Well, let's just say that in my list of the Tolkien movies, this one would be number 6... it was good, yes, but maybe it was too much of a replay. I admit it, don't hate me, but I was just a little disappointed, because I was not as involved by it as I was with the other movies. I like Martin Freeman/Bilbo, I love Ian McKellen/Gandalf, it was nice to see Cate Blanchett/Galadriel - Hugo Weaving/Elrond and Christopher Lee/Saruman as much as Orlando Bloom/Legolas, although they were not part of the Hobbit story but had the only purpose of linking these films with the LordOfTheRings trilogy. No problem there for me, I like them all, and I liked Evangeline Lilly/Tauriel and her love story with Aidan Turner/Kili, really. I also like Richard Ermitage/Thorin and it was nice to see Ian Holm/old Bilbo, again to further link the two trilogies. Sylvester McCoy/Radagast had a very little role this time, we see one single shot of him coming to the rescue and that's it.
Despite my love for Stephen Fry, I didn't like his role, his master of Laketown was too much a caricature, and the same goes for Ryan Gage/Alfrid, I did not like him at all. He was supposed to be the Wormtongue of the situation, more or less, with a point of politician in him, but I loved Brad Dourif's Wormtongue, totally loved him, although he was a negative character, one of the baddies, we can say. Yet I loved him, and I loved Brad Dourif, he was great. Alfrid was just annoying after a while. Maybe I was supposed to laugh when he goes away with a dress on full of money, but I simply thought it was stupid of Bard to let him go with all that money when his city is ruined and his people have nothing. More importantly, I did not, not at all like Bard. I'm sorry, I don't know why, I have tried to see the hero in him and everything, but Luke Evans seemed so plain to me. I can't help it, I feel nothing from Bard, nothing at all.
Then there's the story: we were left with the dragon let loose from the mountain, and we find he's headed to the city, of course, and is busy setting it on fire while Bard breaks free (he was in jail) and tries to defend the city: brave, yes, but also a bit stupid since they already explained to us that normal arrows do nothing to him... what was he thinking, maybe this time they will kill Smaug, just to please me?? It's up to his son to bring him the big big arrow, only weapon that can penetrate the dragon's skin... so: throws-hits-dragon dead. Wow, just like that? It was easy, why nobody else tried that??
Anyway, the famous dragon was dead before the opening titles... I don't know you but I was a liiiittle disappointed... then there's the same old story: gold and riches drives people crazy and bad, we all know how it works...
Thorin is blinded by it, he turns back on his word, he doubts his own family, he want help those that need it. We have Thorin and his men locked inside the mountain to defend the gold, then the dwarves army that has come to reclaim their mountain, then the humans who have come to seek help after the dragon has destroyed their city, then the elves come ... because their king likes jewels, apparently.
And finally we have the orcs, come at exactly the right time, they should all be thanked honestly, their timing was excellent, considering that dwarves were about to fight against humans and elves. Thank you orcs, nothing is better that a common enemy to unite people. The elves army was really cool, by the way.
Thorin won't leave the mountain and the gold, and here's another stupid thing: the battle is going badly because there are just too many orcs everywhere, but then 13 dwarves join the battle : hooray.
...
I mean, on foot, with a single weapon, it's not like they brought the cavalry.
Anyway, Thorin is the only one that thought of killing the "general" instead of the simple soldiers.
Amazing.
I could scream SPOILERS now, if you want, but if anyone will ever read this should know that these are not reviews, but simply my personal thoughts on what I've watched. As I wrote in the title, I watch a movie and I talk about it. Simply that. Because I like it.
Right now I don't remember the book, because of my well-know bad memory, so I don't remember who lives and who dies in the book. Here, Fili is the first to die, then Kili is killed in front of Tauriel, then Thorin dies, letting Azog kill him to have the chance, once and for all, to kill him.
After Azog is dead... the end, it looks like the battle is over! Just like that, what about all the others? Were ALL the orcs in the city killed? Were ALL the orcs fighting the dwarves killed? Or somehow they magically knew their leader had been killed and fled? It's not clear, not to me at least, if someone knows it please, you're welcome to explain this to me.
The moment Azog is dead, the battle's over. I know I've said this above, but I find it amazing, they don't even show us the battlefield, we don't know how many dwarves survived, if the orcs ran away or if there were no survivors... it seems like it doesn't matter, Azog is dead, Thorin is dead so Bilbo has him to mourn, Kili is dead so Tauriel has him to cry on, and she's touching, poor little thing "if this is love I don't want it, take it from me. Why does it hurt so much?" and Thranduil's simple answer: "because it was real" was somehow special, acknowledging her love and showing that somehow he does know about love and pain.
This was something I did not like at all, it seems like nobody else mattered here but our protagonists, the ones we know and care about... but one of the things that made the LOTR trilogy so special is that somehow everybody's part seemed as important as the others.
Here it's not like that. Nobody else counts, apparently.
Suddenly, we find ourselves back in the Shire, with Bilbo home again, to find that his town folks believing him dead are taking all his possessions...
That's why I liked this film less than all the others.
One last thing, have I talked about Lee Pace/Thranduil? No, I've left him for last, but not least. I loved him. I like Thranduil and Lee Pace equally, I liked to see Thranduil fighting among the others, I liked how Lee Pace portraided him, how he moved and talked, his voice, everything.
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