I love this review and agree with all of it. Tauriel and Alfrid were my least favorite portions of the film. Alfrid was just silly. When he was wearing the dress, I kept thinking about the man who escaped the Titanic wearing a dress, or supposedly did. It took me away from the action in this photo and off to ships sinking. As someone else said, it would have been better if Alfrid had been crushed when Smaug fell along with the mayor. He wasted too much time and made Bard look a bit silly since Bard kept trusting the idiot with jobs. I like to think that Bard was way smarter than that
( ... )
And even in the Titanic with the man who dressed as a woman, there is something about it that made you sad rather than cringey -- as it indicated a tragic character, someone who has sunk so low after helping to create the crisis (I think he was supposed to be Bruce Ismay, the owner of Titanic, but history is clouding up with whatever they did in the movie :)). With Alfrid it was just sort of cringe-worthy... He wasn't even enough of an interesting character to be tragic or even comic.
PS Don't tell Sam that I hated the romantic triangle.
*giggle*
I think originally Alfrid was meant to be "Wormtongue-light". But he just didn't have what it takes to be that significant. He sort of served a purpose in DOS, but he had none at all in this one except as a time-wasting distraction. He certainly wasn't funny enough to be comic relief.
I liked her original conversation with Kili back in DOS, and I could see it as a kind of fascination/friendship. But then they decided to turn her into Arwen and to save him and make it romantic, and that just ruined it for me. I liked more her skills as a warrior and her integrity in standing up to Thranduil; I would have liked it even more if she'd just been standing up to him because he was wrong, and not because of her being attracted to one of the Dwarves.
Agree with much of what you've said, especially Martin Freeman's performance--he WAS Bilbo!--and Thorin's dragon fever madness. That really was cringe-worthy in a good way, seeing his breakdown.
I did actually like the romantic scenes with Kili & Tauriel. They could have greatly shortened her scenes with Legolas for more of that, in my opinion! I fear Legolas just left me cold in these movies. I much preferred him with his friendship with Gimli in LOTR to TH.
, partly because that bit of dialogue felt VERY fanficcish.Which is actually what I *disliked* about it. I'm not incensed about it as some are, but as someone who's never bought into the fanon about Legolas and Aragorn being lifelong friends (you know me, I reserve that role in Aragorn's life for Halbarad and the Twins), it made me roll my eyes a wee bit. Still, I appreciated the *idea* of the nod to fanfiction, and I was glad to see Aragorn at least get a mention. I still would have preferred an actual glimpse of him, even at a different age than he would have been in canon.
( ... )
Actually the more restrained Legolas of this set of movies made sense to me: his character development in LotR was yet to come, so he was still a little clueless in this one. But it made it hard to care much about his storyline--especially since we know he had to survive TH.
I'm fine with that particular fanon (to read) though my own headcanon is that he only met Estel once, when he was quite young and Legolas made a visit to Rivendell as emissary for his father.
Yet another thing that I can't help wonder if only PJ had just killed off Alfrid, we might have seen.
I agree with everything you said here! I just saw it for a second time last night (in 3D) with my sister, and I was still riveted, although I did get restless during some of the very endless battle!
With the rabbits, I noticed that one of them was rolling around on its back at one point - so cute!
I really couldn't stand Alfrid's character at all. I have no idea why so much time was spent on him.
And with Tauriel, I have to agree completely. I liked her as an Elf warrior and I loved the idea of there being a strong friendship between her and Legolas, but yeah, the thing with Kili felt forced and weird. Just unnecessary.
I knew there'd be a lot of battle, since that's what they changed the name to, but honestly it really did drag on forever.
The rabbits are awesome. And I really like them a lot, because someone who races sled dogs wrote a whole blog once about how they were actually plausible.
I don't know. Alfrid was the worst OC in the movies.
It did seem forced and not natural at all. Kind of sad at the wasted opportunity to show a female character who was NOT tangled up in a tragic love.
