Trailer Reviews: The Hobbit III

"Will you follow me, one last time?" That's the question Thorin Oakenshield poses to his company at the end of the trailer to Peter Jackson's finale to his Hobbit trilogy, dubbed The Battle of the Five Armies (due out December 17th). Although the question is posed to his accompaniment after everything they've undergone, via the evens of An Unexpected Journey in 2012, and last years The Desolation of Smaug, I can't help but feel said Q has two meanings to it. The second almost feels like the New Zealand-bred director is asking us, the audience, if we will stick with him, at the end of his prequel trilogy, and the end of this Middle Earth saga.

It's a fair question to ask. Both installments - An Unexpected Journey and Desolation haven't received the same critical acclaim as The Lord of the Rings trilogy did during its 2001-03 run, as the first two have received a 64% and 74% rating on Rotten Tomatoes for both parts I and II respectively. In my opinion, both are still fun, exciting pieces of popcorn/fantasy entertainment, but both sorely miss the weight and the gravitas that Jackson's original fantasy epic held. Does watching Merry and Pippin galvanize the Ents into going to war against Isengard in Two Towers, or seeing King Thoeden lead his Rohirrim into battle on the fields of Minas Tirith in Return of the King hold the same weight of watching Thorin square off against the Pale Orc, in Journey or the water barrel fight scene in Desolation? Not even on the same wavelength. From the looks of this last installment, it promises to be less adventurous and more perilous than its two predecessors, and Merry's song inter-cutting with the second attempt to take Osgiligh in Return is used to haunting effect here, as we see Men, Elves, Dwarves and Orcs preparing for war.

To answer the posed question: yes.Yes I will. One last time.

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