Hello everyone!
Movie blog time again, after I pretty much had to wrestle my internet connection into submission. The thing suddenly decided to go all wonky on me even though it had a perfectly good signal to work on!
Typical.
As I promised in my last Saturday blog post, today (or tonight, I should say, given that it's pitch black outside while I'm typing this) it's going to be ALL about the Hobbit.
Again.
I'm sorry about that.
But I'm definitely a hardcore Tolkien fan, and I've been pretty much itching to see the extended edition of the Battle of the Five Armies since the theatrical edition was released to cinemas! Why? Well, because the EEs usually have much better scene connections, and explanations.
This one didn't disappoint either, for certain.
However, I feel like I should definitely do a very quick run-through over the plotline and what had happened in the movie itself before I actually jump into the extended scenes, but be aware that this will really be a VERY brief summary. I already did a thorough blog on the whole thing, and it can be found here, for anyone with a wish for more detail.
In short, however, the story is this: in movie one, An Unexpected Journey, the Hobbit Bilbo Baggins is chosen by the wizard Gandalf to be the fourteenth member of the company of Thorin Oakenshield in the Dwarven quest to reclaim the Lonely Mountain. By the time movie two comes around, he has already gotten the Ring from Gollum, escaped trolls and storm giants and wargs, and is currently on the run through Mirkwood trying to get to the city on the lake (Esgaroth). In the process, he gets stuck in the Elven-king's dungeon, but helps free his friends, and has a very nice heart-to-heart with Smaug the Perpetually Idiotic, who gets pissed off enough (and showered in gold, natch) that he heads off to destroy Laketown. As it happens, this is where the third movie begins, with old Smaug meeting his death at the end of Bard's arrow, and then comes the action part of the story when Thorin becomes an idiot and an ethnic war of epic proportions threatens the nations of Elves, Dwarves and Men, only prevented by the timely arrival of Azog the Defiler and his legions of orcs and trolls. Thus, the battle begins, ending only with the death of said Defiler, and the Sons of Durin, but with the quest over, our Bilbo Baggins can now return home to the Shire, where we transition to the moment in the Fellowship of the Ring when Gandalf arrives for the birthday party.
Whew!
Okay. On to the good stuff now!
There's almost half an hour of additional footage in this movie, and I will admit, some of it is basically just added for some extra fun, or simply for dialogue that didn't really need to be cut in the first place. However, it doesn't mean it's superflous in any way, because I actually enjoyed the lot of it quite well!
For instance, a very good extended scene is the one in Dol Guldur, where Gandalf is about to be called Gandalf the Fingerless as an Orc wants his shiny ring (spoiler alert: this is Narya, the Ring of Fire). Enter Galadriel, who pretty much tells the Orc to leave the wizard alone ... or else.
Naturally, the orc picks 'or else'.
Some extended scenes are seen between Gandalf and Radagast, namely one in which Radagast lends Gandalf his staff, which is of interest since I can't remember whether or not this was explained in the theatric version, considering Gandalf DID lose his staff in the process. But while we're wondering that, we're also seeing some more of Thranduil and his aid to Dale, though he's still sneering sinfully about. Not fun.
What's more fun is an added scene at the gate of Erebor, where the night watch is changing from Bofur to Bombur, which is almost exactly like in the book! Although in the book, Bilbo pretends to take over for Bombur, and here he slips away during the change (and Bofur totally knows something's up), it's a fantastic nod to the source material, which you have to love.
The massive chunk that's pretty much gotten another limb attached is the actual battle between Azog and the Free Peoples, as there are certainly scenes all around that didn't make it to cinemas - mostly because of the blood and gore, I think. There's quite a bit more of that flying around.
While we're talking flying - there's a flying axe. I'm not joking. It goes from Bofur, to Ori, to Fili, and back to Bofur (I think I got them all).
I will say, however, that the one thing I was NOT on board with in this EE was the actual fighting between Dwarves and Elves at the beginning - because that would pretty much mean epic smackdown to the end, without interruption from anyone, or anything.
The scene I might have loved second best, however, was the war chariot.
Okay, the Dwarves brought goats - but then Balin gets to DRIVE A CHARIOT PULLED BY A BUNCH OF THEM.
Father Christmas gets his sleigh, only this one is deadly, and he takes Dwalin, Fili and Kili with him, with the rather amusing quote of "It's been a while since I've done this!" to see us off.
Dwalin: "Shoot it!"
Kili: "Where?"
Dwalin: "In it's jambags!"
Kili: "It doesn't HAVE any jambags!!"
Let's be practical, that whole scene is there for comedic relief, but it's awesome. Also, did anyone else think Danny Glover from Lethal Weapon when Balin said "I am too old for this"?
We see some bonus material on Ravenhill as well as in the battle below, namely Bifur getting his axe stuck in an orc's head, with his cousins obliginly helping him dislodge the poor thing - the orc, I mean. But the axe goes along! I never even noticed, in the theatric edition, but he can also talk later!
The best scene, however, was the added funeral after the battle was over, with the Dwarves paying respect to the Sons of Durin, a beautiful homage and perfection in cinematic scope.
The King is dead. Long live the King!
xx
*images and videos not mine
No comments:
Post a Comment