The Hobbit: The Battle of the five armies! Anticipation thread

[DimesDan]

So earlier today it was revealed that "There and Back Again" has been renamed "The Battle of Five Armies" and that the extended version of Desolation of Smaug will have an extra 25 minutes of footage. - link

I must say, not too sure on the name change yet, as for the extra footage, I'm hoping it will paradoxically let the film feel shorter.

Anyway, roll on November for the BluRay and 12th December for the final part in the Hobbit trilogy.

 

[Mr Light]

Kudos for the title change. "There And Back Again" is a horribly boring title for a climactic battle movie for the billions who have never read the books.

 

[Locutus of Bored]

Smart change. "There and Back Again" sounds like saying "Hey, you know all that walking in the previous movies? We've got some more for you" to the uninitiated.

 

[sojourner]

The Battle of Five Armies is the name I thought of it as all along.

 

[Allyn Gibson]

The Battle of Five Armies is the name I thought of it as all along.

Me, too. I knew the final film in the two-film plan was "There and Back Again," but that title didn't fit a three-film plan. I'd assumed they had changed the title when they added Desolation into the mix.

 

[The Nth Doctor]

I agree with Peter Jackson's decision to changer he subtitle (whether it was recently or when the three-film was made) so I have no problem with it. Besides, "There and Back Again" already got its in-reference in Lord of the Rings.

 

[sojourner]

I'm waiting for a "Red Book of West March" edition collecting all 6 movies on blueray in a nice red leather bound case.

 

[The Old Mixer]

I'm waiting for them to announce that they still plan to use "There and Back Again" as the title of the fourth film in the trilogy....

 

[JD]

I do agree with you guys, that is definitely a better title. There and Back Again is kind of unexciting for a movie that will probably devote a great deal of it's screen time to at least one big battle, possibly two if I remember the discussions of the annotations material that has popped up in other threads correctly.

 

[Set Harth]

I'm waiting for them to rename The Two Towers as The Battle of Helm's Deep.

 

[davejames]

It's a better title, but one that frankly makes me even LESS interested in seeing it. The action in the last movie already felt incredibly tedious and overlong, so having an entire, long movie devoted to massive CG armies fighting in fields and shooting arrows at each other just holds no appeal.

 

[Set Harth]

But the entire movie isn't devoted to that. There are two other whole plotlines ( Smaug and Dol Guldur ).

 

[sojourner]

Spoiler: Smaug won't live long into the next movie.

 

[DimesDan]

^ I actually thought the last shot of the film would be Bard aiming for Smaug, not Smaug flying off to Lake Town.

 

[Gaith]

Less Tolkien, moar BATTLES!

... Yeah, that's pretty much the second and third Hobbit films in a nutshell, innit.

It's a better title, but one that frankly makes me even LESS interested in seeing it. The action in the last movie already felt incredibly tedious and overlong, so having an entire, long movie devoted to massive CG armies fighting in fields and shooting arrows at each other just holds no appeal.

Indeed. I may even wait for the Redbox on this; DoS was that dreary.

 

[Alidar Jarok]

I found the action in the second one better than the action in the first. My least favorite action scenes were the ones that puffed up book setpieces into overlong pointlessness (the troll scene in particular). In the second one, everything felt better paced. Even the Barrel scene, which I thought I would hate, worked out well. The Smaug fight would ultimately be pointless, of course, but it gave the second movie a much-needed climax considering that Smaug almost certainly had to die in the third movie.

 

[davejames]

Actually I thought the second movie did the same thing. Every little place that you could possibly insert a huge, elaborate action sequence, Jackson somehow found a way to put one there. To the point where it just started to seem ridiculous after awhile. Even the barrel scene went on far too long I thought.

And by the time the movie got to Smaug (with all the huge, elaborate action sequences that followed that), I had a hard time even caring anymore.

 

[Set Harth]

I'm still not over the barrels.

 

[Alidar Jarok]

Actually I thought the second movie did the same thing. Every little place that you could possibly insert a huge, elaborate action sequence, Jackson somehow found a way to put one there. To the point where it just started to seem ridiculous after awhile. Even the barrel scene went on far too long I thought.

Most of the action scenes were outright new, which was my point. The barrel scene was the only real adaptation from the books turned into an action scene. In the first movie, you had the Trolls, the Misty Mountains, and the Goblin King as scenes that all went on way too long. The new ones were the chase scene early on (that wasn't too terrible, imo) and Bilbo standing up at the end (that was necessary to have a fitting endpoint for the first movie).

 

[Mr Light]

I absolutely loved the movie's version of the barrel chase and the invented Dwarves vs. Smaug fight. The only part I felt was too much was the orcs attacking Laketown.

I never thought about it before the second movie came out, but the book is about the Dwarves going after Smaug, AND THEY NEVER MEET IN THE BOOK. I think this is a much better idea.