Great but could have been greater

Rating: 9/10 (11 December 2014)

As usual, after a movie Peter Jackson makes on works by Tolkien, I post a small outpouring of my thoughts. This time is no different, though I will be able to get a more definite picture – literally – after I see it a couple of times more. I don't feel like letting go, and though everyone says it's #onelasttime I don't really see the last bit happening. So I am not really sad about it. Especially because I still have the Lord of the Rings to turn to for superlative story telling.
There will be spoilers from now on, so if you aren't interested to know plot details please do not read further. Fast, fast, fast does it go, and never a moment's pause in action. It begins with Smaug and that dragon is dispensed with in just about 10 minutes flat, which is pretty awkward and antithetical to all that prosaic dialogue and running around furnaces for what seemed like a long time in the previous part. There is no use of birds except the raven sent to notify Dain Ironfoot. Who by the by has done a good cameo. Everyone seems to be riding animals though: Dain on a wart hog, Thorin on a ram, Thranduil on an elk – hmmmmm. I loved, absolutely loved, the White Council scenes. Galadriel's entry, carrying Gandalf, and finally the using of Nenya, is absolutely glorious! The action scenes are fast and get over all too soon. I loved this scene, have I mentioned? Oh, well, I'll mention it again, I loved it. The Elves are everywhere! Thranduil, Legolas and Tauriel have their parts stretched to suit fandoms everywhere. I am not complaining, but I would have liked to see more Beorn, more eagles, more Gandalf and Radagast, too. Alfrid is given undue weight-age but I suppose it is to prove that not all bad guys get their just desserts, on in this case, they get the desserts they always wanted to have. I liked the dialogues of this part. They have a certain lyricism that reminded me of the Lord of the Rings. The death scenes are handled well, and grief is given its due place in the scheme of this movie and helps pass on age old morals, that do not really seem jaded in these contexts. When Tauriel asks Thranduil, "why does love hurt so?" and he answers, "because it is real" – I was moved. Honest, direct and true. No flowery stuff. It kind of sums up what the genre of fantasy means to me . The movie has a faster pace than either of its predecessors. There isn't a moment to take into consideration character movement, unless you take Thorin's descent into madness induced by possessiveness for property and want of power. The scenes flow seamlessly, but too fast, in my opinion. It's almost as if PJ wanted to rush through this one and get it over with. In fact, I think this movie had more places where the scenes could be prolonged, like the epic confrontation between the White Council and Sauron and Beorn's part in the battle of the climax, to name just two that I was really looking forward to seeing. Well, maybe in the Extended Version of the Blu-Ray then. Do I see it again? Of course!!