Thoughts on the final Hobbit: Battle of the Five Armies

Discussion in 'Visual Arts' started by AVTechMan, Dec 17, 2014.

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  1. Yovra

    Yovra Collector of Beatles Threads

    I really liked the low pace of the first Hobbit-movie. And twenty minutes in the "Desolation" the crew seemed to stir awake and decided to make an action-movie. Elements of Die Hard and Mission Impossible with some gravity defying stuff thrown in. I agree with the Hobbit-movies not being movies you'd want to see more than twice (in the cinema and one time with the extended version... I found myself entertained more with the extra's, some nice characters in the cast!)
     
    benjaminhuf likes this.
  2. cwsiggy

    cwsiggy Forum Resident

    Location:
    Vero Beach, FL
    Saw it today. It was.... ok. By the end I just didn't care. I suppose I'll buy the extended Blu Ray's at some point but LOTR was so much better.
     
    Aggie87 likes this.
  3. Olompali

    Olompali Forum Resident

  4. Vidiot

    Vidiot Now in 4K HDR!

    Location:
    Hollywood, USA
    I just said the same thing to a friend of mine: "I'm not sure I really need to see this film, but I saw the previous five so I kind of feel honor-bound to finish the whole thing." It's amazing how many bad reviews it's getting. Check out this one from Wired, which is a bunch of geeks that you'd assume would love it:

    http://www.wired.com/2014/12/the-hobbit-made-for-dvd/
     
    DreadPikathulhu likes this.
  5. zakyfarms

    zakyfarms White cane lying in a gutter in the lane.

    Location:
    San Francisco
    I went into it feeling kinda "meh" about it, after not really loving the first two, but ended up enjoying it a lot.
    Much better than the first two. Martin Freeman carries the picture, and the lack of any semingly-made-for-video-game scenes such at the barrel ride from Smaug, really helped as well.
     
  6. Vidiot

    Vidiot Now in 4K HDR!

    Location:
    Hollywood, USA
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  7. Jvalvano

    Jvalvano Senior Member

    Location:
    NH
    Went to see it today. The release dates of the Hobbit movies have been right around my oldest daughters birthday so they have been special because of that. The memories my kids will have of seeing these movies as a family will be special to them and they really liked this movie. For that I give Mr. Jackson a pass. I am a big fan of LOTR and the Hobbit movies. But honestly from the beginning 3 movies was a money grab plane and simple. Others have covered the short comings of this movie and I can't disagree with any of them. My comment to anyone on the fence about seeing this. If you don't go see this and wait for the DVD or to stream it you're not really missing anything. I love the Tolkien novels and I love some aspects of Peter Jackson's middle earth but I'd be hard pressed to ever have a desire to see this movie again. Other than enjoying being in the realm of middle earth for 2hrs I thought it was a big yawn. :shrug:
     
  8. The Hud

    The Hud Breath of the Kingdom, Tears of the Wild

    That never bothered me, movies are made to make money. Sequels are made to make more money, etc.
     
  9. BeatleJWOL

    BeatleJWOL Senior Member

    I know, right? If he puts out an extended edition of THIS one too, that'd just be insane!

    :p
     
  10. tommy-thewho

    tommy-thewho Senior Member

    Location:
    detroit, mi
    It was decent film.

    Last battle was beyond believable.

    Legolas should get his own movie. Lot of time period to fill in.
     
  11. Solaris

    Solaris a bullet in flight

    Location:
    New Orleans, LA
    That's a pretty accurate summary of how I feel about the trilogy, and especially this film. There's a lot of action in this movie, but I can't say I found much of it is exciting. My gut feeling continues to be that the whole thing has just been too ponderous and self-congratulatory. I keep joking that the 3.5 hour fan edit of this trilogy will be far more enjoyable, but the spark of this story has been buried, irrevocably I fear, beneath a mountain of soulless action -- armies of digital creatures fighting other armies of digital creatures -- and a lot of cartoonish characterization. The art of concise visual storytelling is hardly present in any of these movies. I'm starting to wonder if we're nearing the end of the Star Wars effect, which set all this in motion. Hollywood needs a paradigm shift.
     
