I was personally disappointed that the White Council didn’t get more screentime; the impression I get from Tolkien’s notes and appendices is that there were full-scale showdowns on a grand scale, and all we get is a few minutes of superheroics and Galadriel reprising her “dark queen” spot from FotR. Barring the future acquisition of film rights to the Silmarilion, this is the only chance we’ll ever get to see Elrond and Saruman and Galadriel displaying their full power, though, and for what it is, I certainly enjoyed it.
If you see only one movie titled “The Hobbit: Battle of the Five Armies” this year, make it The Hobbit: Battle of the Five Armies.
I was disappointed that The Hobbit didn’t get more screen time in a movie called “The Hobbit.” Bilbo was the central figure (both in magnitude and frequency) in the book but was greatly marginalized in at least this last movie (haven’t seen the other two). Thorin, blah, blah, Bard, blah, blah, Thorin, blah, blah, Bard, blah, blah. Oh hey, every 25 minutes let’s cut to Bilbo doing something mildly significant. Also, his personality and demeanor were not as Tolkien set forth in the book. In the movie, when he was there, he was grave, thoughtful, meaningful, and articulate; not at all like the actual Bilbo. That is what happens when you convert a 300 page book into 3 three-hour movies without careful, skillful guidance. And WTF? Gandalf practicing martial arts and not using his significant magic?
Do keep in mind that, in the book, Bilbo spent pretty much the entire Battle of Five Armies unconscious and had to hear about it from the dwarves later on. Would you have preferred that movie?
I was amazed at how much I enjoyed the movie despite being painfully aware of its flaws. I think I just love seeing middle earth & is inhabitants so much, even in films that are imitative shadows of the LOTR movies. Glad Jackson let the characters die who died in the book. I was so afraid he was going to change that. I think he went overboard with the gossness of some of monsters, though.
Other than Bilbo and Gandalf the movie needed less. You name it needed less of it. Especially Alfrid. It needed no Alfrid.
And maybe only one cute girl whose only lines are “Da!” or “Da???”:rolleyes:
here’s the thing kid - If you’re dad is in the middle of a pack of angry orcs, fighting for his life and to protect yours - that is NOT the time to yell —
DA!
and distract him - AND alert the orcs to the presence of defenseless childrens - they like them the bestest.
I enjoyed it. I appreciated that this one didn’t have any ridiculous chase scenes that were shoe-horned in for the sake of the 3D, and I thought that Smaug’s attack on Laketown was just epic, as was Galadriel forcing the Necromancer and the Nine out of Dol Guldor (and how cool to see their aspects finally, instead of just hooded robes).
Thorin’s death scene was done pretty well, too, although I think they could have done without that underwater-closing-eyes-opening-eyes-come-up-through-the-ice sequence.
My main quibbles are Legolas’s amazing run up the crumbling blocks (really?), and the use of cave trolls in the final battle. Because, damnit, it was daylight. Those things should have turned to stone!
(No, I have no idea what Tauriel was doing in there. Having her added nothing to the storyline, as far as I can tell.)
Thorin was such a dick even before he got “gold fever” that I was kinda glad he died, even knowing that he dies in canon. I never did like him.
He was pretty hard to like in the book. Typical stiff-necked dwarf!
(sorry, does that make me a racist?)
I think this was the weakest movie of the three. The best part was over in the first 20 minutes. And the rest was just battle scenes that went on way too long, and made no time sense whatsoever, interspersed with scenes of Thorin’s insanity.
The first two were adventure movies - the dwarves and Bilbo making their way to the mountain. This one was just muddled, IMO.
Bilbo never tells Gandalf about the ring in the book. He tells the dwarves, during the fight with the Spiders in Mirkwood. He’s reluctant to tell them, but he realizes he has to - his plan is to turn invisible and lead the spiders off, to give the just-freed dwarves a chance to recover and arm themselves. Afterwards, they demand to know how he was able to vanish, and he has to explain the ring to them.
