Support NeoGAF

[Johnlenham]

This review is a pretty good write up to explain my dislike of it
http://www.standard.co.uk/goingout/film/the-hobbit-the-battle-of-the-five-armies--film-review-9895775.html

I guess other people wont start rolling in till the release, pretty amusing to have me so against it and Vashetti so for it and we were both in the same screening haha

Edit; That fight scene as shoehorned in as it is, at least looks pretty cool.

 

[Annoying Old Party Man]

It's only a small clip of the Nine appearing and Saruman and Elrond showing up, but the CGI for the Nine looks a bit ropey :\

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j6WEFfWwpqM

After so much studying of Tolkien, it surprises me that Jackson and co seem so blatantly unable to properly write an original script.

"You should have stayed" comes out of Elrond's mouth? Really Jackson?

 

[Vashetti]

It's only a small clip of the Nine appearing and Saruman and Elrond showing up, but the CGI for the Nine looks a bit ropey :\

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j6WEFfWwpqM

Looked pristine on the cinema screen, and in 3D ¯\_(&#12484_/¯

 

[kharma45]

Looked pristine on the cinema screen, and in 3D ¯_(&#12484_/¯

I'll make a proper judgement when I get to see it on the big screen. I haven't been impressed by the CG thus far in the Hobbit films outside of the work done on Gollum and I don't really expect that to change. I feel these films will age badly in that regard.

 

[bengraven]

He's a non-character in this movie, no lines. Jarring after he had quite a few in the first two movies.

That makes me really rad, truly. I really loved his part in the first movie especially.

 

[Vashetti]

Bumping this as apparently the movie is open to quite a few people now.

Would love to hear other's impressions

 

[Semajer]

Just finished seeing all the films one after the other in HFR 3D. Thought it was alright. It's easily the worst Hobbit film, and the worst in the series. The first 10 minutes should have been the end of the second film, and I thought that the lead up to the main battle was very odd. The timing didn't seem right.

 

[CloudWolf]

I... didn't like it. I really wanted to, but I just couldn't.

The good:

- I really liked Thranduil, Dain Ironfoot (I really hope he has more scenes in the EE, since he disappears from the movie after his second scene) and Bard. They were great.
- Thorin's greed was nicely done
- The White Council vs The Nine scene was awesome

The bad:

- Why the hell was the death of Smaug the opening of the movie? Don't even tell me that that couldn't fit in the last movie. It was random as fuck to open with this and didn't fit the rest of the movie at all.
- The way Sauron was portrayed with the flaming eye and the spastic camera movements was terrible
- The silly trolls. I remember the trolls of LOTR being scary as fuck, these trolls were just there for comic relief.
- Stuff appearing out of nowhere. Where the hell did those rams come from?
- The Eagles yet again being completely unexplained. Come on Jackson, Tolkien has an explanation for the Eagles only being last-minute saviours. I actually heard many people groan when they showed up in this movie.

The ugly:

- Fucking Legolas. Why is he even in this? The scene where he was jumping up the falling bricks of the makeshift bridge/tower was ridiculous. He's basically a bad videogame character in these Hobbit movies.
- Tauriel. Ugh, I don't even have words for this waste of screen space. I was actually rooting for Thranduil to just kill her.

 

[Vashetti]

I... didn't like it. I really wanted to, but I just couldn't.

The good:

- I really liked Thranduil, Dain Ironfoot (I really hope he has more scenes in the EE, since he disappears from the movie after his second scene) and Bard. They were great.
- Thorin's greed was nicely done
- The White Council vs The Nine scene was awesome

The bad:

- Why the hell was the death of Smaug the opening of the movie? Don't even tell me that that couldn't fit in the last movie. It was random as fuck to open with this and didn't fit the rest of the movie at all.
- The way Sauron was portrayed with the flaming eye and the spastic camera movements was terrible
- The silly trolls. I remember the trolls of LOTR being scary as fuck, these trolls were just there for comic relief.
- Stuff appearing out of nowhere. Where the hell did those rams come from?
- The Eagles yet again being completely unexplained. Come on Jackson, Tolkien has an explanation for the Eagles only being last-minute saviours. I actually heard many people groan when they showed up in this movie.