  12. Luke The Drifter

    Luke The Drifter Forum Resident

    Location:
    United States
    I saw it on Friday. I have the same thoughts as most, especially fans of the book. They ruined it for the cause of money. They knew it should be 1 long film, or two normal length films, but for the sake of money, they made it into 3. I enjoyed all three, but just felt they could have reached the level of the three LOTR films, and instead put in a bunch of filler to make more money.

    The original story was good enough on its own. I hope a fan editor nails it.
     
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  13. Jvalvano

    Jvalvano Senior Member

    Location:
    NH
  14. marblesmike likes this.
  15. You don't because there's no resolution. In fact many of the "main characters" aren't even in the final battle (even though they've been groomed all along to participate. And relegated this stuff to extended editions is no excuse. The THEATRICAL releases need to be fully realized.)

    Such awful "storytelling." Avoid. (unless you love copious amounts of Orange and Teal. Cuz that's all there is.)
     
    Last edited: Dec 22, 2014
    marblesmike likes this.
  16. You kidding? If any of the films needs an extended cut it's this one:

    More Beorn.
    What happened to Tauriel? The arkenstone? Radaghast? Dain? Did Laketown get their money? Where were all the "other" dwarves during the battle (didn't see them once.) How exactly did the battle end? Funerals? No send off for the hot dwarves (who didn't even die together. :rolleyes:)

    If they'd cut some Legolas/Tauriel time we could've gotten more screen time with, ya know the characters that were ACTUALLY IN THE BOOK.

    I hated this movie. It's should've been called 'The Battle of 5 Armies: truncated edition."
    :rant:
     
    The Hud likes this.
  17. BeatleJWOL

    BeatleJWOL Senior Member

    Yes. Did you read the article Vidiot posted? I'm sure plenty of the criticisms are valid inside but that tagline is a whopper.

    "Somebody stop Peter Jackson"? From WHAT, exactly?
     
  18. From making any more films, especially of someone else's material.

    EDIT: yes, I read both of Vidiot's links.
     
  19. BeatleJWOL

    BeatleJWOL Senior Member

    #onelasttimebeforetheextendedcut
     
  20. I just want to try and repost this as an image rather than a link for everyone to see the "attention to detail" that Jackson gave these films:
    [​IMG]
     
  21. marblesmike

    marblesmike Forum Resident

    Location:
    Pennsylvania

    Unreal. For a CGI-fest they really didn't have much attention to detail.
     
    JimC likes this.
  22. Perhaps this is a battalion of all twins.
     
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  23. sgtmono

    sgtmono Seasoned Member

    God, that's terrible! Even without the copy/paste job, the whole thing looks cheap and ugly. So disappointing.

    I think it's official: The Hobbit films are to the LOTR films what the Star Wars prequels are to the original Star Wars trilogy.
     
    JimC, mpayan, mrjinks and 1 other person like this.
  24. HiredGoon

    HiredGoon Forum Resident

    So I saw Battle Of The Five Armies yesterday ... at least I can say that it's not as meandering as the previous two films.

    The movie picks up exactly where Smaug left off: the titular dragon is heading to Laketown/Dresden, and it's up to Bard to dispatch him. This is the prologue, and feels kinda perfunctory, like "Oh yeah, remember that bad guy from the previous movie? He dies."

    After that, Thorin flips the setting from "sane" to "mad"; there's a bit of squabbling over treasure; Peter Jackson gets the LOTR band back together in a laughable sequence wherein Sauron, the other bad guy from Smaug, is dispatched perfunctorily; the digital FX crew decide to do a piss-poor job with Billy Connelly and that all soldier elves are clones of Bobba Fett; the Orcs turn up with left-overs from Dune (one actor breaks character and shouts out "Oh, come on!", mirroring the audience's feelings); and then there's a Big Battle That In No Way Is A Rehash Of That Other Big Battle From Return Of The King. There's even cameo appearances from Radagast The Ham and Bjorn The Lovable Big Brown Bear.

    For all its faults, there's an exciting movie in Five Armies, but overall the three Hobbit movies have been an exercise in tedium. Even the marketing suggests this; the tag line for this movie is "One Last Time", like a parent trying to convince their child to go to the dentist. Hopefully there's a two movie fan edit forthcoming.

    --Geoff
     
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  25. Colin M

    Colin M Forum Resident

    In a perfect world he would have been Frodo not wasted as Bilbo.
     
    Erik Tracy likes this.
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