There's just something about how this trilogy is written that irks me.
Maybe it's the fact that they've tried to commit 3 movies from 1 book and there's so much padding even those like me who have not read any of the books can tell they're just buying for time/movie length, and the filler is not translating into entertainment. At least not for me.
Some of those CGI wolves looked worse than Twilight.
New trailer…
Sad to see there's no Smaug there but it was expected.
Ahhhhh, why do I get the bad feeling
! the twins are going to die like they do in the book?
Because despite the padding, he's left everything in pretty much.
I was going to hold off on listening to that as I wanted my first experience of the song to be when I actually see it in theaters… Then I remembered that I will likely be watching it with a group who might not be as keen to stay for five minutes into the credits as me, so I was like, fuck it, I'm gonna listen to it anyway.
And now I can't stop listening to it. Excellent song to conclude the trilogy on, unnecessarily bloated though the journey may have been.
Its extra neat since, well, its Billy Boyd. Excellent way to round out all six movies.
The next installment with Dragon Smaug Rampaging all over the town is just one week away.
You have to ask yourself one thing, how shall this week end?
I saw it yesterday. What a great sent off for the whole franchise. There are a couple of well executed fan service scenes, that made me smile like a child. The battle is everything you expect and more ill say. A lot of people didnt move during the credits, a cinema full on nostalgia.
Is it out already? I thought it didnt come out for another week!
Is it out already? I thought it didnt come out for another week!
I got a ticket for a pre screening. It was in 3D, so i can also say that i doesn´t add anything great to the experience, just go for the classic way for this one.
I honestly think the third installment has the potential to be the best one considering the majority of the meaty exciting stuff is going to be in this movie.
The problem I've had with the past two films is that they feel too padded. I think the fact that they're adapting some of the supplemental materials from the LOTR Appendices was enough to fit in a second movie worth of content, but not a third, and it really shows in how padded the movies are.
I think they should either have done it as 2 2.5-3 hour movies, or if they INSISTED on doing it as 3 movies, it should have been 3 1.5 hour movies.
The first one ended at an Ok place, just that with less padding for the first
The Second one should have ended with the Battle with Smaug in Laketown and should have shown the actual end of that fight
The Third one should have been The entire rest of the story
each being 1.5-2 hours each instead of 2.5-3
However, that being said, somehow the actual battle against Smaug is going to be the start of this movie, THEN we have the Battle of the Five Armies, and the Battle of Dol Guldur, which is easily the meatiest part of what was in the Appendices, so I fully expect this one to be good. If you took out the battle with Smaug in the beginning and stuck it to the end of the previous movie, it's probably going to be 1.5-2 hours without that part, meaning this material is going to be paced roughly the way I would have liked to have seen the entire series paced.
Bottom line is, I like these movies and I think what's there is a really solid adaptation of The Hobbit (Thus far, haven't seen Bot5A yet), I just feel there's a LITTLE too much padding for me to really consider it as amazing as the original LOTR Trilogy.
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Yeah, I think the theatrical runs should have been short and sweet 2 hour or less affairs… and then let the extended editions be crazy long.
I never watch the theatrical LotR anymore, and I imagine I won't with Hobbit either... (especially since I often just run it as background noise while working) but if there was a significantly snappier paced version it'd be nice to have.
It really would have been fine at 5-6 hours total. 9-10 really is pushing it.
This is going to be a really weighty movie for me knowing it's the last of the LotR movies. Unless Jackson wants to really push it and go for the Simarillion.
Isn't the Tolkien Estate basically never letting Jackson touch the Silmarillion because they got into a hissy fit about LOTR but somehow the Hobbit escaped by a technicality?
I dunno. Probably? Eh, let the Estate be, they've already had to deal with too much shit in the past two decades.
Well I just came back from watching it (midnight premier) and, well, it was really good. Some obvious scenes that didn't have to be there, though, and it shows that it's not supposed to be 3 overlength movies, so some padding had to be expected. Not the best, not the worst, I don't know. Worth watching, but they all are…
I really got nothing special to say about it :/
@Purple:
Isn't the Tolkien Estate basically never letting Jackson touch the Silmarillion because they got into a hissy fit about LOTR but somehow the Hobbit escaped by a technicality?
The film rights to Hobbit and LotR were sold decades ago, partly based upon the fact they were "unfilmable" and because J.R.R. needed to pay off some taxes or something.
