had righted what he had done wrong, he could die without regrets.

Bilbo. Bilbo’s role in this is bigger as he probably realizes, and yet he isn’t directly included in the fight, which is perfect. Bilbo Baggins is no fighter, no warrior. He is the voice of reason in that bunch of hard-headed and prideful dwarves, and especially a counterpoint to Thorin – who, despite being a good diplomat and leader when the situation calls for it, can also be blinded by pride.

Bilbo is this quiet voice of reason that I related most to in the movie: He was the one untouched by greed and pride, trying to save his friends, trying to do the right thing. His actions and words didn’t stop the battle directly and instantly, that much may be true. But there’s a reason that Bard felt his decision not-fighting the dwarves was right. There is a reason why Bilbo’s voice in Thorin’s mind was the loudest. There’s a reason the dwarves refused to throw their thief over the wall when their mad king wished it.

Bibo crying over Thorin… Billbo showing the little acorn that’s worth so few and so much at the same time (“Plant your trees, watch them grow”)… Bilbo refusing Gandalf to go and help his friends… Bilbo inviting the others for tea after all of it ended… and Bilbo returning home stronger than before (because this journey changed him, and awakened some stubbornness and backbone of steel that lay dormant before)… Bilbo may have had a smaller role in this movie, but he was super important, and super relatable. Great work by Martin Freeman there, too!

 Phew, I could go on and on about this. I’m saluting to everyone who made it to this point (how are you not bored yet, my gosh, I’m sorry XD). In the end, I will just sum up a few little things that I noticed and liked, too:

Galadriel being the ethereal, otherworldly lady she is. (She’s freaking terrifying, do not cross her, never, ever.)

Legolas and Thorin keep saving each other over the course of the movies, and it reflects very strongly of what Legolas and Gimli will have in the future, this “I don’t like you but actually I respect you and keep helping you” and it’s just so funny.

Legolas keeps on doing impossible stunts in fights like when he slid down stairs on a shield in LotR or jumped on a running horse. His extra-ness is legendary.

Bilbo storming into the Shire and taking the lead while taking back what is his – it strongly reflects how much he has changed over the journey. He was always a bit at odds with the rest of the hobbits, the weird and different one, but before the journey, he was too polite to really voice aloud when he was angry and annoyed at the others. Now he doesn’t have that problem anymore, and gained the confidence and charisma to make them listen to him. In fact, add the dwarven gear (especially the mittens look like Ori made them) and he seems more similar to a dwarf than to a “proper” hobbit.

The way things from this movie wrap things up for LotR. The Mithril-Shirt Thorin gifts Bilbo with saves Frodo’s life such a long time later. The eagles flying in and saving the battle explains why Merry (or Pippin?) later yells “The eagles are coming!” with such conviction – because Bilbo told them the story so often that the young Hobbit believes that everything will be alright now. The last scene of this movie is the reunion of Bilbo and Gandalf in LotR. Of course this scenes are all in the books and of course it’s logical that they would be in the movie, too, but they could have been cut out, or less importance could have been put onto them – but Peter Jackson decided against it and made it important, and I love him for it.

Alas, I just have to say – it’s a wonderful trilogy of movies, and Battle of the Five Armies was as amazing as the first two movies, at least to me. Absolutely loved it! =D