The Hobbit

[BlueLion. 21,491]

The Hobbit could have been done in two films, easily.

Film one: Bilbo meeting the Dwarves, evading Azog, reaching Rivendell, Bilbo meeting Gollum and finding the Ring in the Mines of Moria, showdown with Azog and intervention of the Eagles, meeting Beorn and entering Mirkwood, meeting Bard and entering Laketown before setting out for the Lonely Mountain. Bilbo finds the hidden door and it swings open with an almighty roar as Smaug awakens...

Film two: Bilbo enters Erebor trying to evade Smaug and locate the Arkenstone before the Dwarves arrive to allow him to escape the clutches of Smaug. Smaug escapes a trap and flies to Laketown to seek his revenge before he is killed by Bard. Then we see the events of the Battle of the Five Armies, but not in such a drawn-out, pompous way.

Two epic, fuck-off films. Stretching 300 pages over three films was a ridiculous decision.

[Atlas Lion 1,223]

I wouldn't necessarily call this last film a disappointment. It was a great film with a great plot and visuals, but compared to the other middle earthed films it is below par.

Still, great movie nonetheless and ties everything down to the fellowship of the ring.

7/10

[BlueLion. 21,491]

I wouldn't necessarily call this last film a disappointment. It was a great film with a great plot and visuals, but compared to the other middle earthed films it is below par.

Still, great movie nonetheless and ties everything down to the fellowship of the ring.

7/10

It's a disappointment only in context to the other five films, which at the very worst are 8/10 films.

[lucio 5,361]

what a disappointment!!! the action and graphics and yada yada yada were good but the essence of the book was completely stolen. dont know why legolas (bloom) and tauriel had to be introduced. the love story angle between kili and tauriel was BAD. why was "alfrid" given such importance? i can go on and on.

my best moment of the movie would be the last scene which was well morphed into the first scene of LOTR... now when my children will watch the movies, they can watch it in the right order!!!

now hoping for jackson to try and make movies on silmarillion. THAT would be a real challenge!!!

That would be more of an intense documentary.. and it's contents seem too disconnected to make a film. Maybe the children of hurin , it's known to be Tolkien s darkest tale , but lacks enough appeal.

His works are heavily based on Germanic traditions , I've been reading some of them , he gets a lot of character and place names from these stories. They are really good and deserve more attention. But they would rather churn out greek based films

[robsblubot 3,203]

LOTR did. hobbit most definitely did not. it should have been done as a trilogy. there were not as many incidences in the book to be stretched into 6-7 hours of movie. the first film was pretty good. simply cos it preety much stuck to the storyline except for here and there. for eg - that scene where bilbo forgets his handkercheif which was in the book as well as movie, just to show how much of a stickler bilbo was and the immense change that the journey will bring on him.

as the storyline kept drifting away from the original story, it kept getting bad because is there is better storyteller/writer than JRR tolkein?

i mean legolas going all the way upto angband, sees an army and comes back 2 minutes before the army arrives to warn them, what use was that whole sequence.

LOTR on the other hand was just phenomenal. if ever there was a movie that has done justice to a book, it is LOTR. everything you could imagine while reading the book was replicated in front of your eyes.

that's what I read and why I will catch it on blu-ray - I am a fan of the LOTR trilogy, but hobbit wasn't that great a story to begin with; stretching that out over 3 long movies is a travesty.

NOW where the fuck are the individual ratings?!

[Spike 12,049]

The Hobbit could have been done in two films, easily.

Film one: Bilbo meeting the Dwarves, evading Azog, reaching Rivendell, Bilbo meeting Gollum and finding the Ring in the Mines of Moria, showdown with Azog and intervention of the Eagles, meeting Beorn and entering Mirkwood, meeting Bard and entering Laketown before setting out for the Lonely Mountain. Bilbo finds the hidden door and it swings open with an almighty roar as Smaug awakens...

Film two: Bilbo enters Erebor trying to evade Smaug and locate the Arkenstone before the Dwarves arrive to allow him to escape the clutches of Smaug. Smaug escapes a trap and flies to Laketown to seek his revenge before he is killed by Bard. Then we see the events of the Battle of the Five Armies, but not in such a drawn-out, pompous way.

Two epic, fuck-off films. Stretching 300 pages over three films was a ridiculous decision.

Could have been done in one.

[Jase 43,479]

Have finally watched The Hobbit: Battle of the Five Armies and...

...while I thought it was great and impressive, it also felt somewhat disappointing. To me, the part that I enjoyed the most was the opening 15 minutes with Smaug. Those scenes were really really really f**king awesome - from Smaug obliterating Lake-town to communicating with Bard at the tower. Can't help but to admire the beauty, precision and amount of detail they put into creating the dragon to make it look extremely realistic, fearsome and yet at the same time, mesmerising. Smaug has to be the best ever dragon to have been created in the cinematic world. I doubt any other film makers would be able to create one as impressive and menacing as Smaug in the future.

The battle scenes were definitely awesome and captivating (still cannot be compared with LOTR: Return of the King. Craving to watch the Battle of Minas Tirith again!) but it felt as though Peter Jackson focused so much on that (given the battle was 45 minutes long) that some other parts of the film were left 'incomplete'. There wasn't really a gradual or proper conclusion and we don't even know what happened to the gold, dwarves, Bard, Lake-town, Thranduil etc. It's almost like everything was rushed in the end, leaving with more questions than answers. Then of course, there were some questionable inclusions, which I think they will be addressed in the extended edition but seem a waste of space in the final product here. Alex has mentioned some of them and there are 1-2 others as well like the earth worms (they only came out to dig holes? Why not use for battle?) and even the cave trolls with catapults (only hurled the rocks once and that was it?!).

Overall, it could have been better but I still like it. 8/10.

