The Hobbit III

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What is it about? :: The journey of one Hobbit and a team of Dwarves continues where the earlier movie had finished with Smaug the Dragon (Benedict Cumberbatch) flying away to bring the chaos to the town. After the dragon being unleashed, and as it goes on destroying the town, Bard the Bowman (Luke Evans) manages to slay the creature after continuous attempts, and he himself emerges as the new leader. The Dwarves lock themselves inside the Lonely Mountain as Thorin Oakenshield (Richard Armitage) keeps searching for the Arkenstone with no result as it is already with Bilbo Baggins (Martin Freeman) who hides it seeing Thorin’s change of attitude. Meanwhile, Thranduil (Lee Pace) arrives with an army of elves in hope to retrieve a stolen Elf treasure.

And what follows? :: While providing aid to the people of the town, he forms an alliance with the humans who wish to have that share of the gold which was promised by the Dwarves. Even though Bard tries to reason with Thorin, he doesn’t agree with the terms as he claims the whole treasure for himself and stays adamant. He would go for war instead of peace, and the arrival of Thorin’s cousin Dáin (Billy Connolly) with an army of Dwarves only make the situation worse. With Gandalf the Grey (Ian McKellen) already imprisoned by the forces of darkness, and the huge army of Orcs lead by Azog the Defiler (Manu Bennett) and their secondary army along with Goblins coming closer, can anything positive come out of this for Elves, Humans or Dwarves?

The defence of The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies :: We all know what The Hobbit is all about, and it is extremely difficult to mess things up here. One big advantage that this movie has compared to its predecessors is that it is the shortest among them all. The visuals are once again of the highest quality, and the battle sequences are really good. There is the grand battle which involves Elves, Dwarves, Orcs and Humans, and there is a lot of detail right there and what follows. An epic battle was needed, and this one surely delivers that. There is also focus in the minds of the characters and their attitudes here. The attention on the creature detail is also impressive, as we see many creatures around which are worth having further look at.

Claws of flaw :: Among the three movies, this one has the least happenings outside action. There should have been more focus on the plot which seems to go in a predictable way. There is a little bit of emptiness here and there which is masked only by the visual beauty. The dragon gets slain quite early, and things just continue in a predictable way, with armies coming on to clash, as the story goes right where it was expected to go. The romantic angle remains its biggest flaw, as it is forced and it seems so – as we know that the elf lady herself is an extra character added here. Unlike what is shown, it is more like an irritating case of love rather than what has been intended. It is a case of terror for the entire realm, and one has to wonder if it is a priority when these two are around.

Performers of the soul :: As expected, Martin Freeman plays the main character, but the focus is more on Richard Armitage nicely making Thorin Oakenshield impressive. Together, they make the whole thing better. Orlando Bloom has some of the most stylish action sequences in the movie, and his one-on-one battle with the orc is a joy to watch. Ian McKellen’s Gandalf the Grey continues to do what he has been doing all the time. Luke Evans has some interesting moments of glory in this one too. Evangeline Lilly’s Tauriel is good, but the character’s romantic side completely devastates the situation. Meanwhile, the rest of the dwarf team remains good and effective. The rest of the humans make much lesser impact. The best performer in the movie might still be the CGI.

Soul Exploration :: The major idea remains the same as the stage is set for the battle between good and evil. This is once again about the good overcoming the evil, and the stress is once again on the need for courage and sacrifice, as well as the value of comradeship and mutual help. The hope to go beyond the differences is also there, and it gives that message to get rid of the hatred between races and work together for a better future – it actually works here, and what seems to be only a chance earlier, does come to the light in this case. Unity in diversity is the point here too. Even though the force is mostly on Thorin Oakenshield to do the right thing, the rest also got to make their own decisions here that would affect the outcome.

How it finishes :: The franchise had started with The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey and continued through The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug and has now finished at The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies in an interesting way – may be people expected better, but this is still a very good finish. The one thing which you have to keep in mind is that this is more action movie than the rest of the franchise, and you should have watched the previous movies before this one, because the action starts directly and very quickly in this one. It has finished second after Transformers: Age of Extinction with the box-office collections of the year, but The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies is surely the better flick by some distance.

