Last person to see the Hobbit: BOFA, finally reporting in
So at long last I got around to seeing the final film from PJ's Middle-Earth. Here are ten things I liked about the film, listed in random order:
* Luke Evans' Bard; he managed to inject some very welcome humanity into all the CGI brouhaha.
* Nuclear Galadriel. I liked seeing her truly use her powers.
* Lobelia! In what she surely believed to be the height of Shire fashion. And the spoons!
* The unusual steeds. Elk, pig and snow-goats. Imaginative and fun. (Where did those goats spring from?)
* Richard Armitage. Managing to be hot and deliciously brooding even when loaded down with all that wig, make-up and heavy costume.
* The end credit portraits. :)
* The HUGE pile of gold in the mountain. That's some serious bling! Gimme!
* Bofur - going off to war in proper armour but still with that HAT!
* Ken Stott's Balin. Glimpses of a quiet and perceptive nature in the middle of all the CGI and under loads of make-up.
* Bilbo vs. Thorin in the tense scene when Bilbo admits that he was the one gave the Arkenstone to Thranduil and Bard. The only scene IMO where Martin Freeman's Bilbo really made an impact and made me sit up and pay attention, heart in throat.
Otherwise, it was a relatively forgettable movie IMO, despite all the spectacle. If I never see another of those orcs PJ loves so much, it'll be fine by me. And it must be said that Bilbo drowned in all the goings-on, and I wasn't exactly overwhelmed by Martin Freeman's role - I even spotted Dr. Watson's signature mannerisms. The doomed Kili/Tauriel romance left me mostly unmoved, as did the quarrel between Thranduil and Legolas. The comic relief toady guy was increasingly annoying.
But the scale and scope and details of the cultures and that whole world are still in a class of their own.
* Luke Evans' Bard; he managed to inject some very welcome humanity into all the CGI brouhaha.
* Nuclear Galadriel. I liked seeing her truly use her powers.
* Lobelia! In what she surely believed to be the height of Shire fashion. And the spoons!
* The unusual steeds. Elk, pig and snow-goats. Imaginative and fun. (Where did those goats spring from?)
* Richard Armitage. Managing to be hot and deliciously brooding even when loaded down with all that wig, make-up and heavy costume.
* The end credit portraits. :)
* The HUGE pile of gold in the mountain. That's some serious bling! Gimme!
* Bofur - going off to war in proper armour but still with that HAT!
* Ken Stott's Balin. Glimpses of a quiet and perceptive nature in the middle of all the CGI and under loads of make-up.
* Bilbo vs. Thorin in the tense scene when Bilbo admits that he was the one gave the Arkenstone to Thranduil and Bard. The only scene IMO where Martin Freeman's Bilbo really made an impact and made me sit up and pay attention, heart in throat.
Otherwise, it was a relatively forgettable movie IMO, despite all the spectacle. If I never see another of those orcs PJ loves so much, it'll be fine by me. And it must be said that Bilbo drowned in all the goings-on, and I wasn't exactly overwhelmed by Martin Freeman's role - I even spotted Dr. Watson's signature mannerisms. The doomed Kili/Tauriel romance left me mostly unmoved, as did the quarrel between Thranduil and Legolas. The comic relief toady guy was increasingly annoying.
But the scale and scope and details of the cultures and that whole world are still in a class of their own.