The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies (2014) Film Review

The dragon has come and gone, now the Dwarf King Thorin (Richard Armitage) has gone a bit power-hungry, and what with the various different people all coming to the one place to fight, he needs to get his head straight. I think more happened, but I mostly recall this and some awesome fight scenes.

It’s over! That was my main feeling when I finished the film. As so many have said before me, three films to tell this story were two too many. I thought that if the story could be sustained over three films, I’d be fine with it, but it just seems to be a bit of a cynical, money-grabbing decision. You know what annoys me the most? Having recently watched a few older Peter Jackson films, I was curious to want to see what else he has, and I feel annoyed that I had to go through these to get to what is next. Now, I’m not so excited. If you haven’t seen Heavenly Creatures, go watch it, especially if you are feeling a bit bruised and battered by the long haul that has been Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit. It shows the wonder of what Peter Jackson can do outside of Middle Earth.

The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies was nominated for an Oscar for Best Achievement in Sound Editing.

X-Men : Days of Future Past (2014) Film Review

Do time travel storylines do your head in? Then this may not be the best film for you. Because I love time travel stuff, but I drifted off for a moment in this and suddenly was totally lost.

Essentially, it starts in a future where everything is a bit crap, with bad guys coming from everywhere and the X-Men can’t cope. So, somehow (mutant skills. Don’t question it), Wolverine (Hugh Jackman) is sent back into the past to change history. And things get awesome.

There are all of the usual fighting and explosions and all of that stuff. Plus the older X-Men folks and the younger ones – we got them all. Really, if you are a fan of the X-Men films, I think you’ll like this. Be hard not to.

X-Men : Days of Future Past was nominated for an Oscar for Best Achievement in Visual Effects

 

The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King (2003) Film Review

And we come to the end. Finally, Frodo (Elijah Wood) must face the final part of the journey as well as himself, but as ever, Sam (Sean Astin) is by his side. And the others are all involved in all manner of fighting, running, joking and generally being pretty darned awesome.

It’s just so much fun, excitement and aceness. And this time, I didn’t even mind the multiple endings. I felt that the wedding of Sam seemed to be there solely to calm people’s concerns that Sam and Frodo were more than friends. To that I say just get over it – but then, it was only a couple of minutes of my life. If it makes people happy, then good on them.

The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King won Oscars for Best Picture, Best Director, best Writing, Adapted Screenplay, Best Film Editing, Best Art Direction – Set Decoration, Best Costume Design, Best Makeup, Best Music – Original Score, Best Music – Original Song (Into the West), Best Sound Mixing and Best Visual Effects.

The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers (2002) Film Review

The journey continues, but now the Fellowship are split up. Frodo (Elija Wood) and Sam (Sean Astin) continue toward Mordor to destroy the ring, now accompanied by Gollum (Andy Serkis). Pippin (Billy Boyd) and Merry (Dominic Monaghan) have been kidnapped and Legolas (Orlando Bloom), Aragon (Viggo Mortensen) and Gimli (John Rhys-Davies) race to save them. Somewhere along the way, Pippin and Merry have found Treebeard and the other giant ancient tree creatures. And Gandalf (Ian McKellan) who we last saw fighting against a giant fire demon creature, has come back and continues to be awesome.

And that is just the tip of the iceberg. It is exciting, fast yet long, with a fabulous battle and my favourite character in a long time; Treebeard. What a dude.

The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers won Oscars for Best Sound Editing and Best Visual Effects and was nominated for Best Picture, Best Art Direction – Set Direction, Best Film Editing and Best Sound.