Damn Movie!
Dec. 28th, 2014 04:35 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
sinkwriterFirst film I've seen in the theatre in over a year and how do I feel about it?
I'm depressed!
I sat through the credits of The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies, trying to remember back to the final Lord of the Rings film and how I felt when it was done. Somehow it was different, then.
Back then, it felt complete. Frodo had completed his quest. The Darkness had been vanquished for good, all the lands and its people could thrive again, and most of the "good guys" had survived the journey.
Samwise had helped his best friend complete the task, and now he could return to his home, knowing that was where he belonged. Merry and Pip could go home again as well, their hearts still positive but a little more grown up than they were when they first followed Sam and Frodo into those fields. Legolas and Gimli could each return to their own people and enjoy the new peace in their world. Aragorn had met his own personal challenges with great bravery and lived to become a wonderful king with the love of his life at his side. And Frodo, who had endured so much, could go with Gandalf and Bilbo to a place where he could finally be at peace.
It was happy and sad, but it felt complete. It felt positive.
Seeing the end of The Hobbit series, it feels the opposite to me. I feel depressed. The messages learned from the film seem to be: 1) greed will lead to your downfall, and 2) love hurts and tears you apart.
I was happy that Thorin finally broke free from the hold of the dragon sickness, realizing at last that his honor and integrity (and love for his fellow dwarves and men) were much more important than all the gold in that dark castle. I was very happy that Bard was able to slay the dragon, lead his people and save his family. (If he'd lost any of his children, I would have been furious.)
But everything else felt sad and empty to me...
That slimy weasel Alfrid survives the battles around him and slinks off somewhere, never really getting his comeuppance. Thorin dies, rather than get the chance (beyond battle) to be the honorable king he'd finally learned he could be. His closest kin and heirs -- Fili and Kili -- are both killed in battle in heartbreaking scenes. Kili and Tauriel never get the chance to be together (and perhaps forge an interesting love story of their own, an unusual couple as dwarf and elf). The elf king Thranduil loses his son Legolas (not in death but in leaving their kingdom) because of his stupid pride and cruelty (in not wanting to help the dwarves, banishing Tauriel so easily and even threatening her death), and Legolas leaves his father's kingdom and ventures out alone because Tauriel's heart belongs to another. And even though Bilbo survives (as we knew he would, given that he appears again in the Lord of the Rings films), he heads back to the Shire a sadder man, missing his fallen friends, and returns home to find everything in his house has been cleaned out by his so-called loved ones and relatives who had declared Bilbo dead and auctioned off all his stuff. Bilbo was already feeling emotionally and symbolically empty after his dangerous journey, the changes it made in him, and because of the loss of his friends, and then comes home to find it physically empty as well. To see him stand around the place, seemingly at a loss as to what to do next... it just made me so sad. He begins to put the place to rights, starting by picking up an abandoned photo from the floor and hanging it back on the wall, but I just felt so upset on his behalf that I couldn't feel any joy in the moment.
I know the final moments tied nicely with the first Lord of the Rings film and Gandalf's return to the Shire to retrieve the ring and give it to Frodo for the new quest, but overall it felt like the whole film ended on a depressing note. Though the Darkness had been vanquished for the time being (until another 60 years pass and Sauron returns), it seemed like no one was truly happy at the end of this film. Not all films have to end on a happy note, I know this and understand sometimes it works better that way, but these films have always been fantasy first and I had hoped for something more positive to happen in the end, for at least one fallen warrior to be saved.
As the credits rolled, I felt no relief, no joy, no fondness like I did with the original three films. Instead it all felt very sobering and I didn't like it. I don't know if that was the intent of the filmmakers, but... there you have it. That's how I felt at the end.
Has anyone else seen this film? Did you leave the theatre in a better, more uplifted mood than I did?
I'm depressed!
I sat through the credits of The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies, trying to remember back to the final Lord of the Rings film and how I felt when it was done. Somehow it was different, then.
Back then, it felt complete. Frodo had completed his quest. The Darkness had been vanquished for good, all the lands and its people could thrive again, and most of the "good guys" had survived the journey.
Samwise had helped his best friend complete the task, and now he could return to his home, knowing that was where he belonged. Merry and Pip could go home again as well, their hearts still positive but a little more grown up than they were when they first followed Sam and Frodo into those fields. Legolas and Gimli could each return to their own people and enjoy the new peace in their world. Aragorn had met his own personal challenges with great bravery and lived to become a wonderful king with the love of his life at his side. And Frodo, who had endured so much, could go with Gandalf and Bilbo to a place where he could finally be at peace.
It was happy and sad, but it felt complete. It felt positive.
Seeing the end of The Hobbit series, it feels the opposite to me. I feel depressed. The messages learned from the film seem to be: 1) greed will lead to your downfall, and 2) love hurts and tears you apart.
I was happy that Thorin finally broke free from the hold of the dragon sickness, realizing at last that his honor and integrity (and love for his fellow dwarves and men) were much more important than all the gold in that dark castle. I was very happy that Bard was able to slay the dragon, lead his people and save his family. (If he'd lost any of his children, I would have been furious.)
But everything else felt sad and empty to me...
That slimy weasel Alfrid survives the battles around him and slinks off somewhere, never really getting his comeuppance. Thorin dies, rather than get the chance (beyond battle) to be the honorable king he'd finally learned he could be. His closest kin and heirs -- Fili and Kili -- are both killed in battle in heartbreaking scenes. Kili and Tauriel never get the chance to be together (and perhaps forge an interesting love story of their own, an unusual couple as dwarf and elf). The elf king Thranduil loses his son Legolas (not in death but in leaving their kingdom) because of his stupid pride and cruelty (in not wanting to help the dwarves, banishing Tauriel so easily and even threatening her death), and Legolas leaves his father's kingdom and ventures out alone because Tauriel's heart belongs to another. And even though Bilbo survives (as we knew he would, given that he appears again in the Lord of the Rings films), he heads back to the Shire a sadder man, missing his fallen friends, and returns home to find everything in his house has been cleaned out by his so-called loved ones and relatives who had declared Bilbo dead and auctioned off all his stuff. Bilbo was already feeling emotionally and symbolically empty after his dangerous journey, the changes it made in him, and because of the loss of his friends, and then comes home to find it physically empty as well. To see him stand around the place, seemingly at a loss as to what to do next... it just made me so sad. He begins to put the place to rights, starting by picking up an abandoned photo from the floor and hanging it back on the wall, but I just felt so upset on his behalf that I couldn't feel any joy in the moment.
I know the final moments tied nicely with the first Lord of the Rings film and Gandalf's return to the Shire to retrieve the ring and give it to Frodo for the new quest, but overall it felt like the whole film ended on a depressing note. Though the Darkness had been vanquished for the time being (until another 60 years pass and Sauron returns), it seemed like no one was truly happy at the end of this film. Not all films have to end on a happy note, I know this and understand sometimes it works better that way, but these films have always been fantasy first and I had hoped for something more positive to happen in the end, for at least one fallen warrior to be saved.
As the credits rolled, I felt no relief, no joy, no fondness like I did with the original three films. Instead it all felt very sobering and I didn't like it. I don't know if that was the intent of the filmmakers, but... there you have it. That's how I felt at the end.
Has anyone else seen this film? Did you leave the theatre in a better, more uplifted mood than I did?
