The Hobbit: Battle of the Five Armies Grade/Discuss (Spoilers)

[JarodRussell]

Three things that came to my mind when watching the film.

A lot of bits felt like they were cut (I don't know anything about what's going to be in the Extended Edition, the editing and pace just felt this way).

There are many many many great scenes throughout.

There are many many many absolutely stupid scenes in between. All of Legolas, all of Alfred, some very stupid Orc stuff (like that Troll that rams through the wall and drops unconscious).

Overall, the battle never felt as epic as the battle in Two Towers or Return of the King. It did begin very well, with Dain Ironfoot appearing, and the Orc army arriving. I loved that bit of seeing the different battle tactics. But then it became kinda lame, compared to TTT or ROTK.



And a thing I noticed for all of the Hobbit movies:

There is too much. For example, the final fight against Azog had TWO endings. I liked the bit when he throws the rock at him, steps of the ice plate and he just sinks. I also liked the bit when he let himself get stabbed to be able to kill Azog. Choose ONE of those, not two.

The fight against Bolg was just as drawn out. Three people fought against him. Just let Bolg kill Kili and then let Tauriel kill Bolg in one instance of pure Elven rage. Done.

In Desolation, it was the Barrel sequence and the fight against Smaug. The entire bit of building the gold statue was uneccessary.

In Unexpected Journey, it was the escape from Goblin Town. I feel that, 10 years ago, either the bit where Gandalf blasts the rock from the ceiling or the bit where they cut some ropes and use a bridge as a swing, would have been the climax of the sequence, with a proper build up (like the company runs into a dead end, surrounded by goblins, and THEN they do their thing). But now, it's just one of a dozen eye candy bits that are edited in a "blink and you'll miss it" style.

 

[Mr Light]

For those complaining about Alfrid... this is a very dark and humorless movie. I just watched the first movie last night and I couldn't believe how light and silly it was compared to this one. They needed to have SOME comic relief in there.

I just re-read the ending of the book and was shocked to recall that the Master of Laketown survived to the end! I do wish they had used the Master as the comic relief in the third one, a comedic power struggle between him and Bard. Oh well.

 

[Captaindemotion]

I will say this in favour of the humour: it was the first time in about 20 years that Billy Connolly made me laugh!

 

[Stone_Cold_Sisko]

Entertaining but unremarkable. There are two really solid movies lurking in this trilogy.

 

[apollo1984]

I am not sure it really needed to be 3 movies, but I saw this last Friday and did enjoy the film (I will look forward to the extended edition).

The largest problem for me was the last hour was basically the "big battle" but it did not feel as good as Two Towers and Helms deep. I think it was mainly to do with the lack of familiar faces for most of the battle, the main Dwarves were looking on for the most part doing nothing. My favourite part of that entire fight was Bard's son picking up a sword to protect his family as opposed to that weasily coward (whatever his name was).

 

[The Nth Doctor]

For those complaining about Alfrid... this is a very dark and humorless movie. I just watched the first movie last night and I couldn't believe how light and silly it was compared to this one. They needed to have SOME comic relief in there. .

Comic relief is fine. Problem is Alfrid was the opposite of that. He was obnoxious, superfluous and a waste of time.

 

[marillion]

Made the mistake of seeing this in super-mondo XD 3D 48fps after having seen the first two in a normal 2D setting... The hyper-realistic presentation of actual actors and real sets was unsettling to me at first and the way it makes some of the CG action look incredibly fake (Legolas's run up the falling stones) was distracting in its absurdity.

I'm going to have to see this in a normal theater before I can really pass full judgment but I have to say that despite the distractions, I found it very enjoyable.

I know they had to basically create a character around Legolas, since he's not in the book at all, but I found it interesting how much more mature and serious he seems in these movies... I guess you could chalk that up to growing up with a father who has a stick perpetually up his ass... And then he learns to lighten up a little after spending the next few decades with Aragorn and the Dunedain. Just seems weird...

 

[wew]

Saw the mini-marathon. Although I enjoyed the movie, I think Alfrid or Alfred, would have been better off being left out of the film.

I do think unlike LOTR:ROTK which had multiple endings, I think this one could have done a bit better by giving some overall closure.

 

[JarodRussell]

That bit where Legolas gets told to find Aragorn, "but I won't tell you his name", was so fucking annoying. First, it's so absolutely uneccessary to have Legolas "go looking for" Aragorn. The the inverted name dropping was so incredibly lame.


Where's the scene where Bilbo asks the company what's up to next, and Balin tells him he's going to Moria to reclaim it? That would have been a better one. Spoiler alert!

 

[Captaindemotion]

^ Yeah, the Strider reference bugged me too. Totally unnecessary.

 

[Mach5]

Totally unnecessary.

That can be said for roughly every other scene in the trilogy.

 

[Mr Light]

I thought "his name is something you must find for yourself" was really beautiful, personally...

 

[JarodRussell]

I thought "his name is something you must find for yourself" was really beautiful, personally...

What's so important about the name "Aragorn" that he needs to discover it for himself? He already mentioned that he was the son of Arathorn. He could be called William or Joe and it wouldn't matter one bit.

 

[DWF]

I've seen the movie twice now once in HFR 3D IMAX and it looks great in that format, you can see the grain on wood and the weaver of fabrics on clothes. The battle is rather epic and Legolas was pretty incredible and you don't want to mess with Galadriel. But it is odd that Bilbo has such a little role in things seeing as how it is his movie. And I can only hope we've seen the end of Jackson's Middle-Earth.

 

[JarodRussell]

I've seen the Extended Edition of Desolation today (so my second viewing of the film altogether) and now I do appreciate some of the stuff in Battle of the 5 Armies a bit more.

 

[Mr Light]

The group I saw it was griping about Legolas running up the falling bricks. I had to remind them that in FOTR Legolas was walking on top of freshly fallen snow without making a footprint.

Does anyone know the in-story reason for this? Are they supposed to be weightless or not affected by gravity? Is it because they're more heavenly than of the earth or something?

 

[Kemaiku]

The Valar brought about the Elves at the same time as men, gifting them with abilities that are still largely unknown.

And apparently yes Elves can move on surfaces as though they weighed nearly nothing, doesn't quite explain how he propelled himself from already falling objects etc

But yeah, really are more important things to complain about.

 

[The Old Mixer]

I think it's supposed to be "walk on this rice paper without leaving a trace" with an added dose of fantasy.

 

[Allyn Gibson]

But it is odd that Bilbo has such a little role in things seeing as how it is his movie. And I can only hope we've seen the end of Jackson's Middle-Earth.

The trouble with Bilbo is that his arc in the book amounts to going from a homebody who doesn't think about anything outside the Shirt to becoming more cosmopolitan when he discovers the joy in adventure. The first movie covered the arc of his character growth. There's really no place else for the character to go; though the story is called "The Hobbit," he's not the protagonist who drives the story. Rather, he's a hanger-on caught up in someone else's adventure.

 

[DWF]

But it is odd that Bilbo has such a little role in things seeing as how it is his movie. And I can only hope we've seen the end of Jackson's Middle-Earth.

The trouble with Bilbo is that his arc in the book amounts to going from a homebody who doesn't think about anything outside the Shirt to becoming more cosmopolitan when he discovers the joy in adventure. The first movie covered the arc of his character growth. There's really no place else for the character to go; though the story is called "The Hobbit," he's not the protagonist who drives the story. Rather, he's a hanger-on caught up in someone else's adventure.

Well Jackson did add the LOTR characters into the mix altering the storyline. As I recall Bilbo was needed for getting the ring and the Arken stone, by padding out the storyline Bilbo got shoved out of the story.