The Hobbit: Battle of the Five Armies Los Angeles Premiere

Los Angeles, Calif—December 9^th 2014—The Dolby Theater Presents: The Hobbit: Battle of the Five Armies.

The time has come. The beginning of the end. We at SoCal Sherlockians had went through this heartbreak once before when The Lord of the Rings had come to an end. We thought we were ready for the heartbreak of war and the triumph of battle going into this event. But we were not. And like a Taylor Swift song we had yet to learn our lesson about love. The love of a trilogy. With a backpack full of tissues, and our hearts heavy in the promotional #OneLastTime we went down to cover the premiere festivities that was The Hobbit Battle of the Five Armies.

Just the day before Peter Jackson had his brilliance commemorated on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. Why it took so long, we have no idea!

Our group leader  bully, Smaug spotted Peter Jackson's freshly made star.

We went down the Walk of Fame and ran into another Lord of the Rings crew member.

Smaug probably wants to eat Legolas for Breakfast. 

 And making a surprise appearance was the Basil Rathbone star on the Walk of Fame which he got for his amazing work on Television, and most famously for playing Sherlock (Benedict Cumberbatch came much later).

Smaug and the case of the Sherlock Star. 

We saw some die-hard fans that were camped out the night before the premiere and they made some pretty cool signs.

These girls traveled here (and back again) from Los Angeles to Utah and Oklahoma, respectively, and had been camped for more than 24 hours! 

Here is the SoCal Sherlockians representing the Fandom since 11pm the previous night.

You would think that the end of the last Hobbit film would being about apocalyptic sized traffic and chaos, but it actually wasn't that bad. The working crew came in at about 10am and didn't finish set up until about thirty minutes before press and talent arrived.

During the wait, which wasn't so bad in front of the Dolby and Disney Ghirardelli Soda Shop, we had plenty of games to pass the time (ie; LOTR/Hobbit trivia quiz), and just general reminiscing of the past and present movies. We prepped our signs and got our things to autograph ready to go as into the night we went and the magic really started to begin.

The Black Carpet awaits all who come forth

"Will you follow me, one last time?" - Thorin

The Live Stream TV was set and ready to go

The Hobbit: Battle of the Five Armies premiere had started 

We were whisked across the busy Highland/Sunset strip and blocked by barricades and well, street traffic. That's right! Street Traffic. I guess Warner Brother's decided that only half of the street being blocked off was safe for their talent to come careening across deadlock traffic to sign autographs. Shame on you, Warner Brothers! But God bless all the actors who did fight their way as they got dropped off to come sign for those who had waited hours to see their fandom come to a cinematic end.

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Lee Pace/Thranduil was absolutely stunning and very kind to come and sign autographs for the fans.

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Dashing Lee Pace can do no wrong here.

Graham McTavish/Dwalin was exceptionally Scottish in his dapper kilt outfit. And he was the first star on the scene.

 

Peter Jackson was more than happy to dash across traffic to come sign everyone's items for quite some time. 

 There ain't no party like a Hobbit Battle of Five Armies party until Billy Boyd shows up!

 Evangeline Lilly showed up with a new hair-do and lovely 1920 style dress as she arrived to the event.

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It seemed like a good old fashioned Boys Night Out for Bloom, Boyd, Serkis and Wood. Certainly all smiles at this final premiere.

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Lee Pace and Evangeline Lilly are certainly having a good time! Don't worry Lee Pace fans, Evangeline is already spoken for.

After the stars showed up the event controllers had handed out 1,000 wristbands to those in line to for the early screening to see The Hobbit: Battle of the Five Armies. And we were all lucky to get inside the theater to watch this magnificent film a week before it is due in theaters nationwide.

As someone who lives in Los Angeles, it's almost horribly cliche to say that this was a star studded evening. But it truly was. And it's certainly one of those that we will remember for the rest of our lives. It's been a long journey following this sextuplet-ology (six movie series, if we count LOTR), we would like to thank Peter Jackson for being brave and ballsy enough (seriously, each movie is 3hrs long!) to bring this rich and complex history of JRR Tolkien's world to life. We loved every single heart-wrenching, song-singing, and gut busting moment that took 13 years and over 60 million hours of DVD footage in the making. This is one last time that we will remember. And much like Bilbo says at the end of his journey (and soon the beginning of Frodo's): "One day I'll remember. Remember everything that happened: the good, the bad, those who survived... and those that did not." 

SoCal Sherlockian Cheryl Yuki Duong got her copy of the Hobbit signed by all the actors