The ugly:

- Fucking Legolas. Why is he even in this? The scene where he was jumping up the falling bricks of the makeshift bridge/tower was ridiculous. He's basically a bad videogame character in these Hobbit movies.
- Tauriel. Ugh, I don't even have words for this waste of screen space. I was actually rooting for Thranduil to just kill her.

Common theory is that they didn't feel audiences would feel incentivised to come back for this film if the dragon had already been dealt with at the end of the last one. But yes, Smaug is dealt with very quickly.

Here's hoping he has more EE material. I disliked how he has zero lines until he confronts Bard. I was expecting him to be taunting the residents of Laketown as he flies over them.

Instead he descends into generic monster for a time and just smashes/burns everything without personality.

 

[Das Ace]

The worst part to me was that the actors were really trying their hardest to make it work, but the script was so bad.

 

[Vashetti]

The worst part to me was that the actors were really trying their hardest to make it work, but the script was so bad.

I thought every Thorin/Bilbo scene was fantastic.

The movie is very much about their relationship. I'm really glad they went all in on Thorin's madness.

 

[glaurung]

Saw it last night at the local pre-premiere. Could not attend the free press screening because it was at fucking 11AM and I had a day full of meetings at work.

Anyhow, here are some pros and cons.

Pro:

1. Many pleasing one-on-one fight scenes.
2. It did not get boring.
3. Different character arcs are juggled pretty well.
4. The madness and redemption of Thorin.

Con:

1. Some bad slapstick here and there.
2. Alfrid arc is tiresome.
3. Aiming the black arrow off of Bard's son's neck. What.
4. Video game fight scenes. Bard riding down the street on a wagon. Beorn transforming mid-air. Anything with Legolas.
5. The White Council kung fu fight with shadow people. Eugh.
6. Not enough Stephen Fry. He gets killed (?) when Smaug's corpse falls on his boat. Later on, someone from the Laketown folk says that he fled and is half-way round the world by now (reference to the river Anduin, which a non-Tolkien-savvy viewer does not get).
7. Heavy handed allusions and references to the LotR story arc. Only some work, most don't.

Even with all these negative aspects pointed out, I liked the movie. Cannot wait for the non-3D blu-ray extended edition.

 

[NekoFever]

Why the hell was the death of Smaug the opening of the movie? Don't even tell me that that couldn't fit in the last movie. It was random as fuck to open with this and didn't fit the rest of the movie at all.

Particularly odd when they moved the death of Boromir from the beginning of TTT in the books to the end of FOTR in the movies because they realised, probably correctly, that it wouldn't have worked as well as an opening.

 

[Vashetti]

Particularly odd when they moved the death of Boromir from the beginning of TTT in the books to the end of FOTR in the movies because they realised, probably correctly, that it wouldn't have worked as well as an opening.

And they cut Saruman entirely out of the Theatrical version of ROTK because they didn't want to kill off Movie 2's villain at the start of Movie 3.

 

[glaurung]

And they cut Saruman entirely out of the Theatrical version of ROTK because they didn't want to kill off Movie 2's villain at the start of Movie 3.

...which was stupid because Saruman's death at the beginning of RotK was epic.

I see no problem with Smaug getting smoked at the beginning of this last Hobbit movie. It's a great intro.

 

[CloudWolf]

And they cut Saruman entirely out of the Theatrical version of ROTK because they didn't want to kill off Movie 2's villain at the start of Movie 3.

Yeah, I didn't like that. The death of Saruman was really well done. Though I would've preferred The Scouring of The Shire being a thing in the movies.

 

[Blue Lou]

The worst thing about this film was the cameo by Billy Connolly. I understand he hasn't been well but they should have used another actor who could wear makeup instead of have him voicing a CG dwarf.

 

[Vashetti]

The worst thing about this film was the cameo by Billy Connolly. I understand he hasn't been well but they should have used another actor who could wear makeup instead of have him voicing a CG dwarf.

He went to New Zealand and got into full costume. Not sure what happened in regards to the CGI.

I've heard it's a blend of live action and CGI.

 

[hadareud]

I thought it was awful. Genuinely bad.