Meanwhile, Crhistopher Tolkien is being an ass and won't release anything else. But he's 90 years old… and his kids seem fine with the movies. (I think there were massive family disagreements over it, but its been years since I read anything on the matter)
@wikipedia:
Although he supposedly disowned his son, barrister and novelist Simon Mario Reuel Tolkien, partly after a dispute surrounding the making of the The Lord of the Rings film trilogy,[12] they have now reconciled.
In 2001, he received some attention for his stance toward The Lord of the Rings film trilogy directed by Peter Jackson. He expressed doubts over the viability of a film interpretation that retained the essence of the work, but stressed that this was just his opinion.[14] He voiced sharper criticism in a 2012 interview with Le Monde: "They gutted the book, making an action film for 15 to 25-year-olds."[15]
In 2008 Christopher Tolkien commenced legal proceedings against New Line Cinema, which he claimed owed his family £80 million in unpaid royalties.[16] In September 2009, he and New Line reached an undisclosed settlement, and he has withdrawn his legal objection to the The Hobbit films.[17]
So yeah. He has objections but was willing to quiet down when there was money on the table.
That said, as "unfilmable" as LotR was… Silmarillion REALLY is, in the same way the bible pretty much is, so I don't think I'd want to see it on screen anyway. And Jackson doesn't need that hanging around him in ten years when he's 60.
If Christopher Tolkien had his way, the LoTR trilogy would be mostly Frodo and Sam walking through the shire and constantly taking breaks and singing. And Tom Bombadil shudder
Tom Bombadil is amazing, don't take his name in vain! And yeah the battle of 5 armies is nothing like walking and singing. Although they do have the required Jackson-landscape shots with people climbing mountains. Just twice though, so it's fine.
I got the extended version of the hobbit today, really eager to see it. The length doesn't matter, nothing seems long anymore after seeing the extended version of Once Upon a Time in America
I wonder what they'll do after the Hobbit movies. The Silmarillion is impossible, so maybe a children of of Hurin movie?
Or we might get another Tintin movie that him and Spielberg has been discussing
The Tolkien Estate will not give up the rights to The Silmarillion as of yet…perhaps when the next generation is making the call.
Next, Peter Jackson needs to direct that episode of Doctor Who that he's been promising in exchange for a Dalek prop.
That said, as "unfilmable" as LotR was… Silmarillion REALLY is, in the same way the bible pretty much is, so I don't think I'd want to see it on screen anyway. And Jackson doesn't need that hanging around him in ten years when he's 60.
They could easilly make a trilogy out of each story. But it's not really a material that would translate well into film. Maybe into a mini-series or something, but with budget requirements I don't really see it.
I expect some parts of Silmarilion will get filmed eventually, and the screenwriters will have to fill in some parts of the story to make it watchable. Not really thrilled by that prospect.
They should really give up on LOTR and go after some other works of fantasy. There are awesome books by authors such as Guy Gavriel Key, Joe Abercrombie, R. Scott Bakker etc.
I assume this will be an extra on the dvd in a year's time.
That was an amazing episode. Colbert going out with a bang.
I just hope that really was Benedict Cumberbatch voicing Smaug. I kept expecting him to come out afterwards as the real surprise guest. But Colbert kept it real!
It was amazing, sniff what a great journey. I'm so happy right now.
I just hope that really was Benedict Cumberbatch voicing Smaug. I kept expecting him to come out afterwards as the real surprise guest. But Colbert kept it real!
It mostly certainly was. Especially with the Sherlock cracks.
Even if they were were reusing movie CG, (And they were matching lip flaps pretty well, so I'm not sure) that's something they had to have set up and filmed a while ago to intergrate.
I went to the movie yesterday. All in all it was fun and spectacular. Although the last third was a little dissapointing to me. Some spoilery issues for those who have seen the movie:
! It lacks of… dunno.. closure. All is ok until the middle of the great battle. After Thorin and his group go for Azog from this point onwards they show us near to nothing what happens in the valley.
Dain vanishes completely. They show us the women/elders willing to fight and then never mention them again.
Instead I constantly have to watch this slimy coward's adventures and arguing with others. Alfrid was a good comic relief in most of his scenes but damn I want to know whats going on on the battlefield.
