Thoughts on the final Hobbit: Battle of the Five Armies

No. This USED to be true. All the info the film needed was contained in the theatrical versions. The extended cuts had more in-jokes/character beats/ slower pacing for fans of the books, but nothing mandatory in terms of narrative. With the last Hobbit film it's the complete opposite. He completely chopped out the resolution for: The Arkenstone, Thranduil's jewels, the surviving dwarves, Bard, the folks of Laketown, Dain, Beorn, the dead dwarves, Radaghast, Tauriel, Thranduil, and, um,...the resolution of that gigantic battle which was the namesake of the friggin' movie to sucker folks into buying the extended edition in order to find out what happens. He has NEVER done anything like this before. He's a changed man. The Oscar sickness got him.

 

Apparently Jackson thought an actual ending was just this for this film. See my post above. I encourage you to see the theatrical version of Hobbit 3. You won't believe the audacity of his decision making. Seriously. It's literally a film with no ending (except for Bilbo). They're fighting a huge battle, and then, suddenly, they just aren't anymore. Craziest **** I've seen in a film since the last X-men brought back a dead (nay, obliterated) Professor X without so much as a throw away line of dialog to explain. Dark times for screenplays.

EDIT: I read your post wrong. You have seen the film. My bad. However my criticism is valid so I'm leaving the post up.

 

The structure of the film was odd: battle after battle after battle, then they quickly win and Bilbo goes home. I did like the flash-forward to Old Bilbo, which I thought worked well. I've said for a long time somebody needs to sit down and cut together a single 2.5-hour Hobbit movie that makes sense and moves along quickly. Lotta folderol in these films.

 

Change the name of the film to Boring Battles of Flatulent Actors and maybe it would have been more truthful.

Took my family to see it as my teenage daughter was really into it... I couldnt wait for it to be over.

How many pages in the book, did the battle actually take up? 3? 5? I remember it was pretty short...

 

Oh. and Alfrid.

 

Watched this one and liked it for what it is I guess. I just kind of tossed my recollections of the book aside and let it fly. Thought the best parts were the tieing together of the Hobbit to the LOTRs. At least it gave it some sense of continuation and finality. The dwarf battle cousin (cant think of his name) was the most annoying character to me. His scottish brogue cliches and "Aye laddy/the buggers" accent got on my nerves for some reason. Who hugs in the midst of a bloodbath?

I actually all in all enjoyed this movie more than I thought I would. Id give the trilogy a C+, maybe a B- on second look. It certainly could have been worse and Ill take it rather than no Hobbit movie. You just have to toss preconcieved notions based on the book aside. Only way to go.

 

Is there any estimate when the extended edition of this will be out?

 

Given that the first two EEs came out first Tuesday in November, I'd put my money on November 3!

 

Maybe they were all in Purgatory like in Lost and that's why Evangeline Lily was in it. It's her dream world.

 

I wonder if there's a chance it will be sooner this time since there's not another film to build hype for in November.

 

I'm wondering if there will then be a mega super duper deluxe not really limited nicely packaged but not crazy priced Blu Ray box set of Hobbit / LOTR? 19+ hour long flick. I'm would be in as I don't own any on Blu-Ray even thought the first trilogy is just so so...

 

Possible - but then again, the EE for "Return of the King" came out LATER than the EEs for "Fellowship" and "Towers", so that didn't happen with that set.

A later release actually makes sense since those involved don't need to rush the product to be out to promote the next theatrical release...

 

I think Jackson' has hinted at this - not sure if he really plans to do it, though...

 

I'm hoping for a shortened version of all three movies.

 

Scottish accents dinnae annoy me, but 100% CGI Billy Connellys do.

(and his character was called Dain)

--Geoff

 

LMAO I know it was Billy but every time he spoke all I could hear was Fat Bastard.

 

There will be a lot of fan edits when the last EE is out.

 

For the first time in my life I'm actually hoping for a full blown remake. A fan edit won't help me because IMO the movie is just so ugly to look at and the music is lame.

 

Mark my words, the next milking of the franchise will be a 3D re-release of the LOTR trilogy.

 

I actually like some of the superfluous bits that weren't in the book, but were either in the LOTR trilogy or the lore was implied. For example in the second movie when Gandalf meets Thrain at Dol Goldur, though it seems Peter Jackson's time line of the event was different.

 

...with new Orange and Teal color timing...

 

I wish the LOTR trilogy would reshow at theatres. Id certainly go.

 

All in one sitting? That's a lotta Tolkien!

 

Done it...extended! At home, of course; have to have bathroom breaks.

Including an ordering dinner break between TTT and ROTK, it took basically 11 hours.

 

I've done it in theaters. Extended. Lincoln Center in NYC. Was fun.