Gandalf suspects Bilbo isn’t telling them everything after they escape -
must agree with those saying this movie was weak on storyline. Could have done without Tauriel. Balance of Forces made no sense whatever. But the evil side must be formidable for good to triumph in a dramatic fashion. Absolutely LOVED Billy Connolly as Dain Ironfoot. Looking for a good picture of him on his Warpig.
But no matter the faults we can see, it is still amazing, breathtaking that we can see this world so beautifully realized on the screen. Once again , as at the first moment I saw Hobbiton in the first LOTR, I teared up at the spot-on creation of The Shire. I will miss looking forward to the next trip to Middle Earth.
The main things that I had need to discuss after seeing the movie were:
So they made a huge deal about a second Orc army coming from the North, but then a flock of eagles knock their long spears down and the are vanquished? None of the major characters was shown fighting this second army.
Also, Google tells me the Hobbit movies took place 60 years before LOTR. And yet Strider the ranger was already out ranging? Or was Legolas being told “Hey, go look up this Strider fellow in a half a century”. That part annoyed me.
Aragorn was of the race of Numenor and long lived. At the time of the War of the Ring, he was in his late 80’s though much younger in appearance. That said, your point is a good one: at the time of this movie, Aragorn would have been ten years old.
Aragorn is a Dunedain, of Numenorean blood, and of half-elf ancestry at that (his paternal ancestor 64 generations back was Elrond’s brother). He’s 87 years old when he meets Frodo in FotR, and lived to the age of 210.
In the books, he would only have been 10 years old at the time of the Battle of Five Armies, but the movie cuts out seventeen years between when Bilbo left the Shire and Frodo embarked on his quest, which makes him 27 in movie continuity at this point and ripe for some ranging.
I Think it Very cool …The Hoobit
I largely agree with this. The battle scenes took too much time and Alfrid didn’t add much to the story. There are a lot of other problems people have mentioned that I agreed with.
Another problem I had was the constant mix of epic drama with ridiculousness and I found it ruined the continuity. There is the troll battering-ram, then Thranduil is lamenting the loss of so many elves, then Thorin is chasing Azog on a giant long-horned sheep*, then Tauriel is crying over a dead Fili, etc.
I’m disappointed in the final results from Jackson because he had the ability to raise the bar but then he ducked under it.
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- I loved the concept of the sheep but they came out of nowhere.
Saw it over the weekend and enjoyed it immensely. Some exciting setpieces (Smaug burning Lake Town, the White Council fight (love me some Galadriel), and lot’s going on in the battle. Always felt I knew who was fighting who and where they were in relation to the gate, which can be tough sometimes, but Peter Jackson does well in this regard (in all of the big battles in this and LOTR).
The only thing that bugged me was the occasional clunky dialogue, and the continued presence of Alfrid, as others have stated. He was played a little too nasty or farcical and didn’t seem to match the tone of the rest of the move. And there was no real arc with him…why didn’t he just perish at the hand of an orc early on? Every time he kept showing up, or appeared in drag (!), I was gritting my teeth. Wish Peter Jackson had edited most of his scenes and added some more stuff that was exciting.
And when Thraduill tells Legolas to go find Aragorn, they have to be so obvious about it. Could you have just told him to be well, and find Strider instead of long pauses to **really **let it sink in?
I agree with you. Here’s what bugs me about prequels n general:
They always have to insert something to connect it to the original story. The problem is they are super obvious about it. Everyone familiar with LOTR is going to know Aragorn and Legolas meet each other at some point. Those not familiar with the story are going to have no idea what ThranDad is talking about. So that scene felt rather pointless.
When you introduce new characters, like Tauriel, you are left with the problem of being unable to explain where they went in the original story (I assume she sailed away with a bunch of other elves)?
I found Ram Troll funny. He had ONE JOB, and technically performed it well. Had he not been knocked out, people would be asking “why didn’t the troll with the funny hat just level Dale?” I’m also assuming Thorin and co. ditched their tankplate armor because Thorin had made them spend all night hoisting rocks to block the entrance of Erabor. They were probably tired!
How many orcs did Dain kill by headbutting them? All of them? Guy was like the Chuck Norris of dwarves, delivering headbutts left and right.