The Hobbit films, previously to be directed by Guillermo del Toro and now to be directed by Peter Jackson again.

I gotta add that besides the Dol Guldur stuff, Legolas was also completely extraneous to the whole trilogy, they could've left him out without the story suffering a bit... Looks like they wanted to have some familiar faces besides Gandalf in these movies, but they just didn't manage to find a way to properly integrate the elements that weren't in the book. To make things worse, Legolas's radical elvish parkour stunts are just as prominent and irritating as they were in the LotR movies... Like, in this one there's a scene where a bridge is collapsing under Legolas and he's jumping on bricks that are literally hanging in the air, like fucking Super Mario or something.

is there a hobbit in this one?

I heard they're going to add the hobbit to the the director's cut.

I remember thinking the Galadriel temptation thing was great in the theater, it really was startling and weird and she sounded so booming and nuts, it was of a piece with Bilbo's reaction to the Ring in Rivendell. But on DVD the cheapness of the effect kinda overpowered the scene - IIRC this is one where they had farmed some effects out to some outside studio whose work they didn't end up liking at all but they had to keep it.

The new one is unbelievably boring.

what I'm prepared to believe might surprise u

After having finished this movie, I can also say that the whole Dol Guldur/Sauron subplot was completely pointless. It doesn't really have anything to do with the main Erebor plot, it's there just to tie these movies to LotR. (IIRC none of that stuff was in the book?)

Lightly. Even in the original version Gandalf leaves Bilbo et al because he has to fight the Necromancer elsewhere, as is discussed briefly at the end of the book on the way back. Tolkien essentially developed and partially retconned it later in LOTR's appendices by having it be the culmination of spying by Gandalf over time and realizing that Sauron had come back, thus partially his urgency about taking care of Smaug via the dwarves; he had already discovered Thrain in Dol Guldur and received the key and map from him before he died. The White Council attacks Dol Guldur, Sauron puts up a slight resistance and then flees eastward in a feint, he ends up back in Mordor etc. etc. From there Jackson and team fleshed it out and reworked it in the version we now have, only here things are more sudden and ad hoc, Gandalf actually gets captured and rescued etc., there's an attempt to REALLY create a new overarching demi-mythology that's not really anywhere in the stories -- the High Fells as a tomb, the origin of the Ringwraiths, Gundabad as the capital as such of Angmar, and so forth. Not the end of the world but it almost felt more like a series of explanations and stories from the Iron Crown Enterprises role playing games instead. (And the geography of the whole story is all *over* the map at this point, but they really only needed to keep things vague for the film anyway, I guess.)

Anyway! Saw it tonight and...pleasantly surprised? If only because it was so SHORT. Shortest of all the six films at two hours and change. I went in lowballing all expectations, honestly, and it worked better than I might have guessed. Even though I kinda figured Thorin and Bilbo's final scene would be more 'dramatic' as such than the book, which I appreciate for its quiet gravitas, they at least kept in a good chunk of the actual dialogue, including a reworked key line about what should be better valued. And while they're nowhere in Tolkien at all beyond a vague reference in LOTR about strange creatures gnawing in the 'deep places of the world,' those sandworm cousins in the battle scene, while kinda ridiculous, still looked pretty great. More tomorrow but hey, at least this is all over bar whatever the extended version turns out to be.

Gonna see this on xmas day I think

Saw this on Xmas eve as per the last two, thank god I can lay that tradition to rest. Thought it was ok for a long while, light on the ridiculous rollercoaster set pieces, bard the bowman jumping on a cart to take out a troll the most absurd but very brief (interestingly the POD RACING on ice I complained about in the trailer four months ago seems to have vanished entirely). Then the battle scenes started, and dragged on, wasn't v convinced by thorin's sudden change of heart managing to turn the tide. Just as I was metaphorically looking at my watch the whole absurd overlong non canonical "this time it's personal" fight against the white orc up on the watchtower started, and went on and on and on... oh look here's legolas hanging from a bat, there's the orc playing whack-a-mole with thorin on some ice forever while a whole orc army looks on, here's legolas running up a collapsing bridge "like fucking super Mario or something" thankyou tuomas, there's the orc coming back from the dead what a surprise...

Ringwraith fight was lame but yeah I liked the bad acid strobe trip of galadriel v sauron. Would've been happy to see more of radagast's rabbit sledge. "Alfred lickspittle" was crap invented comic relief. So much of the look of the orc and dwarf battle stuff seemed like a direct lift from Warhammer which idk seems a bit like the lazy option.

Oh yeah, and ten foot tall orcs with metal armour actually embedded into their flesh can be felled by a stone thrown by a three foot high hobbit. I know, old man yells at action movies.

HFR still looks great though.

Oh yeah, and ten foot tall orcs with metal armour actually embedded into their flesh can be felled by a stone thrown by a three foot high hobbit.

I guess the Hobbits are just the Ewoks of these movies... But I did like the fact that Bilbo was mostly useless during the actual battle (IIRC it was the same in the book?) and didn't do much action hero stuff, it did emphasize the "average person" aspect of Bilbo, the fact that he was more of an observer who couldn't really do that much to affect the larger-than-life forces at play here. Though sadly this meant there was less of Bilbo in this movie than the previous ones, Thorin and Bard essentially became the protagonists here. It would've been nice to have more of Martin Freeman, he's so good at playing the "everyman observer" character (having already done two iconic versions of it in Arthur Dent and John Watson)... But with an epic climax like this, I guess such a character can't by definition have much to do. Bilbo's return to Shire was really nice done though, and I liked that it was far more prosaic and bittersweet than the ending of LotR, which closed with a similar scene.

