Thoughts on the final Hobbit: Battle of the Five Armies

Although I'll gladly agree that there are bits probably in the EE of this one that should have been in the theatrical cut, anybody who likes these movies and doesn't watch the extended cut is only screwing themselves.

Yeah there were people at the showing I was in muffling giggles when

Spoiler

THORIN

WAS DYING so yeah, a bunch of stoners laughing at everything does not a bad film make.

 

Umm, trust me the people that were laughing at the film were not "stoners". At least I'm not. They seemed like people who were as bemused as I was that a once talented filmmaker had descended into the realm of the utterly ridiculous. YMMV.

 

Nobody was laughing at that scene at the packed theater where I attended the show. A few clapped at the end of the movie though.

Not sure how a few over the top action scenes impact on a great director's legacy - but a lot of viewers found these scenes fun to watch.

 

Jackson has always been known for over the top action scenes. Go check out Bad Taste, Meet the Feebles, or Braindead. I think the main difference now is that he has an unlimited budget and digital technology. In Meet the Feebles, the action scenes go on and on, but he was limited by what he could do with puppets and buckets of gore.

 

The difference is that those movies were tongue-in-cheek. The Hobbit films seem very serious about being over the top, as if Jackson has lost any sense of humor about what he does while simultaneously lacking the depth to be truly serious.

 

I think Peter Jackson has maintained a sense of humor regarding some of these over the top sequences -and they are often enjoyable to watch.

 

But his "mid" period (Forgotten Silver,the Frighteners, and The Fellowship of the Ring) showed how he knew how to mix, match and use different effects sparring and to great effect. Now he's just lazy CG bull crap. Completely the opposite of supposed "immersion" he's always going on about.

 

In this film he stole them all from videogames. Most notably God of War.

 

Yeah, and oddly enough, I thought Fellowship was the best of the three LOTR movies.

 

I think his best film was Forgotten Silver.

We should have known what we were in for when The Frighteners came out as a Special Edition laserdisc with over four hours of extras for a film that wasn't all that special.

 

We saw it today, I enjoyed the opening sequence with Smaug but after that it just dragged for me. I did however enjoy Dain. The best part of the afternoon was seeing the Star Wars trailer on the big screen. I'll give the film a 6/10.

 

I saw it today, and I'm going against the grain and say it was quite good. I enjoyed it very much. It is fairly masterfully directed as far as the choreography of battle scenes and fighting. I think Jackson now knows how to choreograph a battle better than anyone has ever done before on film. Most fighting in battle scenes is done quick flashes that pass by in blur. I was very impressed today watching one round of hand to hand where there were about six people fighting at once, yet everything was so cleanly staged you could see everyone's movement and it worked like ballet. I guess the hyper clarity of HFR helps, too. But it took a master's hand to stage some of these battles as smartly. Yes, it was a very long battle, but what an epic battle. I don't think anyone's ever been so bold as to stage a a tw0-hour action sequence and hold it together so well. I didn't feel the need for any more characterization or plotting in this film, I mean, that's all been established, and this is simply the finale of a very long trilogy and, proportionately, I think it works. I enjoyed myself very much and salute Jackson's skill as a director rather than accuse him of excess. I was just musing the other day how so many films are a let down because HOW DO YOU KILL SOMEONE BIG ENOUGH? I think that's the downfall of many action films. We wait 2 hours for the climax (i.e. the villain being dispatched) and, after the hero has inevitably killed a slew of henchmen before we get to the chief baddie, the piling up of bodies becomes rote and the "climax" never seems enough. Again, how do you kill someone big enough? I think the Bond films realized this, which is why we had some crazy dramatic deaths (Goldfinger sucked out of an airplane, Yaphet Kotto blown up like a ballon). A lot of directors miss out on this point and their actioners end with a bang and a yawn. Jackson managed to drag out the climax to perfect excess. The deaths were over-the-top perfect and satisfying (and not as silly as the Bond film, sometimes). I honestly think (and this was the best of the Hobbit films) he's right on the money with this film: the grandest and biggest battle he's staged yet. (although I think the battle in "Return of the King" still was more satisfying as it worked better within the story.)

 

Just wait for the Silmarillion quadrilogy...

 

My favourite stories and battles are in that book.

 

I saw this over the weekend and thought it was the best of the 3 hobbit films.

 

It's a low bar, but I agree with you.

 

Best of all the Hobbit and Lord of the Rings movies

 

Wow that's, er, ah, um, an interesting opinion.

 

I know - a bit radical. But for some reason, this last Hobbit film seemed to provide the most complete experience for me. I saw it at the IMAX theatre in Brisbane just after Christmas Day and I was surprised at my own reaction. Not too much of the endless clashes of CGI armies (despite the title), the Goblins were great, the Dwarves sucked me in, but most of all, there seemed to be more character development than we normally get with LoR movies. The series ended on a high note for me - and I was surprised and pleased. I felt that my money was well spent. A good movie.

In stark contrast, two days later I saw The Imitation Game (the movie about Alan Turing) and that was a truly great movie.

 

You can take the boy out of Brisbane, but ......
Yeah, The Imitation Game was a fine flick ....... not knowing a great deal about Alan Turing, I was inspired and saddened in equal measures.
The labyrinth that is the human mind.

 

Indeed - I am glad you enjoyed it and I had the same reaction as you.

 

So far, I've seen forty 2014 films. This was easily the worst of them.

Peter Jackson, what have you done?

Shalom, y'all!

L. Bangs

 

List the other 39 - I'll point out which ones are worse!