Topic: The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies (2014)

[SCB]

I was dreading this based on what people have said, actually ready to hate it, but it was a really good Christmas matinee and a nice send off to this prequel trilogy.

Plot is pretty simple, but the journey is not. The movie is basically about the aftermath of Smaug's destruction. Towns and villages are destroyed and all the gold Smaug was guarding is not really up for grabs, but some is owed to the town's people who protected Thorin, Bilbo, and the dwarves. The elves also have claim to certain treasures in there. And Thorin is consumed with greed and wants all of it to himself. The elves lead by Legolas's father and the town's people lead by Bard are reluctantly ready to wage war against Thorin, unless he gives them their share of the gold.

So that's the setup of the movie and essentially the battle of the five armies. Now I'm not sure there were five armies in the film, I counted four and some bat people in the background who help the orcs.

It's non-stop action once the war begins and we get a really entertaining Battle of Helms Deep type war film and some setup for the Lord Of The Ring villains on the side wrapped up really neatly and briefly.

I thought this was really good. Not going to call this great, but it delivers on attempting to make a short story into another LOTR when stretched out in the final moments.

Hated Thorin as the main character in the first two films because I found him very unlikable and often times one note, but here I finally found him complex and redeemable.

The battles really deliver here as well, which is the strength of the film since there are quite a few.

Most of the things did feel very CGI, like I knew I was watching CGI instead of real armies or orcs. I wonder if I rewatch the original trilogy I'd notice that too or if he used more practical effects in early 2000.

I'd rank this and the second one the best and tied while the first one would be the weakest of the three.

Overall this finished strong, but it's no LOTR. If the first trilogy was Star Wars, this trilogy isn't bad like the second Star Wars trilogy. Wish they had made The Hobbit as a fourth film immediately following Return of The King a decade ago when Jackson's inspirational juices were fresh and splitting one film into 2-3 parts weren't a thing yet.

I'll always be curious of two things.

1. What would this film be like if it was one three hour film?

2. How would this have looked and felt like under Del Toro?

[Jef Leopard]

Had to take my mom and my girlfriend to this.  Was dreading it based off the last two.  Wasn't all that bad, really.  I fell asleep for awhile early on, and not really sure what I missed, but I don't think it was much.

I still hate Legolas and Kate from Lost, but they weren't nearly the focal point the were in part 2.  Martin freeman is great and the guy who plays Thorin really did a good job here.

[SCB]

I won't be getting any extended editions they make of this unless they make a reverse extended edition where they edit this down to one film

[SCB]

After sleeping on it, I got a few nitpicks I wish they had handled better.

The Arkenstone was built up like Sauron's ring for this trilogy, but ended up being an after thought of an object, more of a plot device or literal bargaining chip that wasn't ever a factor.

The love story and Tauriel ended up nowhere considering the amount of time they spent building her and the sexy dwarf up. Again, it needed a better send off considering the amount of built up the film spent.

Beorn makes a cameo. I say cameo because if you haven't watched the first Hobbit film recently, you might not even pick up who he was in the battle. He should have gotten a mini highlight reel of destruction.

No need to shoe horn Aragorn like that. I know they're trying to bridge the gap between this and Fellowship, but that felt forced. The stuff with Bilbo was just enough and the Galadriel scene earlier.

[Jef Leopard]

No need to shoe horn Aragorn like that. I know they're trying to bridge the gap between this and Fellowship, but that felt forced.

Agreed, that was terrible.  Even worse than the dwarf who had a picture of Gimley in part 1 or 2 (cant remember which).

[SCB]

www.youtube.com/watch?v=r4xxym2tyEM

[RealMarchHare]

Wow can't believe I never posted my thoughts on this.  I watched it opening night. I'll need to watch it again.  Your response though is kind of what I expect for this film.  It was more of a fanservice film for fans of the books than an actual movie after all XD

[DocSavage]

*Bump*.

I only watched it last night.  Agree with most of the complaints, but I'm bumping it mainly to ask:

Are we done now?  Because there's a LOT of lore behind this thing, and if they wanted to milk it further we could get, say, Tales of the First Age:  The Rise of Sauron.  Or maybe Lord of the Rings:  Coming of the Five Wizards.

Things from the Silmarillion, background info, ect.. 

[SupTool]

From my understanding, the Tolkien family have the rights to the Simarillion and don't intend to give Warner the rights to that one.

[RealMarchHare]

God they better not attempt anything from The Silmarillion.  That book is a mess and not one straight story.  It would just be a movie of short films.  Possibly even told out of chronological order like the book.

[SCB]

I think they're done milking this. I can see them doing a reboot in a few decades when our generation is irrelevant, but it's not like Star Wars where you can write a new story every year.