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I just saw the last Hobbit movie AKA The Hobbit: TBOTFA Spoiler Thread *SPOILERS*

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Curufinwe

Member
Ordered by Sauron because it's supposedly a crucial place for the conquest of the rest of Middle-Earth (it is not).

It is according to Tolkien.

http://tolkiengeek.blogspot.com/2007/03/quest-for-erebor.html

This journey "there and back again" not only led to the finding of the One Ring and the destruction of Smaug. It re-established both the Kingdom of the Dwarves under Dain Ironfoot and the Kingdom of the men of Dale, which served as important allies in the War of the Ring. Without them, Sauron could have done terrible harm in the North while Gondor was under siege. Gandalf explains:

"When you think of the battle of the Pelennor, do not forget the Battle of Dale. Think of what might have been. Dragon-fire and savage swords in Eriador! There might be no Queen in Gondor. We might now only hope to return from the victory here to ruin and ash. But that has been averted - because I met Thorin Oakenshield one evening on the edge of spring not far from Bree. A chance-meeting, as we say in Middle-Earth."
 
Was I the only one who liked Alfrid? I always had a decent chuckle or two in his scenes. I really enjoyed how awful he was.

I thought he was great. He's an entertaining little dirt bag and every time he was onscreen he made me laugh. Wish he was in the second film more.
 

Martian

Member
Saw this a few days ago, thought I would share my view.

The hobbit in general is not nearly as good as LoTR is/was, but perhaps that's because I was expecting a more serious story and the book itself does not lend itself to that.

The TBOTFA felt like a mediocre movie to me, a good fantasy movie (not great) but a mediocre movie nontheless.
Here are my ranting feelings (some big, others small)
- I hate the whole "love" thing in the Hobbit. Thranduil shouldnt act like such an asshole, especially since I dont think that fits his story. The whole love-triangle of Legolas-Kate-Dwarf was also a bit much, as there is no basis for this.
- 2 Dwarves die? I don't remember that in the book (could be wrong though)
- Bard's kids are unable to pronounce the word "dad"
- Azog died when he fell in the water, sinking to the bottom with that stone. Don't bring him back to kill Thorin (which isnt in the book either)
- They should have ended DoS with the death of smaug. Because it died 10 minutes into the movie, it felt like saying: oh right, smaug was the bad guy in this movie and now he is dead. They defeated saruman in TTT, and that worked fine, why not do it again.
- Speaking of LoTR: why must every other sentence be a reference to the lord of the rings. Honestly, I understand homages, but it does not need to be every damn line of speech.
- 3 films was too much, I felt bored during the actual battle (something quite special, if you ask me). That should not happen in a movie set in Middle-Earth.
- Alfrid's character sucks. Boob-jokes, repeating the same thing over and over (pretending like he's helping and not doing it), people giving him mercy. Sorry but this character feels over the top (like the goblin in An Unexpected Journey).
- Multiple legolas-stunts. I understand why people want to see a bit of legolas action (like the shield thing in TTT) but why so many times? It's not like it hadn't been highly critiqued previously.
- And a very small thing: the ending throwback to LoTR (seeing Gandalf arrive from Bilbo's perspective) had different speech than the actual movies (it was missing: you haven't aged a day...). which seems sloppy to me

I feel like this is Peter Jackson trying to say he hates WB for forcing him to make 3 movies, so he makes them suck-y so they wont make the silmarillion (in 12 parts)


But, perhaps I just had different expectations of these movies.
 

Curufinwe

Member
Bards kids say Da as they're using a Welsh accent. Luke Evans real accent was used as the Lake Town accent.

Thorin, Fili and Kili all die in the book

I'd have to see BofTA again but I thought the FOTR dialogue was from before Bilbo opens the door. Gandalf only says you haven't aged a day afterwards.
 

tcrunch

Member
- I hate the whole "love" thing in the Hobbit. Thranduil shouldnt act like such an asshole, especially since I dont think that fits his story. The whole love-triangle of Legolas-Kate-Dwarf was also a bit much, as there is no basis for this.

I hated the "love" thing too, but I also remember Thranduil being an asshole in the cartoon.

s6Z7jX7.jpg


I want to say he was an asshole in the book but I can't remember because I read it when I was little.
 

