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That shit looks ok to me.

Sad that "Desolation of Smaug" is the best this is gonna get.

I'll be back with my thoughts later today.

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Love triangle added nothing to the story after all.

The dialogue is really, really fucking awful at points.

I literally felt nothing was at stake with the battle.

Honestly, after all that badass shit wit Sauron & Gandalf and few others the movie peaked.

I didn't give a fuck about anything after that.

The blatant set up to LOTR was bad.

I can't believe there's gonna be an extended edition of this shit.

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I can't NOT watch this shit now. I don't expect much outside of "epic action" though, hah

Part of the perfection of that book is its simplicity. To try to build it to fit the complexity of the rest of the work was the biggest mistake in adapting any of this saga. There's stuff in the original trilogy that feels like padding that was integral to serving the text and satiating the fans of the source material. All of this feels cheap and like a cash grab. There is no reason this is three films. Zero. Two, I could buy, even if I thought that would be stretching.

The question I truly wanna know is, what is Peter Jackson's legacy? HEAVENLY CREATURES is still the best thing he's ever done in my eyes. The RINGS trilogy is brilliant filmmaking, even if it's not my bag. But I mean, KONG/LOVELY BONES/too much HOBBIT.... is he still a visionary or is it fair to say, he had a thing that worked and held on too long?

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One Hundred.

For the record I liked the LOTR trilogy a lot and I certainly thought the previous Hobbit film the Desolation of Smaug was a lot of fun.

However, Battle of the Five Armies is such a poor film it will besmirch the other films in Jackson's Tolkien cannon.

The pacing of the film is way off. I literally almost got up to walk out of the film twice, first with 45 minutes to go and then again with 20 minutes to go. The film just did not hold my attention. It is very rare I go to the cinema and want to leave a film early.

Like BWood said the love triangle adds nothing in this film. But that is one of the lesser problems.

The acting throughout is awful, especially from the minor characters. Perhaps they were asked to ham it up but the villagers/fisherman showed very poor quality of "acting". Especially the guy who was Alfred.

The special effects look like they come from the 1980s. Really unimpressive. There were times when it looked like a computer game but from a previous decade.

I'm still having trouble adjusting to the 48 frames per second look, the appearance makes the film look low budget.

The Hugo Weaving and Cate Blanchett walk ons were weird, I guess Jackson just wanted to pad the film length and introduce and set up for LOTR.

There are a lot of battle scenes, you expect this given the film's title but there is very little plot.

There is weak dialogue yet the film is still portentous; a strange mix but I've never felt the writing has been a strong point in any of Jackson's Tolkien films.

I thought the start of the film with Smaug should have probably been included in the second film. Again this is linked to pacing and structure.

Jackson should really have made The Hobbit a two part film rather than three and then made two director's cuts but making a third film the studios can bring in another $500 million.

>For the record I liked the LOTR trilogy a lot and I certainly
>thought the previous Hobbit film the Desolation of Smaug was a
>lot of fun.

When that's the best in ANY series you know that's fucked up.

>
>However, Battle of the Five Armies is such a poor film it will
>besmirch the other films in Jackson's Tolkien cannon.
>
>The pacing of the film is way off. I literally almost got up
>to walk out of the film twice, first with 45 minutes to go and
>then again with 20 minutes to go. The film just did not hold
>my attention. It is very rare I go to the cinema and want to
>leave a film early.

Right? After those first 45 - 50 minutes the movie is done.

>
>Like BWood said the love triangle adds nothing in this film.
>But that is one of the lesser problems.
>
>The acting throughout is awful, especially from the minor
>characters. Perhaps they were asked to ham it up but the
>villagers/fisherman showed very poor quality of "acting".
>Especially the guy who was Alfred.
>

It's the Star Wars prequel effect homie. We came in looking for the final installment to redeem the trilogy and it doesn't. Like at all.


>The special effects look like they come from the 1980s. Really
>unimpressive. There were times when it looked like a computer
>game but from a previous decade.
>
>I'm still having trouble adjusting to the 48 frames per second
>look, the appearance makes the film look low budget.


Dude, my press screening for the first film was in 48fps 3D and that shit makes CG look like ass and you can tell everything is a set. That's the unfortunate quality of having such clear picture.

Also, it's just like watching one of those True HD TVs at Best Buy where it looks unnatural in movement. Even someone raising their arm makes them move like a crackhead.

As Andrew Todd said on Twitter: "Suspension of disbelief lives between the frames. That's why HFR looks like trash. It suffocates suspension of disbelief."

HFR is a failed experiment. One that James Cameron is gonna use for the 3 Avatar sequels.

>
>The Hugo Weaving and Cate Blanchett walk ons were weird, I
>guess Jackson just wanted to pad the film length and introduce
>and set up for LOTR.