Martin Freeman, he's so good at playing the "everyman observer Martin Freeman" character (having already done two iconic versions of it in Arthur Dent and John Watson).

what ledge said up there, yeah. was fairly diverting, except for a 30-40 minute midfilm "now begins the BATTLES!" stretch, during which i became distracted by theatrical speaker placement, ceiling design, and the likelihood of interesting lobby posters were i to go for a stretch.

Haha yeah, I guess Freeman gets typecast, but he does do the type well.

If you went to watch this after seeing the first two, I don't know what to say.

"Hope you enjoyed it?"

raccoon tanuki if you went to watch the second after seeing the first you are complicit

COME AT ME

Could have done without the Kili lovestory, i never gave a crap about them in any of the installments

Thorin was p boss in this one. Like how they "smauged" his voice as he got more consumed with greed

agreed not enough bilbo
i didnt need the LOTR bow on the end but i guess i get why they had to

So the battle just kind of... ended. While everyone was doing their one on one computer game orc fights. Who even won the battle of five armies?

Best bit was the first ten minutes, after Smaug died the rest kind of felt like an epilogue.

Could have done without the Kili lovestory

Yeah this was shit.

can't muster up the energy to see this

like it just seemed like it was some version of this expression ALL the time with Tauriel/Kili with wistful music and everyone knew they were doomed from the start ...it just seemed like they were desperate to to Aragorn and Arwen redux but there was nothing to care about

http://www.silverpetticoatreview.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/12/tauriels-face-on-it-was-just-a-dream-lighting.jpg

because fanfic hobbit

u_u

let's be honest, there was nothing to care about with Aragorn and Arwen either.

Who even won the battle of five armies?
― the joke should be over once the kid is eaten. (chap), Tuesday, December 30, 2014 7:50 PM

that was my question after it ended. 3 hours of fighting over a pile of gold and they don't tell u who gets to keep it

I don't recall any giant piles of gold in the Lord of the Rings movies. Peter Jackson should go back and add them in.

You forgot to check his bank account

Every penny is on the (computer) screen.

Bus advertising over here is using the tag #onelasttime - have to assume they spent some time arguing back and forward about that vs #sunkcost

def what this needed was an extended version. the new R rating will reel nerds in I guess?

http://comicbook.com/2015/08/25/the-hobbit-the-battle-of-the-five-armies-extended-edition-is-r-r/

I'm sad that three-hour edited version of the trilogy is gone from Vimeo. I had a lot of fun with it.

It was also released on BitTorrent so I'm sure it's floating out in the wilds.

Is it weird that I watched the third film that way instead of actually watching it all the way through

Ha, couldn't blame you. The Killstein edit really did do a great job of turning the films back to as much of the actual source narrative as possible; I'm surprised at how effective the overall editing choices were. A couple of unavoidably clunky moments where you could feel it was an edit and not something plausibly 'as filmed/released' but on balance, nicely handled.

I missed out on the third movie. Saw the first two in the theater, in 3D, and just forgot about the third. Is it any good?

if you thought there wasn't enough screen time for Bard's children in the second movie, you'll like the third one

Also if you thought the master's henchman needed a lot more screen time.

And if you thought Ornaldo Bloomps bringing down the Elephant hardcore in ROTK was too gritty and realistic.

That's the best bit, though!

this week is school holiday week.
so, me and mk2 decided to watch this trilogy.
having never read the book(s), we really enjoyed the whole experience.

what was fascinating was just how much of the JRRT world has been ripped off for the 'Elder Scrolls' games.
i had no idea, but mk2 is massively into Skyrim, and Oblivion.
and there is a lot (seriously - a lot !) of crossover.
even in the small level detail of the game, eg, the use of a book called "black arrow" that increases your archery skills.
(one example of many that mk2 picked up as we watched the films)

so, question : did the creators of the Elder Scroll games get clearance from the JRRT estate to rip off a lot of the same language/ideas etc ?

i doubt there's anything of Tolkien in the Hobbit movies bar a few names.

inasmuch as all fantasy fiction rips off largely from Tolkien, not only is TES not exceptional but in many respects it's a good deal less egregious than most tbh

yours, a butthurt fanboy

Probably not; Tolkein has been getting ripped off heavily by everyone since he wrote. In particular Dungeons and Dragons was invented by a bunch of Tolkein fans and is basically a Tolkein pastiche in many ways. And D&D is the direct ancestor of video game fantasy RPGs like Elder Scrolls.

also

https://timcrairebooks.files.wordpress.com/2013/11/ba-cover.jpg

fair enough.
i am not that much of a fantasy fanboy, so was shocked as to how often mk2 was 'this is in skyrim' etc.
i guess you are right, its all a direct connection to the D&D world.

If anything, Peter Jackson ripped off Skyrim

movies are still terrible

So this guy has edited the three Hobbit films down to a single film. Or actually three films, there are 2 hour, 3 hour and 4 hour versions.

http://jobilt.tumblr.com/post/156704220060/jobilt-hobbit

I'd previously just seen the first film on a plane, hadn't bothered with the second or third ones. Watching this just confirmed for me that the problem with the films isn't just that they are too long, it's that they are a series of reasonably decent set pieces strung together into a directionless, meandering whole. And I still don't care about any of the dwarves / understand their motivation / feel myself in any way emotionally invested in their fates.

But anyway, might be worth checking out. The edit was good overall, only counted three jarring cuts.