It should have been two films.

Also, the side stories (elf and dwarf love, Bard's children) made me angry. I was hoping against hope for the children to be slayed.

Far too little Billy, too.

 

[Matt_]

The more I think about it the more I dont like it, its like they doubled down on all the worst bits of that last two movies
Still cant get over just how bad the cgi looks in some scenes, and I'm so disappointed with how they did Dol Goldur. The animation on the wraiths looked terrible and they made them look like something out of Dark souls instead of the cool look they had in the original trilogy
This one has soured me on the whole trilogy

 

[SiegfriedFM]

The more I think about it the more I dont like it, its like they doubled down on all the worst bits of that last two movies
Still cant get over just how bad the cgi looks in some scenes, and I'm so disappointed with how they did Dol Goldur. The animation on the wraiths looked terrible and they made them look like something out of Dark souls instead of the cool look they had in the original trilogy
This one has soured me on the whole trilogy

While I was disappointed in the movie overall, I liked the fact that the Nine were distinct designs rather than nine white sickly old men. Even though that conflicts with LotR.

But why the hell did Galadriel need to go emo?

 

[pringles]

I liked it. Desolation is still by far my favorite of the Hobbit trilogy, but this was an entertaining last chapter.

I know people are gonna say they should have made these into two movies..but I don't see it. Those would either be two very, very tiresome movies with way too much crammed into them, or they'd need to cut almost everything that isn't about Bilbo. And then you'd have a huge battle where you don't understand who anyone is or why they're fighting, you'd have 12 dwarves you don't know the names/personalities of, you wouldn't know what Gandalf was doing etc.

The more I think about it the more I dont like it, its like they doubled down on all the worst bits of that last two movies
Still cant get over just how bad the cgi looks in some scenes, and I'm so disappointed with how they did Dol Goldur. The animation on the wraiths looked terrible and they made them look like something out of Dark souls instead of the cool look they had in the original trilogy
This one has soured me on the whole trilogy

I may be way off but I assumed they looked different because they weren't actually the real wraiths we see in LOTR?

Gotta say that was one of the best scenes of this trilogy.

 

[Blue Lou]

Did Elijah Wood have a brief cameo in this one? I thought I saw a Hobbit that looked like Frodo during the auction carrying items out of Bilbo's house towards the auction.

 

[Cheebo]

I saw an early screening. Really depressing how bad this is. Easily the weakest of the 3 Hobbit movies. I have no issues with changes to the book or anything like that despite loving the book. It's just a really poorly made movie. I got the impression Jackson by this point just plain no longer cares. The editing was really really bad.

 

[CloudWolf]

I know people are gonna say they should have made these into two movies..but I don't see it. Those would either be two very, very tiresome movies with way too much crammed into them, or they'd need to cut almost everything that isn't about Bilbo. And then you'd have a huge battle where you don't understand who anyone is or why they're fighting, you'd have 12 dwarves you don't know the names/personalities of, you wouldn't know what Gandalf was doing etc.

Peter Jackson added a lot of filler. If they had stuck with the content of the books (and expanded slightly on it), it could've easily fit into two 2,5 hour movies without much confusion. Hell, if they had handled The Hobbit like the LOTR trilogy it would've even fit in one movie. The three Lord of the Rings books all had more content than The Hobbit and they fit in one movie per book.

 

[Real Hero]

Just imagine how much cooler the del toro movie would have been.

 

[Gozer the Gozerian]

Just imagine how much cooler the del toro movie would have been.

Who knows if it would've been better or worse, but I just would've loved to see a different vision of the universe. I remember reading early descriptions of Del Toro's version of the dwarves and Smaug and finding them fascinating.

 

[Real Hero]

Who knows if it would've been better or worse, but I just would've loved to see a different vision of the universe. I remember reading early descriptions of Del Toro's version of the dwarves and Smaug and finding them fascinating.

Yeah we can't really know if they would have been better but I'm sure it would have been much more interesting to me than what we got.

 

[StealthGoblin]

Haven't seen the film as I wanted impressions first.

Won't be paying to see this based on these impressions. Everything I hated is still present.