See when they popped up to save Gandalf, I didn't mind. Only thing that bothered me was Suaramon saying he's gonna deal with Sauron *wink wink nudge nudge*

>
>There are a lot of battle scenes, you expect this given the
>film's title but there is very little plot.
>

Yea dude, this movie should've been an hour 40 - 2 hours max.

>There is weak dialogue yet the film is still portentous; a
>strange mix but I've never felt the writing has been a strong
>point in any of Jackson's Tolkien films.
>
>I thought the start of the film with Smaug should have
>probably been included in the second film. Again this is
>linked to pacing and structure.

Yea man. The film starts so suddenly and unnaturally. All three LOTR films feel like separate films. Shit even the first two Hobbit films feel like separate films. This literally felt like 2nd half of another film. It's the same problem I have with The Matrix sequels. They felt like one big long movie cut into two. I mean shit at least Back to the Future Part 2 and 3 at least feel like different movies.

>
>Jackson should really have made The Hobbit a two part film
>rather than three and then made two director's cuts but making
>a third film the studios can bring in another $500 million.

That was the OG plan to do two movies with the second film concluding The Hobbit and being a bridge film for LOTR.

Now I see why del Toro left. His two films would've been great. And he said they would've been no longer than 2 hours a piece.

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disagreed about HFR and the special effects, but yeah. I'll add that this movie probably had the most "lingering final death blow, adding a needless five seconds were the character will be rescued" scenes I can remember in one movie. riding that cliche for all it was worth.

>There is weak dialogue yet the film is still portentous; a
>strange mix but I've never felt the writing has been a strong
>point in any of Jackson's Tolkien films.

this was rampant and one of my pet peeves.

>I thought the start of the film with Smaug should have
>probably been included in the second film. Again this is
>linked to pacing and structure.

really, who the fuck decided to push the Smaug bit into part three? senseless; there was enough "action" in the final chapter and it left the second movie on a wholly dissatisfying note. the slow pan of Gandalf locked up would've been the perfect opening shot.

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Obviously certain elements don't work here (Alfred comic relief, ugh), and, much like last film, you can feel the creakiness in certain scenes where they tried to expand on things that didn't need expanding. (For the record, I minded the love triangle less this film, mostly because it takes so little screen time compared to last entry-- it's still not brilliant, but it's earnestly done, and few actresses cry better than Lily.)

However, I still *love* Freeman as Bilbo, I still found plenty to enjoy in the action (Jackson still knows how to stage big action with the best of them), I still thoroughly enjoy the HFR (evidently not for everyone, but count me as a huge supporter), and I liked that this film reminded me why I liked Legolas in the first place-- Bloom is given crazy action once again, and he executes it coolly (at least one moment is beyond insane, and I'm sure some will hate it, but I admired its audacity). I even felt emotion at the end in saying goodbye to these characters for good.

If you liked these films, you'll like this. If you thought these films were despicable, nothing here will convince you. I find them to be overstuffed, but I still find plenty to enjoy and was more than happy that I got the IMAX 3D HFR experience.

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I think all the stuff with real humans looks off, but the rest is some of the best 3-D I've ever seen. most 3-D has that very pronounced "cut out" effect, but so many scenes in The Hobbit series have been seamless.

that said, the law of diminishing returns is immense here. loved the first one, lukewarm on the sequel and was bored out of my mind here. I also thought the big action sets were lacking (whose idea to put the dwarf army and orcs in nearly the same type and shade of armor?). trying to outwit a couple of trolls in the first movie was more memorable than 20 cuts of people pushing on each other with swords.

and that's the main problem with this trilogy. Jackson failed at creating another LOTR-style epic with all the "seriously dramatic" filler, while losing the whimsy and fun that make the original story what it is.

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I'd rank this trilogy Barrel Scene in 2 > 1 > the rest of 2 > 3 >>>>>>>>>> anything with Unibrow Guy.

But God, I can only imagine what James Cameron has in store for Avatar 2 with HFR.

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Most of the criticism that bwood and others have said, I can't really argue with.

Yeah the pacing is kind of off, especially with Smaug. And yeah the love story doesn't really go anywhere.

I bet a good editor could probably chop all of it down to 1-2 movies, and it would probably be terrific and much closer to the book.

Still

I thought it was a satisfying end to a decent prequel trilogy. No it's nowhere near as good as LOTR, but it'll do nicely.

I bet there's going to be a considerably longer directors cut that clears up a lot of the lose ends (and there are several).

All in all, I wouldn't bother defending this one, but I enjoyed it quite a bit.

He just disappeared at the end would have loved to see how and why he switched sides.

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I think Peter Jackson intended for this to lead up to Lord of The Rings, not be a prequel like Star Wars where it spoils a lot of the stuff from the movies to follow.

The bit with Christopher Lee ended with a soft foreshadowing without actually spoiling his betrayal in the other trilogy...

In HFR too, b/c, why not? I've seen the other 2 in HFR, and while I didn't love it, I definitely liked it enough to see and pay for it, b/c it never happens.

