It's finally here. Yes it's been nearly 10 years! Can you believe that The Return of the King was aired back in 2003? Man I was still in my 20s. :/
Being a huge fan of the so-called "trilogy" and the book, this prequel did not disappoint.
It almost felt like a reunion whenever I see a familiar old face. Gandalf! Frodo! Elrond! Galadriel! Saruman! Gollum!
Each dwarf, and there are 13 of them this time haha - Thorin (the boss!), Gloin (hello Gimli's dad!), Oin, Balin, Dwalin, Bofur, Bifur, Kili, Fili, Dori, Nori, Ori, Bombur, each of them looked distinctively different. Had half expected them to all look like Gimli haha. Like how all elves kind of looked the same.
Image credit: nerdbastards.com
Martin Freeman was an awesome Bilbo, except I can't forget his role in Love Actually as the porn extra having fake sex with the female porn extra LOL. No idea why that scene stuck in my head when I have also seen him being brilliant in BBC's Sherlock Holmes, but I digress. He was excellent.
Scenes are breathtakingly beautiful - no wonder NZ is cashing out on this like mad. The landscape is insane.
Cinematography was familiar exact replica of the previous LOTRs. There were several scenes which bugged the shit out of me. For someone who's watched all three LOTR's in its director's cut, some movements and scenes were too similar, to the point where I think it was an exact repetition. I wonder if this was a fan service Easter egg thing. There was also, I felt, one scene which necessarily stretched too long to feature the oddball wizard, Radagast - which didn't add anything to the plot.
My mum napped through half the film. She said every time she closed and opened her eyes, it was a fighting scene... haha. Yes, there are lots of fighting. :)
Gandalf kicks a lot of ass here. Verbally and physically. Still my favourite character ever.
And boy, the baritone of the dwarves' singing in the beginning. Hauntingly, solemnly beautiful. It sets the background music for the rest of the movie and it is so.... fitting. Lots of singing here! Happy ones too... and the familiar Hobbit soundtrack is featured quite a bit here. Yup, a lot of recycled materials her. really. Again, not sure if it's meant to pay homage to LOTR or just plain laziness lol.
Image source: official website
It's everything you expected from a Jackson-JRR movie and nothing more. No shocking twists. No mind boggling turns. So if you didn't like first first LOTRs, you're not going to like this.
If you've read The Hobbit, you'll know that the book is about 1/3 of the thickness of the original LOTR. Greedy Jackson's taking it a bit too far by milking this book into 3, haha But I'm still going to watch the other 2. Can't wait for Benedict Cumberbatch's Smaug to show up in the next one at the end of the year. :(
At nearly 3 hours, it's slightly on the long side. I wonder how the director's cut is going to be lol.
Watch it with a full stomach. The introduction scene's gonna make you wanna lick the screen.
In a nutshell, enjoyable and familiar. It'll do.
More:
Official website
8.4/10 on IMDB
Showtimes
Trailers
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