 

[Melon Husk]

Well that was terrible. Worst of the three. Too many scenes that felt extra.

For example every scene featuring the useless servant Alfrid. Couldn't PJ think of anything else than dreadful comic relief scenes to break up the constant action? And why were Bard's completely unessential kids given so much screentime?

Maybe someone can cut one comprehensive movie of these 3. If not, I will give a try...

Galvanise, everything you most likely hated in the first two is present in the final one: over-abundance of lackluster CGI, love triangle drama, lack of focus on Bilbo, light and dark scenes mixed tone-deafly like water and oil.

 

[Real Hero]

Sight and Sound review ' it is a ludicrously naff thing to behold, and entirely without wit.' I'm still going to see them film but my expectations are zero.

 

[PairOfFilthySocks]

It felt like a more self-contained story than the other two, which was nice, but ultimately it failed because I couldn't give a damn about any of these dull characters, less so when they do nothing but fight and fight and fight for what must have been a solid hour of screen-time. PJ seems committed to taking over as a slightly more competent Lucas.

The scene where Saruman throws down with the Nazgul was some Power Rangers shit. Laughed my ass off.

Edit:

Another thing; considering how quickly it happens, the decision to put the death of Smaug in the start of this film as opposed to the end of the last was bafflingly stupid and massively undermines the momentum and build-up of film 2 all for the sake of a cheap cliff-hanger that unfolds just like a third arc of a film would.

 

[Edmond Dantès]

The Hobbit you all wanted will never be made. The trilogy is what it is and there won't be another for decades.

 

[Hagi]

I thought this was pretty mediocre as did my partner who really enjoyed the previous two. All through the big battle all I could think about was how much I loved Helms Deep.

Thorins fight with Azog on the ice was utter tripe, such a shit villain. The whole ball and chain to jumping out of the ice was ridiculous and tainted the legitimately touching scene that followed with Thorin and Bilbo.

I echo that the CG was iffy at times. It obviously isn't shit but how it was blended into scenes was weird at certain points.

Two for two on prequels for a series I love being greatly disappointing.

 

[Betty]

The Gollum/Bilbo and Smaug/Bilbo scenes were so damn good, like LOTR trilogy good, if they'd kept it to 2 films, cut out the battle scenes no one cared about, dropped the love story and had a bit more FUN it could've been special.

 

[Edmond Dantès]

As I stated in the production thread:

I certainly think The Hobbit could have been done in one three hour film. Of course it would be The Hobbit without any of the additional links to the Lord of the Rings and the elements inherent in the novel itself would act as the main linking mechanisms; Gollum and Elrond etc.

The first half would essentially be a road-trip movie with backstory told via dialogue and the latter half bringing it all together to its conclusion with the maturation and individuation of our friend Bilbo."

 

[TheChewyWaffles]

Saw it tonight. Was OK.

What I learned is that they have intermissions in India. WTF is up with that? Sit your asses down, people, I want to watch the rest of the movie. If you need to piss after an hour or get more popcorn then by all means go do so, but some of us just want to get the fuck out of the theater.

Also, this should have been two 2-hour movies or a 3 hour movie tops. The love triangle with Kate should have been cut out completely. As should have Legolas. As should have Azog and a shit-load of other stuff.

Also, I felt it quite hard to care about anyone in the battle of the 5 armies given that they were fighting over fucking gold and not the end of middle earth. Greed isn't exactly inspirational.

 

[PairOfFilthySocks]

Oh, how did I forget; I thought the Saruman fight was the height of farce, and then Legolas decided to give gravity and physics the most almighty fuck-you as he started clambering up bridge rocks that were already in free-fall. I'm pretty certain Metal Gear Solid:Rising did this in a more believable manner.

 

[Matt_]

I may be way off but I assumed they looked different because they weren't actually the real wraiths we see in LOTR?

Gotta say that was one of the best scenes of this trilogy.

It's annoying because that Gandalf storyline is my absolute favourite and I repeatedly watch all of it on youtube, so that scene was what I was most looking forward to
I wouldn't have minded the design if the animations on them wernt so janky, and I do wish they spent longer there

Also what a shady thing for the trailer to make it look like Sauron and Saruman would fight

 

[Edmond Dantès]

Saw it tonight. Was OK.