[didierforever 7,349]

That would be more of an intense documentary.. and it's contents seem too disconnected to make a film. Maybe the children of hurin , it's known to be Tolkien s darkest tale , but lacks enough appeal.

His works are heavily based on Germanic traditions , I've been reading some of them , he gets a lot of character and place names from these stories. They are really good and deserve more attention. But they would rather churn out greek based films

NO. please not the children of hurin. thats a terrible heart wreching story. maybe the the lay of beren and lúthien. even something like the fall of gondolin is better than the children of hurin. that one is such a depressing tale that i had a hard time finishing it.

but any of them without the actual history of middle earth would just be "empty-ish". for example the first few minutes of the movie FOTR where the history of the ring is told were essential in the understanding of everything. maybe the whole iluvitar song, melkor's fall, the coming of valar, and etc etc can be explained and the film could begin with feanor and the making of silmarillions.

but i agree that silmarillion as a movie would be next to impossible. i mean it would take atleast 25-30 minutes just to explain on screen what i wrote above. but i would actually love it if jackson tries to make silmarillion.

PS - does anyone have any idea what happened to the ent-wives. i have asked this question on a lot of LOTR-based forums and so far there is nothing conclusive. so just trying my luck here.

[Belgiannutt 3,201]

@didierforever

Didn't treebeard say that the male ents had forgotten what they looked like so they couldn't find them anymore or something like that ?

Edit: Just looked it up. Apparently in the last war with Sauron he burned down the place where entwives lived. ( Beautiful gardens and fruitful orchards of the Entwives)

and no one knows where they went or what happened to the Entwives after that.

[didierforever 7,349]

@didierforever

Didn't treebeard say that the male ents had forgotten what they looked like so they couldn't find them anymore or something like that ?

kind of. he says that it was such a long time ago that they have forgotten what they looked like.

but he also says that they looked for the entwives for a long time before they gave up.

there are some theories where people say that the "old forest" near shire is the place where the entwives have started living and they have become a lot more "tree-ish" since that is what is happening to a lot of ents too. the incident that the hobbits have with "old man willow" tells that the trees in the old forest are not just trees. also, there is another incident where a person in a pub in shire is talking about seeing a moving tree. but there is nothing definite.

[BlueLion. 21,491]

Could have been done in one.

Nah, far too much. Far, far, far too much for one film. Unless it was 8 hours long.

Have finally watched The Hobbit: Battle of the Five Armies and...

...while I thought it was great and impressive, it also felt somewhat disappointing. To me, the part that I enjoyed the most was the opening 15 minutes with Smaug. Those scenes were really really really f**king awesome - from Smaug obliterating Lake-town to communicating with Bard at the tower. Can't help but to admire the beauty, precision and amount of detail they put into creating the dragon to make it look extremely realistic, fearsome and yet at the same time, mesmerising. Smaug has to be the best ever dragon to have been created in the cinematic world. I doubt any other film makers would be able to create one as impressive and menacing as Smaug in the future.

The battle scenes were definitely awesome and captivating (still cannot be compared with LOTR: Return of the King. Craving to watch the Battle of Minas Tirith again!) but it felt as though Peter Jackson focused so much on that (given the battle was 45 minutes long) that some other parts of the film were left 'incomplete'. There wasn't really a gradual or proper conclusion and we don't even know what happened to the gold, dwarves, Bard, Lake-town, Thranduil etc. It's almost like everything was rushed in the end, leaving with more questions than answers. Then of course, there were some questionable inclusions, which I think they will be addressed in the extended edition but seem a waste of space in the final product here. Alex has mentioned some of them and there are 1-2 others as well like the earth worms (they only came out to dig holes? Why not use for battle?) and even the cave trolls with catapults (only hurled the rocks once and that was it?!).

Overall, it could have been better but I still like it. 8/10.

I agree. I want to see it again and hopefully it'll offer a little more closure this time.

[Spike 12,049]

Nah, far too much. Far, far, far too much for one film. Unless it was 8 hours long.

You are wrong. Easily within 3 and a half hours.

[Laylabelle 9,293]

Looking forward to seeing this at the same time bit in theory it is the last one.Bit annoying seems to be made long for the sake of it.That and Orlando Bloom is in it.Was good as Legolas in the Lord of the Rings but seems to be randomly put into the Hobbit films and facial expression doesnt seem to change.Either stare or angry stare

[lucio 5,361]

Looking forward to seeing this at the same time bit in theory it is the last one.Bit annoying seems to be made long for the sake of it.That and Orlando Bloom is in it.Was good as Legolas in the Lord of the Rings but seems to be randomly put into the Hobbit films and facial expression doesnt seem to change.Either stare or angry stare

i thought he was going to be given a small appearence. as technically he was present, but of course he has to be a main hero. least he didnt kill the dragon. or i would have to leave the cinema

[BlueLion. 21,491]

You are wrong. Easily within 3 and a half hours.

Only if they'd have cut out the Necromancer stuff... which would have made it boring.

[Spike 12,049]

Only if they'd have cut out the Necromancer stuff... which would have made it boring.

Nah, you are wrong. It would have been better.

[didierforever 7,349]

Nah, you are wrong. It would have been better.

not really. how would gandalf's abscence be explained? necromancer had to be introduced and i for one liked that bit. (but can anyone explain what weird relationship did jackson try to show between galadrield and gandalf?)

[Spike 12,049]

not really. how would gandalf's abscence be explained? necromancer had to be introduced and i for one liked that bit. (but can anyone explain what weird relationship did jackson try to show between galadrield and gandalf?)

I didn't say take out the Necromancer. Alex said that. Alex said it would only be 3.5 hours long if they cut the necromancer stuff out, and I said he was wrong.