End of An Era - with arrival of 'The Battle of the Five Armies'...So What To Make of it all?

Yes, 'she's all over bar the shouting', and screaming, stomping, stampeding and endless scrutinizing, dissecting, analyzing, evaluating. C'est la vie - "such is life". So what to make of it all - i.e. both my initial impressions of, and later, but still recent reflections, upon this latest and final 'trilogic' instalment of Peter Jackson & Co's cinematic take upon JRR Tolkien's classic kids' fantasy?

Initially? Well, fairly positive, yea even somewhat taken aback. I actually found much instinctive applause welling up within to PJ's creative licence as the Five Armies suddenly, and rather unashamedly, began. And indeed this final Hobbit film saga metaphorically got underway in a superbly unique fashion.

Much as someone being told to strap on one's seatbelt and 'get ready, steady, (to then) go' as the flight abruptly began its takeoff, we the viewers were treated - no apologies proffered - to Smaug the Dragon's no-holds-barred, relentless assault upon the Lake-Town Esgaroth with its peasant fisherfolk and their little ones scattering helter-skelter in all directions, especially 'underground' or rather onto life rafts as they furiously scrambled to escape by the virtual skin of their collective teeth from the fiery monster as he continuously circled like a vulture in the skies and came ever lower, lower, lower, spewing out fire and brimstone upon all in his path, whether human, animal or mere 'artifacts' of architectural devising. Such 'for real' was the impact of Smaug's 'wrath and fury' upon all in his fiery path. This dragon (originally 'giant worm' in Tolkien's characteristically delightful and whimsical rhetorical flourish, and personally illustrated, and superbly, by JRR himself), was not one to be messed let alone trifled with! No, not on your - or your nanna's - nelly.

Yes, and this positive impression remained pretty well throughout the rest of the film despite the many obvious discrepancies between this particular 'edition', the classically Jacksonesque version, and Tolkien's original, as it thenceforth rapidly decelerated from rocket into simply breakneck speed and thence eased off into and soared along in cruise control on to its relatively speedy conclusion just over two hours later. A feat, need it be mentioned, itself possibly a record of brevity in the annals of PJ's take upon both Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit. And yet, oddly enough, after then in an equally rapid-fire flurry penning a not inconsiderable succession of bullet-points upon the final film - both during the movie's final credits as everyone vacated the theatre except movie staff and myself, and then at a secretive outdoors lunch retreat immediately thereafter (having previously during the long-anticipated build-up to the finale planned to dedicate the entire rest of this day to writing up one, if not several, blogposts upon this final instalment)...after all the foregoing, I cannot but address the following question: What did I feel?

A sense of being quite if not wholly underwhelmed by the entire (Hobbit film) experience, and in particular this final 'episode'. And that quite despite myself wanting to find any and every reason for that not being so. Yes, I'm shocked, indeed almost ashamed, to have to admit that as I left the picture theatre I had the feeling, the sense of having found this final film - and therefore in some sense the *entire trilogy - distinctly immemorable; without, as I've said, wishing this to be the case let alone happy that I'd found it thus. But if honest at heart one cannot but state the reality of one's actual experience.

So, to succinctly summarize - admittedly not a thing that comes naturally to me! - a more than adequate finale, rendered in classic, even inimitable Jacksonesque style to boot. But, equally sadly - again, I confess to saying this quite involuntarily - one all too soon forgotten, vanishing from my mental, imaginative grasp almost as quickly as it'd left its various impressions upon me. And that despite ensuring I'd achieved **one of my most restful, refreshing sleeps the night before so that my wits were all about me, my mind was fresh and active, and my recollections vivid and distinct. Such were my initial and soon-thereafter impressions of  The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies.

Shuteye being needful and moreover 'early to bed, early to rise [being the secret of] mak[ing] a man healthy, wealthy and wise' - of which the first, and arguably the third, if hardly the second, I like to think apply in my case - this is where I'll leave matters tonight, before elaborating upon this another day. Leaving till then that aforementioned bullet-point list of positives and negatives for one and all to peruse, chew over, digest and hopefully assimilate. Though it's much more commonplace, I'll readily grant, to cite all the details first, then summarize into generalities, I've - if quite unintentionally - done otherwise this time around. And perhaps that's not altogether a bad thing, as it's sometimes all too easy to get lost in the detail and lose sight of the bigger picture. And ultimately that 'bigger picture' is what we tend to take away and retain.

*Bar 'The Battle of the Five Armies' 's beginning anyhow, and pretty well the entire first film: a splendid adaptation in my book, anyhow - whatever the multitude of (I believe largely politically-motivated, as in anti-the special N.Z. Government deal effected in late 2010 or 2011) critics of the day declared.

**Sadly, quite unlike the last three weeks since, and that despite my very best efforts. So my decision to go when I did - in retrospect, as in prospect at the time - was one of my better ones.