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

[fireproof78]

Huh, just realized.... I still haven't seen Battle Of The Five Armies. And I just can't get myself excited enough to do so.

The first Hobbit movie was fun enough. The second.... A lot of people I know claimed it was better than the first, so I figured, let's go for it. I felt it was really just all over the place.

I don't know. I guess one day I'll muster up the will to watch the third, but really, the idea of watching ROTK EE even though I know it by hard gets me more excited than Five Armies.

For me, it was worth it both in a completionist sense (which I am about film and book series) and for Dol Guldur. I don't care what others may say, if it falls in line with the books, if there are nitpicks to be had, but the White Council taking on the Nine is one of my favorite visuals in all six films.

But, that's just me

 

[Mr Light]

Actually seeing the White Council fighting the Nazgul and Sauron brought a tear to my eye.

 

[Beagleman]

Actually seeing the White Council fighting the Nazgul and Sauron brought a tear to my eye.

Same here!

 

[Allyn Gibson]

This is absolutely fascinating -- Peter Jackson filmed The Hobbit without prepping it. The departure of Guillermo del Toro scrapped the preproduction work, but Jackson still had release dates to meet, so Jackson was "winging it" until he reached the Battle of the Five Armies block and said that it couldn't go on like that.

It's a wonder we got anything that worked under a circumstance like that.

 

[Mr Light]

I'm dying to pour over all these documentaries. And hey, I still love the films for all their flaws. Just like the Star Wars Prequels.

 

[One Lucky Red Shirt]

This is absolutely fascinating -- Peter Jackson filmed The Hobbit without prepping it. The departure of Guillermo del Toro scrapped the preproduction work, but Jackson still had release dates to meet, so Jackson was "winging it" until he reached the Battle of the Five Armies block and said that it couldn't go on like that.

It's a wonder we got anything that worked under a circumstance like that.

Yeahs i heard this too. I really wish toro had stayed on. Love his films and his take of the hobbit wouldve been very cool. Dont get me wrong i love PJ and i feel he did a good job with the hobbit trilogy. Not enough preproduction time though is what hurt him and the films. I think smaug is my favorite out of the three. Five armies is next. The first one was good but the first half just dragged a little bit too much for me.

I can see why they made it three films. More $ f starters. And im not complaining. Even though sometimes the films were too drawn out at times it was good to see more of middle earth.

Love the new armies EE. This film is much faster paced than any of the others. Sometimes thats a good thing, other times its not. The battles are just kick ass. I do miss the character moments though. The funeral and ending was way too quick. I guess PJ heard so many people complaining about the 45 min. Ending to ROTK so he was like screw it i make this ending quick f the fans.

I gots 2 major gripes though. Why did pooe smaug get killed so quick in the film? The first 12 min. And he dead. Wanted just a little bit more time with the dragon. Its like dooku's quick kill in episode 3. Like wow.

I heard it was supposed to be 30 min. Added to armies. But WB only allowed the 20 min. To be added into the EE. Maybe those extra 10 min. Wouldve cost more to do F/X than the powers that be wanted to spend. Who knows. Or did PJ have something to do with deleting those 10 min.?

Anyways im glad we got what we got. The new EE of armies rules. Now to find 9 hours in my life to watch all the special features

 

[Skywalker]

I generally agree. I really don't think Jackson wanted to direct these movies, but he pretty much had to step in to save the production. But I don't blame del Toro for leaving the project, considering all of the legal issues that had been plaguing the production for years and holding it back.

 

[Mr Light]

If you watch the LOTR documentries, they didn't know what they were doing THEN, either They were constantly rewriting and changing the script at the last minute. Arwen at Helm's Deep... Aragorn versus Sauron in the flesh... they completely reshot everything with the Witch King...

 

[fireproof78]

If you watch the LOTR documentries, they didn't know what they were doing THEN, either They were constantly rewriting and changing the script at the last minute. Arwen at Helm's Deep... Aragorn versus Sauron in the flesh... they completely reshot everything with the Witch King...

Well, there is a bit of a difference between then and now. They didn't know what they were doing AND the studio didn't know what to expect. As much as Jackson wasn't prepared to direct, he still had the studio bearing down on him to produce a grand epic like LOTR.

LOTR, in contrast, was a complete unknown. The epic fantasy movie we have now is partially due to the success of LOTR.

The Hobbit films were stuck under LOTR's long shadow, and it seems clear to me that the production struggled to find the right tone and emphasis on character development.

 

[DigificWriter]

I feel the need to point out that, content-wise, the duology wouldn't have been that much different with Del Toro in charge, since all that Peter did when he took over was to re-jigger things so that the way that the story was presented matched his personal style rather than Del Toro's.

 

[Mr Light]

And the docus about ROTK showed how bleak and disastrous they felt at the end of that trilogy as well. They barely got the movie finished in time.

 

[Mr Light]

I'm an hour into the EE and there's only been 30 seconds of new footage so far, so I guess it's all at the end

I did geek out at:

Spoiler

them directly referencing the fact that Gandalf has the third Elven Ring, and Galadriel ATOMIZING that Orc into bones. Dude!

EDIT: Finished the EE. Dude! There were so many amazing/hilarious action gags added! They were great, and mostly starred the supporting the Dwarves, who basically did absolutely nothing in the theatrical cut.

Spoiler

We also got a gag of the Gandalf/Balrog fight and the death of Alfrid

I was surprised to see there was no new introductory scene with Legolas, because it really feels like there's a missing scene. When last we see Legolas in DOS he's riding right behind Bolg. When first we see him in BOTF he shows up and tells us about how Bolg got away. Why didn't we see Bolg getting away?

