The Defining Chapter Approaches
Wait, what?
Did you see it?
I mean, have you seen the Offical Trailer for The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies?
No? Then watch it below and continue reading …
Welcome back!
Blown away? Join the club! 😀
That was rather mind-blowing, wasn’t it?
The tone of the whole film is set up beautifully in this trailer: the gloominess, the despair, the threat of war.
The attack on Lake-town (the little we’ve glimpsed) looks utterly gorgeous; not that I have anything against the good people of Lake-town, but I can’t get over Bard’s expression of desperation surrounded by fire.
And that’s the thing that really made this trailer stand out: the emotional resonance and the characters’ stories.
Kili defying his uncle; Thorin’s descent into madness; Bilbo’s struggle to avoid war …
“Bilbo is right. You cannot see what you have become”, says an emotional Dwalin to his loyal leader. I’m getting a lump in my throat every time I see that.
Having seen Dwalin’s fierce sense of loyalty towards Thorin in the first two films, it really hits hard when you finally see him recognize the devastation this Quest has brought with it.
One of the highlights of this trailer (and there are many), is Galadriel and Gandalf surrounded in Dol Guldur by what look like the spectral forms of the Ringwraiths. Then, Elrond steps in a draws his sword – brilliant.
Those chills! The chills! 
But what of the Battle of Five Armies itself? It looks more like an all-out war on an astronomical scale: goblins, trolls carrying catapults, precision-skilled elves, orcs and more orcs … (the list goes on).
The battle seems to be a mixture between a siege, an open battle and some serious political tension – all within the vast landscape encompassed within the desolation of Smaug: perfect.
Oh! and the cherry on the cake: Christopher Lee as Saruman! “Leave Sauron to me!” … the feels I get are beyond this world.
P.S. Did we also just see a glimpse of Mount Gundabad too? 😉
I’m sorry, but I have to stop now … have to watch the trailer again (and again).
Now that you’ve seen (quite probably) the last Middle-earth trailer for a long while, what do you think?
Fire away! 😀
(Copyright of trailer screencaps belongs to Warner Bros. and MGM Studios)
A Tolkienist's Perspective 
Saruman!!! I have been waiting for this scene for years!
‘Some here will remember that many years ago I myself dared to pass the doors of the Necromancer in Dol Guldur, and secretly explored his ways, and found thus that our fears were true: he was none other than Sauron, our Enemy of old, at length taking shape and power again. Some, too, will remember also that Saruman dissuaded us from open deeds against him, and for long we watched him only. Yet at last, as his shadow grew, Saruman yielded, and the Council put forth its strength and drove the evil out of Mirkwood – and that was in the very year of the finding of this Ring: a strange chance, if chance it was.
From The Fellowship of the Ring, Book II, Chapter 2: The Council of Elrond.
Well, actually I was looking for this quote from Gandalf but couldn’t find it:
[…] It was by the devices of Saruman that we drove him from Dol Guldur. It might be that he had found some weapons that would drive back the Nine.
Still no Dain, but an amazing trailer!
If they are hiding Dain still. Then I hope he will steal the show!
1:26 shows Dwarves manning ballistae!
For people who know me, they know my immense dislike for the character of Tauriel (despite the fact that her Starlight speech in DOS is my favorite of these movies), and I do hope she dies in this movie (not for personal reasons, but for character development for Legolas), and I believe she will, by Bolg’s hand. But what tore at my heartstrings, was the image of Thranduil fighting her…did you see that?? I mean she’s been his captain for hundreds of years, a loyal warrior, and a friend to his son, but he is attacking her in that scene, my guess is because she got in his way of the treasure he seeks. Thranduil and Thorin are more alike than they’d like to admit and it really shows in this trailer and I LOVE IT!!! And yes, I have watched this trailer already way more than I should admit. Here’s to the End! (and a TON of tissues to be used in the theatre December 17)
Reblogged this on Confessions of a Geek Queen.
I cannot wait. I got really emotional just watching the trailer. It looks amazing.
Amazing trailer! This movie looks likes the ultimate movie trilogy ending, minimal set up and massive payoff.
Reblogged this on Write of Passage and commented:
I just had a nerdgasm
Oh man, this was good. It is going to be so sad to see Thorin’s descent into madness.
Thorin Oakenshield. Sigh.
AAAAAAAAHHHHHHH! GIVE IT TO US, PRECIOUS!!!
Did you see that moment when Tauriel is sitting on the ground with tears in her eyes? **Spoilers!**She’s holding a dead Kili in her lap! I know it!**Spoilers!** Search out with your feelings: you know it to be true! Mwahaha, I can’t wait! It’s funny because he gets dead. 🙂 Mwahaha! She’s totally gonna die too – I just know it!
I can’t wait. 🙂
It has encompassed almost all the elements Middle-Earth is known for! I just can’t wait to see the final film.