Release date: 17th December 2014
Running time: 144 minutes
Directed by: Peter Jackson
Starring: Martin Freeman, Evangeline Lilly, Benedict Cumberbatch, Cate Blanchett, Orlando Bloom, Ian McKellen, Richard Armitage, Lee Pace, Luke Evans, Ken Stott, James Nesbitt, Ian Holm, Christopher Lee, Hugo Weaving, Graham McTavish, Aidan Turner, Dean O’Gorman, Mark Hadlow, Jed Brophy, Adam Brown, John Callen, Peter Hambleton, William Kircher, James Nesbitt, Stephen Hunter, Sylvester McCoy, Manu Bennett, John Tui, Billy Connolly, Mikael Persbrandt, Stephen Fry, Ryan Gage, Mark Mitchinson, John Bell, Peggy Nesbit, Mary Nesbitt, Simon London

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@ Cemetery Watch
✠ The Vampire Bat.

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33 thoughts on “The Hobbit III”

    • Oh, the 48 frames per second – I never had a problem with any of the Hobbit movies – turned out to be good at PVR/Cinemax screens. I read about it and that being so sounds very bad to many people?

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      • Did you notice any difference though? If not, you probably saw it in 24fps as not all screens showed the 48fps print.

        At that high frame rate, everything looks sharper and more realistic. Which is a problem because it then loses that “cinematic” feel. But they do say 48fps is an acquired taste.

        Liked by 1 person

      • Oh! I have been pretty much unaware of the details about such things 😀
        I have felt that The Hobbit movies looked a little more realistic, but I can’t confirm; I need a flashback for a deeper look, considering the quality of the screens here 🙂 Is there any other movie coming up with similar settings?

        Liked by 1 person

      • I actually searched for it hoping that something interesting will come up 🙂
        It said a witty remark, and I felt that the new short form will only support my reviews 🙂

        Liked by 1 person

  3. God such a late reveiw!! this was the last movie I saw and loved it, the visuals etc!!! … the dragon flying and dieing how it is killed itself is exciting… and as a Hobbit fan of the book, I loved it… that romantic angle?, well if you did fall in love ever, that does take the first priority and I am slightly upset on reading such criticisms on the movie…those wood elfs are not great, they are ok ok… and besides I think that elf lady did fight valiantly and it did not deter her goal in protecting our place much…though Kili was he may have survived if she did not call for help… but I liked it because they tried not to get romantic but love drew them…and that Orc and Thorin battle was a joy indeed to watch!!…anyway… I had such a great tme watching this movie really!!

    Liked by 1 person

    • The visuals score, all the time.

      Well, there is no real love between the elf and the dwarf; as it wasn’t in the book as most of the fans say, and even in the movie, it seems forced. It was just some strange attraction. People should make movies without romance unless it is part of the genre – this is not the kind of movie. This should only be focused on what it is really about.

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      • hmm…dear boy…movies are going to be different from the Book… well I did not find it that irritating with the love angel… I think see it this way can an elf ever fall for a dwaft…dwaft forks are inferior species to elfs in the book…so love may bind them… I think it was way better than many romantic nonsense… I saw one such movie in Romedy… so there was more love than romance…well attraction, maybe yes, true love is something like Maleficient(:…one you actually like without the tags… but well most movies fail in potraying the love angle anyway(:… even the book had love angels…the LORT the Arogan and the elf and LORT movie damn magnified it… anyway… the visuals were awesome so were some really nice scenes, remember Bilbo carried a seed or something and Thorin was charmed by the Hobbit… anyway

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      • Well, it is how it was created – just another cliche love story with two people from different races just for the sake of it. This is also why it doesn’t stand along with the fact that it was not really portrayed with the true essence of those magical races. Why was the dwarf shown as not having a long enough beard? To add to being the romantic hero that he never was? If something has to be created out of the book, it has to be believable. Dwarves are not supposed to feel that close to the Elves, even if their lives depended on the same – may be on the battlefield, but not with their lives.
        Human-Elf love stories are better possible. Dwarf-Elf one is rather the more fake one. Even an Orc-Elf love story has better scope, because it is clear how Dwarves are supposed to be as mythical creatures; they are fighters, not romantic ones.
        You mean the Arkenstone which he carried.

