In Theater: ****Tolkien (2019)

Tolkien:  I thoroughly enjoyed this movie.  It presents the life of Tolkien, particularly with regards to the war and his love.  The love story is really great, as Tolkien met his love before the war.  He was an orphan, and the Father who had been given guardianship over him discouraged the relationship, and in fact sent the woman away; but love wins out.  The wars scenes were very well done, and explain some of the visualization used in the Hobbit and Lord of the Ring trilogy.  I think this movie deserves more audience than it is getting.  Lily Collins and Nicholas Hoult portray the love couple.  Colm Meaney portrays the Father.

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

The Five Armies

This is my least favorite of the six Middle Earth Movies “The Hobbit” and “Fellowship of the Ring”.  The material in this movie, for the most part is not part of the Hobbit, and are not part of the Trilogy as written by J.R.R. Tolkien.  As a result it just seems to get lost with no real purpose.  I guess the director is trying to fill in some holes, but the movie could have been an hour shorter and not have lost anything.  It was like when a five minute fight scene would suffice, why don’t we make it a half hour just because.  As a result the film lost me and I was just hoping for it to end.  Even in ending, it took forever.  Ian McKellan plays Gandalf, Martin Freeman, Bilbo Baggins.  Orlando Bloom portrays Legolas. Richard Armitage as Thorin the King of the dwarves under the mountain.

Movie Review: ****The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug

I thoroughly enjoyed this movie.  It is much better than the first.  The relationships are more dynamic, there is much more drama, and Smaug is a scene stealer.  The special effects people did a great job bringing him to life.  This movie, like the first Hobbit, has a confrontation between Bilbo and a foe towards the end.  The first movie was with Gollum, and I had difficulty understanding anything he said.  This movie the confrontation was with Smaug, and I could understand the dragon very well.  Watching Bilbo struggle to manipulate in the pile of treasure because it was so deep, was humorous in a way.  It was like an avalanche of money and jewels.  This movie brings the orcs into the story.  They have been breeding across the lake under to watchful eye of Sauran.  However the area has been hidden through magical powers.  Gandolf breaks the hiding spell, but in the process gets himself caught.  Bilbo, and the dwarves wake the dragon under the mountain.  They make a good battle against him, but the movie ends with the dragon getting away, and on his way to seek revenge of the human inhabitants on the lake, who he assumes helped the dwarves invade his lair.  This is very entertaining.
Some of the important cast:
Ian McKellen Gandalf, wizard
Martin Freeman Bilbo, Hobbit
Richard Armitige Thorin, King of the dwarves
Orlando Bloom, Legolas, elf
Evengeline Lilly, Tauriel, elf who befriends a dwarf

Movie Review: ****The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey

This movie is the prequel to Lord of the Rings.  It has a couple of the old characters from Lord of the Rings including Ian McKellen and Gandalf and Cate Blanchett as the elf Galadriel.  It also has Bilbo Baggins, but a younger version played by Martin Freeman.  Some how the hobbit, Bilbo Baggins, becomes part of a group of Gandalf and twelve dwarves intent on recapturing their native town, which has been inhabited by a dragon for the past 200 years, along with the riches of the dwarves. 
Baggins in brought along by Gandalf as the burgler of the group, to get into tight spots, even though he has no experience as such.  This movie does not include confrontation with the dragon, as it is split into two parts.  It does have classic scenes of the trolls, as well as terrible fights between our party and the goblins.  The trolls capture our group of travelers, except for Gandalf, by threatening to kill Bilbo.  They are in the process of cooking a few of the trolls by slow roasting, when they are encouraged to argue by Baggins about which dwarf would be the best tasting and which spices to use.  Then suddenly, Gandalf moves a rock out of the way of the sun, the sun shines on the Trolls, turning them to stone.  There is a battle between stone men along their route which makes it very treacherous, then they are assaulted by trolls on wolves, and take refuge in an elf kingdom.
They leave and travel through a mountain, confronting the trolls again, while Bilbo is separated and has his famous confrontation with Gollum, which is a confrontation which changes the life of our Hobbit friend.
My major complaint is that with the riddle confrontation between Gollum and Bilbo, it is hard to understand the questions posed by Gollum with his accent.  It was hard enough with this section reading the questions as presented by J.R.R. Tolkien, and this just makes it even harder.