Martian

Member
Bards kids say Da as they're using a Welsh accent. Luke Evans real accent was used as the Lake Town accent.

Thorin, Fili and Kili all die in the book

I'd have to see BofTA again but I thought the FOTR dialogue was from before Bilbo opens the door. Gandalf only says you haven't aged a day afterwards.


Hmm, you're probably right, don't remember the book (been 2 years). I guess ill have to take it back
 
I'd have to see BofTA again but I thought the FOTR dialogue was from before Bilbo opens the door. Gandalf only says you haven't aged a day afterwards.

He does. I was lip syncing it in my seat and it instead went straight into "Come on, come in!"

Took me by surprise as it's a really memorbale seen and the dialogue would be remembered by many.
 

JB1981

Member
I liked the idea that now that Erebor was vacant that the rest of Middle Earth would try to lay claim to the gold. This was kind of interesting and I didn't expect it.
 

Mr_Zombie

Member
- 2 Dwarves die? I don't remember that in the book (could be wrong though)

They do die in the book. The difference is that Bilbo is unconscious for the majority of the battle - he awakes only after the battle is over. Then we learn that Fili and Kili died while they were defending the king, but it's only mentioned in one sentence without providing any details.

- Azog died when he fell in the water, sinking to the bottom with that stone. Don't bring him back to kill Thorin (which isnt in the book either)

There's no Azog in the book ;) Thorin dies from wounds received during the battle with goblins.

Just saw it. Got the feeling that half of the movie was pure filler not in the book. Is that a correct assessment?

Yes. Everything concerning LOTR throwbacks and characters (Sauron, Galadriel, Legolas), the love triangle and Alfrid weren't in the book. However, in the book the battle itself lasts no more than 4-5 pages. Then Eagles arrives, Bilbo passes out. The next chapter starts when the battle is already over. So they had to fill the movie with something (or they could simply not stretch the book into 3 movies :p).
 

Alpende

Member
Dwarf was also a bit much, as there is no basis for this.
- 2 Dwarves die? I don't remember that in the book (could be wrong though)
.

Others have said it but Thorin also dies in the book. They missed a huge opportunity to show badass Beorn the Bear pick Thorin up and carry him from the battlefield. What the hell Jackson?
 
Others have said it but Thorin also dies in the book. They missed a huge opportunity to show badass Beorn the Bear pick Thorin up and carry him from the battlefield. What the hell Jackson?

Yes. That would have been awesome. Much better to have Thorin die after the battle when everything is calmed down then how it happened.
 

Sibylus

Banned
Just saw it.

I, well. I'm honestly disappointed. It seems competent enough, but I wound up liking it a lot less than the first two efforts (and for that matter, I wound up liking DOS a lot less than AUJ).

The movie felt like it was in a rush to end. Just wrapped up characters and scenes like it had no time to let them breathe. Felt unmoved by all of the pivotal deaths (from Smaug at the very start to Thorin at the very end) and callback moments. I just felt party to a strange, alien sort of neurotic fan film. I could see the wheels started to wobble in the previous efforts, and it feels like this is where they well and truly came off.

WEREWORMS
 

AniHawk

Member
i liked the first two movies well enough, but it's definitely a sliding scale. the most important stuff happens in desolation of smaug and the characters are established in an unexpected journey. in this one a bunch of things happen to set up the lord of the rings movies. if i was a kid going in for the first time, never having seen those films, i would be wondering just why the hell they let the bad guy go away, where is legolas going, why did gandalf show up at the end? i understand because for us time works linearly, that we are supposed to have the lotr films in mind, but it felt too much like setup for movies that already exist.

there's probably a great movie in there, but you need to cut out hours of stuff to make it work. this story might be okay in two movies, but i think it could be done in one. i mean just cut out all of the love story stuff and you lose nothing.
 

nukedawg

Banned
Well it was very awkward, wasn't it?

