The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies (2014)

[jellydonut25]

I hate the first Hobbit, and Smaug was worse...

[klen7]

[Ernesth100]

[lhb412]

Colbert's interview with Smaug last night is literally the first thing I've seen from the Hobbit movies. It makes me want to see the films just to see the cool dragon.

[Psycho Soldier]

I watched a video last night with a side-by-side comparison of Jackson's Smaug to the Rankin-Bass one. I have to admit, I'm nearly in the same boat as lhb. But I can't get past the idea of a concise fan edit within the next year or so. I believe I'll wait it out.

[Ernesth100]

[tbeasley]

[jellydonut25]

[Psycho Soldier]

'I am fire. I am... death."

tryhard/10, would redact from script.

[Ernesth100]

I mean the Hobbit films are incredible guys come on! Everyone else loves them exept for the people here for some reason.

[klen7]

We all have good taste (except Jelly-D... But even a broken clock is right twice a day...)

[jellydonut25]

[Reaper G]

I enjoy the Hobbit movies, but I agree, PJ embellished *way* too much. Added action, more character depth, and including Tolkien's backstories is one thing, but deviating too much from the actual story and making up new characters is another.

[Jinzo Ningen]

These three films are soul-less, overblown cash-grabs lead by a guy who's more than just a little overfull of himself. I could tolerate the LoTR films but these are junk. As soon as I read that they were dragging the book into three films I washed my hands. My friend was/is a Tolkien nut who read everything middle-earth related while he was in high school, and he really enjoyed the LoTR trilogy... but even he has complained about how needless, overlong, self-congratulatory and, ultimately, lame Hobbit 1 & 2 were. I imagine he'll see this third film just for the sake of completeness, but I knew that when a guy who lived breathed & ate Tolkien griped then I was wise to take a pass on these. And that's a damn shame. In all honesty I haven't even watched any of the three "Rings" trilogy of films since they originally came out in theaters, and unless I'm snowbound and have access to NOTHING else to watch some weekend, I doubt I'll see these even if I were given free copies.

[Ernesth100]

I think I see what you mean now the films are pretty awful.

[klen7]

See! you're learning... I used to think Spider-man 2 was a good movie, and i got a lot of enjoyment out of it... now i know i was wrong and my joy has turned to ashes. I am no longer able to watch the movie with the same enjoyment i once did. If it hadn't been for the boards i might still be blissfully ignorant to its debilitating flaws.

[mr.negativity]

[tbeasley]

I had a lot of fun with it. It reminded me of Takashi Miike's 13 Assassins in a way. There's a decent sense of buildup, then when the actions starts it doesn't relent and gets bigger and crazier. So in that respect if you didn't like the first two films, you're really going to hate this one. But I do think (like in the previous two) there's plenty to appreciate. The battles go on and on, but you really feel the aftermath of these action scenes. There's a strong sense of melancholy and loss when some of our heroes don't make it. Death is a near constant theme in Jackson's work (both light and heavy) and in a way this is his Tolkien film where it's highlighted the most.



Anyway, the movie segues very nicely into LOTR and now I know what I'm watching over the holidays.

[Dr Kain]

The Hobbit This Did Not Need to be 3 Movies - The third installment of the Hobbit movies is one that brings a lot of great moments to the table, but it also adds a lot of negatives to the fray. This movie did not need to exist at all as there was so much left to be desired when it came to Smaug. His plot was just done in the first 10 minutes of the movie, which made it utterly pointless to even have his story continue here. They should have just ended it in the last movie. Also, most of the subplots that were made up for the movies have absolutely no pay off whatsoever, also making them nothing more but time padding. As always, Legolas has his character shields up to full capacity as he is still perfect in every way, making him the most frustrating character here, especially when he does not even belong in this story. The battle drags on for way too long and seems poorly edited at times. On the other hand, the music, sound effects, and cinematography were as fantastic as always. The dwarves remain bland and uninteresting as there is nothing to distinguish one from another, making them for some very boring characters with once again, little payoff. In fact, Saruman, Galadriel, and Elrond easily steal the show away from every other character and they are only on screen for maybe five minutes. Bilbo is great as always, but the only reason you want to see this character's adventure is to see how he gets to the Lord of the Rings trilogy. Overall, the movie gets a 6/10 stars. There are two amazing movies to be found in what is currently three okay to good movies. It is a shame Jackson and WB let the dragon's sickness get to them and turned it into three over blown, underwhelming movies.

[jellydonut25]

[klen7]

The thing that i think is even weirder than the 10 hour runtime, is why they cut off the conclusion to the Smaug storyline in the film they titled Desolation of Smaug... in fact i'd say all the "desolation" occurs in the short bit he appears in 5 armies...

[Dr Kain]

[klen7]

Not in Desolation of Smaug...if anything he did that in the first film.

[Ernesth100]

Saw this, pretty good.

[Dr Kain]