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  5. When he suspects Bilbo to have the Arkenstone as he fiddles in the pocket, Thorin tells to show him what he has in the pocket and he shown some sort of nut seed, Bilbo said he picked it up from one of the adventures lands he goes together with the drawtfs and for some reason Thorin smiles listening to the sweet hobbit… hmmm… Orcs were Elfs, that Sauron to insult the Elfs converted them onto some a horrible creature. Well… actually movies are imperfect I would put that Kili guy in the movie to be more like human than draft… and I guess it is not possible to image a drawft and elf to be together like that that’s why they put it like that… that being said in LORT Gilmi liked that Elf person a lot, he took her hair as his gift from her… generally only man falls in love, drafts too even women drafts look alike… very few women in the hobbit that’s why one like Tunuviel right was added?… my knowledge on this topic has faded I have read the Hobbit, then LORT and the Silmarinian too… its like a new world… completely amazing world… if I have a good radio series I can spend all day listening to the chapters and even proses and songs in these books… anyway… but really we got the movie separate from the book… book is like really nice and lovely and movies cannot bring out that charm(: …thats why all visuals…but some parts do connect with some experiences with the charactors in the book… for ex, Thorin his valour, or Bilbo, his bravery… the other side charactors are just there… anyway…

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    • Yes, those nuts instead of the Arkenstone. It is difficult to remember the LOTR movies too; it has been a long time – so many movies and books have come after that. Books ask us to imagine the world, but movies just give the free image and we don’t have to think and create the fantasy world that much.

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      • Lord!!!….being a english creature your talking about imagination in books!!!… books are 3D and give your whole picture…pictures are made through technology but it does not have the soul as much as a book does… I watch movies on TV even stupids ones when I am bored but if I am not lazy lazy I would love reading books instead… particularly LORT and JJR Tolkien… you can’t apreciate the charactors and world he created until you read his books…or atleast the radio adaptation of the stories… if one watches a movie to know about a story in a book…well, he better go to the books, movies are just visual appeal and leave out a check of realism in the books…besides in stories there is a charm on feeling things more personally than books and its good for the eyes…a movie has a little harmful impact on the eyes anyway…goodday

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      • No, books help us to recreate, and pictures are made by ourselves. They give wings to our imaginations. What I imagined with the book of The English Patient and the movie were very much different. Movies just provide that picture which is consistent.
        It is exactly what I am talking about.

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  6. Benedict Cumberbatch & Martin Freeman’s names in the credits surely deserves some brownie points 😉 I didn’t know while wtching the movie. So when I found Benedict Cumberbatch’s name in the credits, I had a broad smile.

    Btw, I saw your header. It’s superb. Yet, I actually liked the romance between Tauriel and Kili 😛 I understand your pov. They must focus on the storyline. But I didn’t feel that this affected the story line at all. If anything, it added a bit more flavor too it. Specially the fact that they didn’t overdo the romance 🙂

    Liked by 1 person

    • Thanks 🙂 Did you see the header on laptop?
      I had that smile of credits a lot earlier 🙂
      Yes, but it did for me 😦 It is the flavour that I don’t like or prefer to have in a movie like this 😉

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  7. OMG! I cried my heart out in this movie… God! At one point I had to literally force myself not to loose it in front of a theatre full of crying people!!!! When Bilbo gets smacked in the face and drops dead for a minute, I almost yelled at the screen! Ha!
    It was an experience to watch this movie in 48fps, and yes it is an acquired taste… I love it!

    Liked by 1 person

      • Same here!!! i wish there were more… I like Hobbit movies better than the LOTR ones, and some odd reason Frodo looks more like a carton where as Bilbo Baggins looks so elegant…
        Oh yea… I’m waiting for the second Vampire Academy movie… loved the first one, though it felt a little rushed, still, something’s better than nothing 😉
        But Insurgent was really boring! I love Hunger Games so much better!
        What are your favourites?

        Liked by 1 person

      • Yes, felt Martin Freeman as Bilbo as more of a person 🙂
        What I loved about Vampire Academy was Zoey Deutch – I felt that the movie was a lot rushed; there were so many things around which they didn’t pay attention to, with which they can make another movie 😀 😀
        Insurgent is no match for Divergent 😦
        Yes, The Hunger Games is better in many ways 🙂
        Interview with the Vampire will always be my kind of vampire movie. Vampire Journals was also somewhat in the same path 🙂

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