What I learned is that they have intermissions in India. WTF is up with that? Sit your asses down, people, I want to watch the rest of the movie. If you need to piss after an hour or get more popcorn then by all means go do so, but some of us just want to get the fuck out of the theater.

Also, this should have been two 2-hour movies or a 3 hour movie tops. The love triangle with Kate should have been cut out completely. As should have Legolas. As should have Azog and a shit-load of other stuff.

Also, I felt it quite hard to care about anyone in the battle of the 5 armies given that they were fighting over fucking gold and not the end of middle earth. Greed isn't exactly inspirational.

That's a product of the elevation of this narrative far beyond its original intent. The Hobbit is a tale of a hobbit with two sides to him and his journey towards maturity. But greed does play an important role in the Legendarium and the legends of old that Tolkien developed and thus integrated into his sub-created world.

Oh, how did I forget; I thought the Saruman fight was the height of farce, and then Legolas decided to give gravity and physics the most almighty fuck-you as he started clambering up bridge rocks that were already in free-fall. I'm pretty certain Metal Gear Solid:Rising did this in a more believable manner.

Saruman's antics are amusing, but he is an Ainu and even in his aged raiment imposed upon him by the Powers, he's certainly capable of such feats in what should be regarded as an alternate retelling of this small chapter in the history of Arda. It's merely a prelude to his antics in the Fellowship and his duel with Gandalf, although ramped up to a great extent.

 

[A Serious Man]

It really is a miracle the LotR trilogy turned out the way it did, isn't it?

My dream is that one day HBO will do an anthology series of The Silmarillion but I know the Tolkien estate will never sell the rights.

 

[PairOfFilthySocks]

Saruman's antics are amusing, but he is an Ainu and even in his aged raiment imposed upon him by the Powers, he's certainly capable of such feats in what should be regarded as an alternate retelling of this small chapter in the history of Arda. It's merely a prelude to his antics in the Fellowship and his duel with Gandalf, although ramped up to a great extent.

I don't have a problem with portraying Saruman as a powerful entity who can fight. What bothered me was the ridiculous swirling swishing choreography. It looks so utterly stupid when a heavily robed figure like Saruman is doing it (and isn't helped by the fact that the wizard battle in Fellowship was infinitely more impactful, believable and intense). This extends to every single other fight in the film. I think the complaints of history nuts has rubbed off on me, because I really can no longer stand when characters perform these incredibly ineffectual looking slashes that fell heavily armored opponents. It's a by-product of this blatant dogged attempt to make the fights more flashy with all the spinning swirly shit. The attempt to make something that looks cool ultimately looks naff in this film. I'm not being unfair to the film either. Go look at the fighting in LOTR. Plenty of proper deep-looking stabs and mortal-looking wounds, with the flash reserved for Legolas, and even that has some modicum of constraint to it. Legolas' antics in this film are just preposterous. I suspect Jackson just wanted to see what he could get away with at this point, dude's disinterest in the story is evident throughout these films.

Edit: On the bright side, it is all but guaranteed that a fan edit of the three films will eventually surface that removes the extraneous characters, the over-indulgent action, and the oh-dear-god-the-cringe-make-it-stop-make-it-end elf-dwarf romance, resulting in what could very well be a really great 2.5 hour fantasy epic.

 

[Fafalada]

I don't have a problem with portraying Saruman as a powerful entity who can fight. What bothered me was the ridiculous swirling swishing choreography.

I find the comic-book one-liners that open the battle more offensive personally(just going from the clips released here) - and it's an obvious lead-in to pander to the audience that complained about LOTR wizard/monster battles having none of the usual movie-fantasy "flash-bangy" nonsense - over a decade later it's apparently no longer possible to shoot a big-budget movie without it.