! I understand that there were many important people and factions fighting simultaniously but the time PJ spends on Azog and Bolg compared to the rest was unsettling.
Sure Azog is badass as hell, and those two fights were excellent (too long imho), but so is Beorn whose screentime is a LITTLE short. We didn't even see him take out one of his own size...
! Soon after that, the battle was declared to be over and we see some characters who knew the 3 dead dwarves the shortest time mourning over 2 of them. After that the movie sets up the
plotlines for the other trilogy and Bilbo leaves without much words... What?
! No word of how many dwarfes, elves, men or women survived. What's with the city of Dale? What's with the Arkenstone (the former centre of the plot that all characters desired)? What's with Laketown? Where is Dain and what will he do? Beorn? The Arkenstone? Whats with the people who haven't read the book?
! Or maybe give us Thranduil holding his new/old white juwelry and thinking of his dead men and what they really earned in this battle.
One scene I miss the most here is Thranduil and Bard giving Dain (now with crown as king under the mountain) the Arkenstone or something like that. Just some fucking closure and not a short meaningless scene of a guy blowing a horn.
! With that unsettling feeling of no proper farewell we are on the road again and when Bilbo finally sits down, hearing Gandalfs voice, it dawns in me, an even longer and more exhausting road lies ahead.
Credits.
Me in theater: „Ugh now I feel stressful.“
! This came out longer than I thought, so here is a tl;dr.
! The movie failed to give closure by leaving open plotlines and uses the aftermath of one of the biggest (moviewise) and most important (historically) battles only for the sake of tieing up with the former trilogy.
! Aside from that, Five Armies was wonderful and as good as his predecessors.
I feel the same about the ending. The extended version probably has some answers.
As for the solo fights, I really like them. It felt really One Piece like XP Monsters vs Monsters
But it's true that the battle didn't have the same crazy twists as the fight for Minas Tirith.
Oh my god an army of horsemen from the Rohan!
Oh my god an army of oliphant!
Oh my god an army of ghost!
In the Hobbit, pretty much every fighter is there when the battle starts. On the other hand, the solo fights were much better. I mean Eowyn killed the Nazgul in 3 seconds and Aragorn has like 12 seconds of fighting against named characters in the whole trilogy.
Watched it yesterday.
Was it just here in New Zealand where they had a short doco about LotR and Hobbit series filming in NZ and the cast saying only good things about the island country that served as a Middle Earth?
About the film, I liked it, but my ticket price was waaaaay too expensive.
Orc army disappointed me and wanted to see more of Bard after the battle, but ah I liked the final shots.
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Watched it yesterday.
Was it just here in New Zealand where they had a short doco about LotR and Hobbit series filming in NZ and the cast saying only good things about the island country that served as a Middle Earth?About the film, I liked it, but my ticket price was waaaaay too expensive.
Orc army disappointed me and wanted to see more of Bard after the battle, but ah I liked the final shots.
Yeah we didn't get something like that in the UK :D I agree with what people said about the ending, there wasn't enough closure and needed a few plot points to be finished properly, like Dain, the Arkenstone, Bard, Dale. But it was good.
Funny read.
The 6 Stupidest Things The Hobbit Movies Wasted Money On
I'll probably go watch it next week or something, when the heat blows over a little. Don't like watching movies with screaming children.
Honestly, I'd be glad to cut Alfrid's scenes, unnecessary.
Despite of that I liked the movie better than the second one, the adventure feeling of An Unexpected Journey is stil the best for me.
! So, I enjoyed it. The pacing was pretty good, I was never really bored.
! I came close when that one orc just kept on not dying for 10 minutes. I don't think he even had a name. I was assuming that he was the leader of the surprise second orc army but who knows.
Unfortunately those orcs were mostly invisible and didn't seem to have any impact on the battle. I would have expected some sort of desperation on the side of light when they showed up but I don't think we ever really saw them clashing with anybody. And then there's eagles eating them. That was easy.
I also would have liked to see Dain and his army struggle against the overwhelming forces while Thorin was hiding in his fortress. That would have made it a little more impactful when those 13 dwarves joined the battle and somehow managed to turn the tides. I get that it was their king leading them and moral was high. But that really wasn't made clear at all.
Alfred was just so over the top awful that I was annoyed during his second scene. But then he somehow managed to become funny. And then in the end it changed again and he was just there…
! Those were the big dislikes I had. But as I said, I was enjoying myself.