"They call him Strider. Here is his dad's name. You must find out his real name by yourself."

why

why cant you just tell me you turd

I didn't have an issue with that...but...I think it's supposed to be 60 years between the end of Hobbit and beginning of Fellowship. Strider is what...35-45 in FoTR? How can they call him "Strider" and how can Legolas go find him when he hasn't been born yet?
 

hamchan

Member
I didn't have an issue with that...but...I think it's supposed to be 60 years between the end of Hobbit and beginning of Fellowship. Strider is what...35-45 in FoTR? How can they call him "Strider" and how can Legolas go find him when he hasn't been born yet?

Aragorn was 87 in Fellowship.
 
In some other universe, there are Hobbit movies that are fleet and fun, and that use Martin Freeman's superb performance as Bilbo as an anchor for everything rather than shoving him into the background in favour of shitty love triangles and insipid comic relief.

I want to see those movies. :(
 
I really thought the lady elf would die cuz she's not in LOTR.

In this PJ version did Saruman already hook up with Sauron and was faking it during the fight or did he only turn after that fight?

Had low expectations and enjoyed the action. The emotional scenes were funny. I was entertained. Will probably never watch these movies again.
 

rezuth

Member
I really thought the lady elf would die cuz she's not in LOTR.

In this PJ version did Saruman already hook up with Sauron and was faking it during the fight or did he only turn after that fight?

Had low expectations and enjoyed the action. The emotional scenes were funny. I was entertained. Will probably never watch these movies again.

It seems like they already hooked up with the whole *wink wink nudge nudge* thing when he said "Leave him to me" or whatever.
 

DrForester

Kills Photobucket
I really thought the lady elf would die cuz she's not in LOTR.

In this PJ version did Saruman already hook up with Sauron and was faking it during the fight or did he only turn after that fight?

Had low expectations and enjoyed the action. The emotional scenes were funny. I was entertained. Will probably never watch these movies again.

In the books Saruman was already searching for the ring.
 

Nairume

Banned
There's no Azog in the book ;) Thorin dies from wounds received during the battle with goblins.
Azog actually is in the book...in a single line that mentions him as already having been killed prior to the story.

Also, Bolg, the other bad cg orc leader, was a/the leader of the goblin/orc army according to Tolkien but wasn't explicitly named as such in the Hobbit itself.

It actually seems like Jackson was desperately trying to find a recurring villain that could menace Thorin's party throughout the trilogy, saw the Azog thing and ran with that, and then found out that Bolg was already in the story and had to shoehorn him in, too.
 
I don't know about you guys but,
when Beorn came flying in on the eagles then dropped zoned in and started kicking butt as a bear, all I could think to myself was "mucia"
lol
 

espher

Member
- And a very small thing: the ending throwback to LoTR (seeing Gandalf arrive from Bilbo's perspective) had different speech than the actual movies (it was missing: you haven't aged a day...). which seems sloppy to me

Sloppy, but, probably intentional owing to the fact that we had two different actors playing Bilbo and there was some visual aging of the character as a result.

Anyway, I liked the movies a fair bit, even with the camp and ridiculous stuff (which I took as a reflection of the Hobbit's less 'grounded' nature, though they cut out some of the REAL mystical/whimisical stuff). I had the same expectations for these as I did for LotR (won't be 100% true-to-book and will have some additions/changes to better tie things together for a cinematic experience), so, there was no gnashing of teeth. I was even fine with the "lol, love triangle" angle, though it really did seem entirely unnecessary (it would have been okay if it was helping to flesh out some LotR characters' attitudes/motives, but it felt like it was just there to hit some bullet points on a list).

Length/padding didn't bug me here, either, which is surprising because it does for most movies, but it didn't for me in the original trilogy either (which I found really only came close with the 60000 endings).
 

Nairume

Banned
I don't know about you guys but,
when Beorn came flying in on the eagles then dropped zoned in and started kicking butt as a bear, all I could think to myself was "mucia"
lol
I was full on looking forward to that happening, and given the amount of bloat in the movie, I was fully expecting an extended sequence to pad out time (in a good way
because Beorn and the Eagles are the best
.

Except it was as short as it was in the books and confirmed that this movie was the worst.
 
Yup, me too, if you're going to drag this out, show me the fucking bear tearing apart some trolls. I don't see sitting through the EEs on this trilogy so if i didn't see it last night, oh well.
 

offtopic

He measures in centimeters
Just saw this and, wow, it was awful. I really enjoyed the LoTR movies and the found the first two hobbit movies to be average but enjoyable. Very disappointed. What the hell happened?
 