 

[fireproof78]

I'm an hour into the EE and there's only been 30 seconds of new footage so far, so I guess it's all at the end

I did geek out at:

Spoiler

them directly referencing the fact that Gandalf has the third Elven Ring, and Galadriel ATOMIZING that Orc into bones. Dude!

EDIT: Finished the EE. Dude! There were so many amazing/hilarious action gags added! They were great, and mostly starred the supporting the Dwarves, who basically did absolutely nothing in the theatrical cut.

Spoiler

We also got a gag of the Gandalf/Balrog fight and the death of Alfrid

I was surprised to see there was no new introductory scene with Legolas, because it really feels like there's a missing scene. When last we see Legolas in DOS he's riding right behind Bolg. When first we see him in BOTF he shows up and tells us about how Bolg got away. Why didn't we see Bolg getting away?

I was glad to see the EE feature the supporting Dwarves far more. I think that the biggest downfall of DOS and BOT5A is the focus on Legolas and Tauriel to the point that it detracted from the rest of characters.

 

[suarezguy]

I actually liked Tauriel and her relationship with Fili but in BotFA there was too much focus on her and Thorin (and he and the dwarf masses were too unlikeable for too long) and way too little on Bilbo. Throughout the trilogy there was too much focus on and time spent fighting Orcs.

 

[DigificWriter]

It still baffles me how many people seem to criticize things like Legolas' inclusion and antics and the Tauriel/Kili storyline as if these things were added once Peter stepped in to direct when the reality is that they would've been present even with Del Toro at the helm due to the fact that, by and large, the scripts off of which the bulk of the films were shot were not rewritten to any significant degree at any point during the filming. Things were certainly refined and/or inserted (as was the case with the LotR films) along the way, but any changes that were made were based off of already-existing ideas and the already-existing framework of the scripts written by Peter, Phillipa, and GDT earlier on in the process.

 

[theenglish]

It still baffles me how many people seem to criticize things like Legolas' inclusion and antics and the Tauriel/Kili storyline as if these things were added once Peter stepped in to direct when the reality is that they would've been present even with Del Toro at the helm due to the fact that, by and large, the scripts off of which the bulk of the films were shot were not rewritten to any significant degree at any point during the filming. Things were certainly refined and/or inserted (as was the case with the LotR films) along the way, but any changes that were made were based off of already-existing ideas and the already-existing framework of the scripts written by Peter, Phillipa, and GDT earlier on in the process.

I didn't really have a problem with a lot of the extra included storylines and such. As far as I can tell, they don't really contradict anything from the books (but I haven't read them in a long, long time) and The Hobbit itself is written from Bilbo's point of view so a lot of other things can certainly be happening behind the scenes.

By the way, does anybody know anything about this extended edition of the trilogy. It seems from the comments below that this may not, in fact, actually be the extended versions of the films.

http://www.amazon.com/Hobbit-Extend...1&sr=8-1&keywords=hobbit+extended+edition+dvd

 

[Allyn Gibson]

By the way, does anybody know anything about this extended edition of the trilogy. It seems from the comments below that this may not, in fact, actually be the extended versions of the films.

http://www.amazon.com/Hobbit-Extend...1&sr=8-1&keywords=hobbit+extended+edition+dvd

The pictures, especially the back cover, make it clear that these are the Extended Editions on DVD, with the bonus discs. That's a really good deal for a 15 disc set.

It looks like Amazon has connected this item to previous Hobbit releases. It's annoying when they do things like that, because the reviews don't necessarily make sense with the product that's being sold.

 

[theenglish]

By the way, does anybody know anything about this extended edition of the trilogy. It seems from the comments below that this may not, in fact, actually be the extended versions of the films.

http://www.amazon.com/Hobbit-Extend...1&sr=8-1&keywords=hobbit+extended+edition+dvd

The pictures, especially the back cover, make it clear that these are the Extended Editions on DVD, with the bonus discs. That's a really good deal for a 15 disc set.

It looks like Amazon has connected this item to previous Hobbit releases. It's annoying when they do things like that, because the reviews don't necessarily make sense with the product that's being sold.

That's what I'm hoping for and not the other way around--the pictures do not actually match the product.

I too find it annoying that the reviews wouldn't be for this product, especially when there are so many versions of the movie out there for sale. I want to know things specific to this version, like the quality of the transfer for the EEs, added scenes, quality of the packaging, the extras, etc.

 

[DimesDan]

By the way, does anybody know anything about this extended edition of the trilogy. It seems from the comments below that this may not, in fact, actually be the extended versions of the films.

http://www.amazon.com/Hobbit-Extend...1&sr=8-1&keywords=hobbit+extended+edition+dvd

The pictures, especially the back cover, make it clear that these are the Extended Editions on DVD, with the bonus discs. That's a really good deal for a 15 disc set.

It looks like Amazon has connected this item to previous Hobbit releases. It's annoying when they do things like that, because the reviews don't necessarily make sense with the product that's being sold.

That's what I'm hoping for and not the other way around--the pictures do not actually match the product.

I too find it annoying that the reviews wouldn't be for this product, especially when there are so many versions of the movie out there for sale. I want to know things specific to this version, like the quality of the transfer for the EEs, added scenes, quality of the packaging, the extras, etc.

My best guess is that because the EE is out here today and maybe already out in other territories, no one yet has really made any reviews on the EE of BotFA. My copy is coming through from Amazon today and I might either put Jacksons Commentary or the Documentaries on later.

 

[apollo1984]

I will be really interested to see the EE as I had some "issues" with the theatrical release so I am hoping additional scenes will fix what I found off from before.

Before that though a EE marathon followed by LoTR too.