Meanwhile, Bilbo was perfect, as he worried about what to do with the Arkenstone. I swear, Martin Freeman was amazing; not a word, not an expression, that wasn't Bilbo Baggins, a Hobbit, and the descendant of Tooks.
Absolutely.
I completely lost interest in Tauriel and even Legolas. I know they did their part in the battle and all, but mostly it seemed like a desperate effort to make their characters seem relevant to the story.
Absolutely.
"The Last Goodbye". Billy Boyd's song was so haunting and ethereal, I felt like he was back in character as Pippin, singing to honor his own lost kin and friends as well as to honor Bilbo's story.
Absolutely.
Whatever the movie was, and wasn't, it truly was a wonderful finale.
All agreed. Billy singing and Lee's art were the most beautiful ending. Great beginning. Loved Bilbo being Bilbo. Loved the White Council smackdown. I love the rabbit sled, too, and any chance Radagast got to be awesome and not comic relief. Lobelia and the spoons. I would have liked if Sigrid got as much attention as Bain, but I was glad Hilda got to lead a women's militia and that Laketown continued to have diversity. Less Alfrid, more Bofur, though, please.
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Exactly.
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*giggle*
I think originally Alfrid was meant to be "Wormtongue-light". But he just didn't have what it takes to be that significant. He sort of served a purpose in DOS, but he had none at all in this one except as a time-wasting distraction. He certainly wasn't funny enough to be comic relief.
I liked her original conversation with Kili back in DOS, and I could see it as a kind of fascination/friendship. But then they decided to turn her into Arwen and to save him and make it romantic, and that just ruined it for me. I liked more her skills as a warrior and her integrity in standing up to Thranduil; I would have liked it even more if she'd just been standing up to him because he was wrong, and not because of her being attracted to one of the Dwarves.
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I did actually like the romantic scenes with Kili & Tauriel. They could have greatly shortened her scenes with Legolas for more of that, in my opinion! I fear Legolas just left me cold in these movies. I much preferred him with his friendship with Gimli in LOTR to TH.
, partly because that bit of dialogue felt VERY fanficcish.Which is actually what I *disliked* about it. I'm not incensed about it as some are, but as someone who's never bought into the fanon about Legolas and Aragorn being lifelong friends (you know me, I reserve that role in Aragorn's life for Halbarad and the Twins), it made me roll my eyes a wee bit. Still, I appreciated the *idea* of the nod to fanfiction, and I was glad to see Aragorn at least get a mention. I still would have preferred an actual glimpse of him, even at a different age than he would have been in canon. ( ... )
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I'm fine with that particular fanon (to read) though my own headcanon is that he only met Estel once, when he was quite young and Legolas made a visit to Rivendell as emissary for his father.
Yet another thing that I can't help wonder if only PJ had just killed off Alfrid, we might have seen.
Yup. Alfrid was a big time-waster.
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With the rabbits, I noticed that one of them was rolling around on its back at one point - so cute!
I really couldn't stand Alfrid's character at all. I have no idea why so much time was spent on him.
And with Tauriel, I have to agree completely. I liked her as an Elf warrior and I loved the idea of there being a strong friendship between her and Legolas, but yeah, the thing with Kili felt forced and weird. Just unnecessary.
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The rabbits are awesome. And I really like them a lot, because someone who races sled dogs wrote a whole blog once about how they were actually plausible.
I don't know. Alfrid was the worst OC in the movies.
It did seem forced and not natural at all. Kind of sad at the wasted opportunity to show a female character who was NOT tangled up in a tragic love.
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Absolutely.
I completely lost interest in Tauriel and even Legolas. I know they did their part in the battle and all, but mostly it seemed like a desperate effort to make their characters seem relevant to the story.
Absolutely.
"The Last Goodbye". Billy Boyd's song was so haunting and ethereal, I felt like he was back in character as Pippin, singing to honor his own lost kin and friends as well as to honor Bilbo's story.
Absolutely.
Whatever the movie was, and wasn't, it truly was a wonderful finale.
*holds you tight*
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