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I'll need to check this out after once it's released on DVD and I can view it with the other two, but damn if this one wasn't the most bloated movie I've ever seen.

SPOILERS


1. The opening scene here should have been the final scene of the last one. This movie should have began either with Gandolf in the cage, or the panic of the Laketown citizens on the beach. It was a stupid way to begin this film and end the previous film.

2. Not enough of Legolas being a badass and Tauriel not being enough of a badass. Most of the action here felt like a movie trying to imitate the action of the original trilogy and failing, and more Legolas being an all-out badass would have helped. Also, those giant Orc trolls look like Shrek in a bad way.

3. The Eagles again? FOH. I just accepted that shit in the first trilogy. Whatever. The first Hobbit film? Meeeeeehhhh... but whatever. But again? What a lazy end to a lazy battle. Oh, and those 12 dwarves running out reeeeeeeeally made that much of a difference against that massive Orc army? The one that had a smal, remaining group of dwarves backed into corner? And all those peasant fishermen survived a massive Orc attack?

There's just a ton of shit to pick at in this one. It was cool for what it was I guess. So much of it was either flat out boring or had me rolling my eyes.

I'm hoping the extended cut makes more sense of it.

I mean I enjoyed it and all...

But for all the thought and time that seemed to go into the other movies, it seemed like this one was just rushed/phoned in. And it showed in a big way.

If they had cut this down to two movies and cut out some of the BS, it could have been great. As it was, overall it's a trilogy that just gets you by if you need more after LOTR.

I will say it would be interesting to get the opinion of someone who watches all these movies in order. Because The Battle of Five Armies DOESN'T outdo the battles in LOTR, which, looking at it as part 3 in a 6 part series, might be a good thing.

Because it really felt like the home stretch of a 400m, all you train for is 100, and you're just trying to push through to get it over with. It felt like he was tired of this thing and had to force himself to complete it.

Bilbo passes out in the middle of the battlefield (not on some icy hill, since none of that actually happened in the book and there were just a few thousand people fighting) when all seems lost and wakes up to be told the eagles swooped in with Beorn and they tore the orcs up. I can't remember if he passed out before or after Thorin died, but I did think it was lame they had those three all die separate deaths rather than get cut down rather swiftly during the charge into the sprawl.


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The whole film basically felt like a dreary grey 3 hour battle scene, with a hundred monotonous "dramatic" moments all related to battle action

I wasn't buying the drama, the million triumphant music parts, the kabillion pre-triumph "uh oh" moments, etc. It felt soooo repetitive. Only thing I felt was Lilly

after investing in watching the last 2.. I'm choked because I haven't heard one good thing about number 3.. even my 12 year old twin boys thought it sucked and told me not to bother.

Wait and then check for the reviews when they release the extended version, maybe that fixes it.

I loved the original trilogy and I even liked the first two Hobbit movies more than most. This was just rushed. It feels like Peter Jackson just had to make three movies but by the third his heart just wasn't in it. Some of the dialogue is cringe worthy, and the pacing is all lopsided and wrong.

Really? The only way to forgive it is to look at it as a weak part 3 in a 6 part series, and NOT the last part of a trilogy. if you look at it that way, you don't anticipate the stakes being as high, you don't expec the same sort of climaxes and resolutions that you get in ROTK...

But yeah. It's bad. I enjoyed it **ENOUGH** at the theaters, but it got worse and worse the most I thought about it. And it wouldn't have taken much for me to enjoy it and defend it before all the haters.

the trilogy and I have to say, as a much bigger fan of The Hobbit than LOTR as books (I tried and stopped with Fellowship about 10 times as a kid before it hooked me and I plowed through the whole thing), this trilogy wasn't a disappointment but it wasn't nearly as enjoyable as the first trilogy was.

Since the book is so much thinner they had to add so much fluff to these movies it's kind if impossible to believe the liberties they take.

That said, they're also all pretty fun taken as a solid binge watch, and I don't think the HBO versions of the first two movies (or the version of the third I watched) were in HFR so I didn't have that to think about. It was dumb that Legolas was in there but it was nice to relive his heroics from the first movies, even it ultimately gave Jackson the excuse he needed to tie in a love story and completely remix how the final battle played out.

One thing I really want to give this movie credit for as a fan of then look though is fleshing out Thorin's madness. In the books it's never made entirely clear why he goes mad, there are allusions to a thing or two but it mostly amounts to his going back on his word and being a stubborn little dwarf king. This movie makes it clear the gold had been cursed by resting under and around Smaug for so long (something that I guess goes back to Beowulf, a major inspiration for Tolkein's work?) anyone who laid claim to it couldn't stay sane around it. Compared to almost every other change from the books, that was a super smart adjustment on Jackson's part.


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"This is the streets, and I am the trap." � Jay Bilas
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