 

[Edmond Dantès]

I don't have a problem with portraying Saruman as a powerful entity who can fight. What bothered me was the ridiculous swirling swishing choreography. It looks so utterly stupid when a heavily robed figure like Saruman is doing it (and isn't helped by the fact that the wizard battle in Fellowship was infinitely more impactful, believable and intense). This extends to every single other fight in the film. I think the complaints of history nuts has rubbed off on me, because I really can no longer stand when characters perform these incredibly ineffectual looking slashes that fell heavily armored opponents. It's a by-product of this blatant dogged attempt to make the fights more flashy with all the spinning swirly shit. The attempt to make something that looks cool ultimately looks naff in this film. I'm not being unfair to the film either. Go look at the fighting in LOTR. Plenty of proper deep-looking stabs and mortal-looking wounds, with the flash reserved for Legolas, and even that has some modicum of constraint to it. Legolas' antics in this film are just preposterous. I suspect Jackson just wanted to see what he could get away with at this point, dude's disinterest in the story is evident throughout these films.

Edit: On the bright side, it is all but guaranteed that a fan edit of the three films will eventually surface that removes the extraneous characters, the over-indulgent action, and the oh-dear-god-the-cringe-make-it-stop-make-it-end elf-dwarf romance, resulting in what could very well be a really great 2.5 hour fantasy epic.

Therein lies the issue. With The Lord of the Rings, it was to be grounded in reality (or as far as you can with a fantasy narrative) with a gritty edge to it. The tone of The Hobbit novel is of course different, lighter in nature, more faerie in essence and Peter evidently decided early on to exploit this lighter tone, but still trying to make this narrative form part of a cohesive whole.

 

[MoG EclipsE]

Just imagine how much cooler the del toro movie would have been.

Probably just as bad, if not worse.

 

[Hagi]

Therein lies the issue. With The Lord of the Rings, it was to be grounded in reality (or as far as you can with a fantasy narrative) with a gritty edge to it. The tone of The Hobbit novel is of course different, lighter in nature, more faerie in essence and Peter evidently decided early on to exploit this lighter tone, but still trying to make this narrative form part of a cohesive whole.

I think the leaning on both tones instead of just one is this projects biggest failing. This should have been a simple Bilbo telling his outlandish story to a child Frodo then they could hand wave the fact it's a much more whimsical tale compared to LotR

 

[Stinkles]

I liked it. Desolation is still by far my favorite of the Hobbit trilogy, but this was an entertaining last chapter.

I know people are gonna say they should have made these into two movies..but I don't see it. Those would either be two very, very tiresome movies with way too much crammed into them, or they'd need to cut almost everything that isn't about Bilbo. And then you'd have a huge battle where you don't understand who anyone is or why they're fighting, you'd have 12 dwarves you don't know the names/personalities of, you wouldn't know what Gandalf was doing etc.


I may be way off but I assumed they looked different because they weren't actually the real wraiths we see in LOTR?

Gotta say that was one of the best scenes of this trilogy.

Pretty much my impressions too. Was Temple of Doom fun.

 

[bengraven]

The Hobbit you all wanted will never be made. The trilogy is what it is and there won't be another for decades.

In fairness the cartoon is much much much more loyal and I still find it incredibly enjoyable.

 

[Edmond Dantès]

In fairness the cartoon is much much much more loyal and I still find it incredibly enjoyable.

Indeed. A happy medium of the two efforts would be ideal.

 

[higgsboson1997]

Saw it tonight. Was OK.

What I learned is that they have intermissions in India. WTF is up with that? Sit your asses down, people, I want to watch the rest of the movie. If you need to piss after an hour or get more popcorn then by all means go do so, but some of us just want to get the fuck out of the theater.

Also, this should have been two 2-hour movies or a 3 hour movie tops. The love triangle with Kate should have been cut out completely. As should have Legolas. As should have Azog and a shit-load of other stuff.

Also, I felt it quite hard to care about anyone in the battle of the 5 armies given that they were fighting over fucking gold and not the end of middle earth. Greed isn't exactly inspirational.

Indian theatres don't revolve around you man Intermissions are an expectation in India, especially considering how most Indian movies are 3-3.5 hours long. I actually really loved the fact that they expanded upon the book, since I don't feel that the book was easily translatable into a video format.

Anyways, back on topic- I absolutely loved the movie. It flowed more naturally for me than the previous two, and felt like a great ensemble piece in general. The into with Smaug was amazing.