The end of an incredible journey

Rating: 9/10 (29 December 2014)

I would go into more detail but I only have one thousand words so...I find on reading some reviews of this final Hobbit film that most of them couldn't care less (see for example Rope of Silicon's review). The reason that this film is currently on 60% on Rotten Tomatoes is that most people cannot look past the three-film decision and punish this film in particular for that very reason. When I see the words 'hollow spectacle' being used to describe this film, I can't help but snort, given the number of comments I've seen around the internet (mostly from fans, the people who DO care) that found themselves tearing up at certain points in this film.
Peter Jackson and co have always been aware that characters cannot be just lifted off the page and plonked on the screen and this is certainly the case here. Characters like Bard, Thranduil and the dwarfs themselves come across so much more strongly because effort has been put into their characters emotional journeys. Take the spectacular Laketown opening: the climax of this is fairly anti-climactic in the book, given that the story's main antagonist is felled by someone we have just been introduced to and yet here, we have already met Bard in DoS and know what's important to him and to see that played out is so much more satisfying than the book because there is real emotion running through it and that goes for the whole film.
I am fed up of reading comments saying 'Bilbo doesn't do much'. READ THE BOOK, PEOPLE! Tolkien sees fit to have him hide or be knocked out throughout the battle and a lot of what he does in this part of the story is observing the tensions unfold around him, even though it is from his perspective, he often isn't actually doing anything compared to earlier in the story. An early scene between Thorin and Bilbo perfectly captures the hobbit who dreams of home and who is loyal even when friendships are tested.Another scene shows Dwalin, an aggressive dwarf loyal to Thorin, seeing his friend's descent into madness and pleading with him to see reason. Hollow spectacle? PAH! That's not even going into the emotional ends of some of the main characters, one of which has a considerable amount of dialogue lifted straight from the book. Other scenes, such as the White Council at Dol Guldur, are inspired by Tolkien's canon and other arcs, such as the love story, tap into universal themes of innocence, love and loss.
The battle scenes are spectacular if not quite as spectacular as LOTR but then the same could be said for the book, story and film. Nothing in this film can quite match the sheer desperation and then emotional release in Return of the King simply because it just isn't there in the story. What they do have they make the best of, bringing this grand saga to an end in a spectacular and emotional fashion. It may not be quite the defining chapter, that will always be whichever LOTR is your favourite, but this is a shining example of filmmakers going above and beyond the call of duty when adapting a book. Most just look at things to cut, as they would have done had this been one or two films: here, this possibly final cinematic representation of Middle-Earth celebrates the visionary mind of JRR Tolkien's wider world, remembering, as Gandalf says in the book and the film to Bilbo: 'You are only quite a little fellow in a wide world after all'. This is a Hobbit made in light of The Lord of the Rings, literary and cinematic: the original novel only had itself to contend with in the minds of readers. If the average Hollywood director had approached this material, you would not have ended up with this six film saga that is faithful to Tolkien's world in so many ways and the critical send off that this world has received is pathetic. To those of us who truly care, this is the end of a cinematic journey like no other.