@AfroPower:
Honestly, I'd be glad to cut Alfrid's scenes, unnecessary.
Despite of that I liked the movie better than the second one, the adventure feeling of An Unexpected Journey is stil the best for me.
He feels like something that would be included by Michael Bay. Every scene with him was a waste of precious orc killing time.
This movie had some good scenes, but on the whole, I really didn't enjoy it.
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Moments like Galadriel shooting Sauron into the distance, Alfrid's scenes, the weird titan looking trolls, Thorin's "dragon sickness" etc. a lot of the movie just seemed pretty off to me.
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I don't like the fact that despite the fact of dragging the movie into unnecessary length it still fails to deliver some answers just because they want to release an even unnecessary longer version later.
And everyone seems ok with it.
This movie had some good scenes, but on the whole, I really didn't enjoy it.
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Moments like Galadriel shooting Sauron into the distance, Alfrid's scenes, the weird titan looking trolls, Thorin's "dragon sickness" etc. a lot of the movie just seemed pretty off to me.
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That whole Galadriel thing sounded unbearably corny. She's a great actor and has a great voice as a narrator but those lines of dialogue just got awkward, as well as Thorin's crazy talk. It just felt really forced.
I don't like the fact that despite the fact of dragging the movie into unnecessary length it still fails to deliver some answers just because they want to release an even unnecessary longer version later.
And everyone seems ok with it.
Hey, I'm not okay with it. I want answers too! 
And despite some unanswered questions PJ covered the whole book in this movies. For people who complain about the length:
How many hours do you spent reading the hobbit? One and a half? I think not. And how many short stories were made into a full length film (e.g. Solaris)? How many plotlines and persons were omitted during the LotR adaption?
I guess the problems of The Hobbit adaptation have been tackled 1000 times already (no need for a trilogy, no need for the 300 LOTR references per second, no need for Legolas being a fucking Poochie, no need for every single scene to be overblown super dramatic epicness when the original book was a pretty lighthearted adventure. . .) but. . .yeah. That.
Didn't entirely hate it, but it totally didn't do it for me. Hell, for how overblown everything is (stop it with the dramatic slow-mo shots of people crying, Peter) and how incredibly un-subtle Jackson manages to be, the freaking battle itself (the one in the title of the movie) manages to be quite disappointing. This is no Battle of Gondor or Battle of Helm's Deep, that's for certain. The momentum is weirdly stoped plenty of times, and after a promising start, everything just. . .fades?
I guess they REALLY want you to buy the extended version.
Ed: (Before you start calling me a hater, I went with 9 other people: 1, a total Tolkien fanatic, loved it. The rest went from "meh" to disliking it to a couple straight up calling it garbage. I wasn't even the harshest with the movie).
Well just saw it.
Only complaints are a few things that I assume are in the extended, and then some of the CG fighting of like Legolas being way over the top rediculous acrobatics.
I would like to ask those with many problems this. "Did you want The Hobbit to be better movies than The Lord of the Rings?"
I'm actually glad that these didn't eclipse the original trilogy. And it wasn't like horrble things that mad these movies not as good, like the prequal star wars had for problems. It was just things like "too lengthy for a movie, or other things that for a fan who wants 1000000 hours and every page to be adapted to movie form it really is totally fine. Were they faithful? did they take liberties? ect? of course they did, but all in all I'm happy with these movies. I will have ZERO qualms about watching all 6 movies. Whereas in Star Wars case, I have a hard time wanting to watch episode 1 and heck sort of 2 even.
Ugh, this sucked.That wasn't a movie, that was a video game, one whose cut scenes you couldn't skip and whose characters you couldn't control. There was actually a scene of Legolas jumping on falling rocks that looked like something out of Super Mario Bros. The HFR really gave me a headache. It makes it look like a cheap soap opera. I got used to it eventually but even when I did, it still felt wrong and off. This movie also has the honor of having one of the WORST female characters I've ever seen. Acts like a badass but does nothing but fail, cry and whine about love. Give me a break.
I enjoyed it, not as much as the first two, but I enjoyed it.
The Lord of the Rings was a once in a lifetime event, and was never ever going to happen again. The Hobbit films are fun, flawed, but fun and enjoyable. I think at the end of the day, that is enough.