Gravidee

Member
Just saw this and, wow, it was awful. I really enjoyed the LoTR movies and the found the first two hobbit movies to be average but enjoyable. Very disappointed. What the hell happened?

It felt like a lot of things were left out. The battle just ended with no real resolution for anyone other than Bilbo.
 

Rapstah

Member
The environments looked great in HFR 3D. I still don't think they nailed either of the orc villains, but there was nothing that stood out as much as the molten gold from the end of the second movie.
 

Curufinwe

Member
Just saw this and, wow, it was awful. I really enjoyed the LoTR movies and the found the first two hobbit movies to be average but enjoyable. Very disappointed. What the hell happened?

Most of the common complaints about BofTA could equally be applied to DoS, which you enjoyed, so you'll have to be more specific.
 

Zarovitch

Member
This should have been two movies.
Finally all the filler stories feel bad. The fight on the frozen river was not really good.
I can't believe you change the story to make this fight.

Where's the Arkenstone, we should at least see when Bard place it on the breast of Thorin in his tomb.

I've not pass a bad time looking at the movie, but i hope someone else will make a new Hobbit one day, this one will be forget, maybe an animation movie?
 

garath

Member
I saw it on Friday. I really only saw it just to be a completionist. However, I wish I had saved my $14.50 and instead opened CS:GO cases or bought Grimrock II with it. I would have had more fun.

I've never been a HUGE fan of the Tolkien movies but this one was just ... bad. I don't even know how to articulate how bad I found the whole thing.

The necromancer side plot was short and so anti-climactic. The special effects looked like something from a 90s cartoon.

Thorin's decent to madness was the only decent characterization in the entire movie but he just suddenly got over it? (after another wonderful special effects scene of gold molasses)

The whole "battle of the 5 armies" was so anti climactic. So few shots of the actual battle.

The whole relationship between Bilbo and the dwarves seemed like it was swept under the rug. There was so little focus on that through the entire movie and the departure of Bilbo was really missing some actual emotion.

I could go on and on but I really found it disappointing and the worst of all the Tolkien movies so far.
 

Leependi

Member
It was entertaining enough for what was basically two hours of fighting, found myself thinking how much I'd rather be watching LotR instead.

One thing that bugged me was the dwarf riding the pig. His face looked really weird, was that an actor with makeup or some strange CGI creation?
 

Toth

Member
I wonder if anyone else shares this opinion but did people feel that the trilogy lacked a musical theme that bound them together like the LOTR movies did? In AUJ, we had the excellent Misty Mountains theme, but that (at least I felt) was used too excessively in the movie (the version where the dwarfs attack the ogres was so...unnececessary considering the outcome of the scene). I do not recall hearing that theme more than once or twice in the next two movies. Yet in the LOTR, we had the consistent Hobbit theme, the Ring theme, the Mordor/Sauron themes, and the Fellowship theme helping the films fit together.
 

Real Hero

Member
It's quite sad how much shitter 'the battle of the of the five armies' was compared to Helms Deep. First time I saw Helms deep it was so impressive....
 
Easily the worst of the three and confirmation that there was no need for three films. It's got to be disappointing for anyone that held out hope that the third film might justify it.

I don't even know where to begin with the mess, but most things in it didn't work. The pacing was off, as was the editing, cgi, and even character's actions and changes of heart. The dramatic moments didn't feel earned due to a severe lack of focus, bad acting, and poor execution. And the dialogue was downright terrible at times.

It also managed to make the ending to Desolation of Smaug feel even cheaper (which is no small feat).
 
Easily the worst of the three and confirmation that there was no need for three films. It's got to be disappointing for anyone that held out hope that the third film might justify it.

I don't even know where to begin with the mess, but most things in it didn't work. The pacing was off, as was the editing, cgi, and even character's actions and changes of heart. The dramatic moments didn't feel earned due to a severe lack of focus, bad acting, and poor execution. And the dialogue was downright terrible at times.

It also managed to make the ending to Desolation of Smaug feel even cheaper (which is no small feat).

This was the big one for me. There were so many wannabe ROTK moments that just didn't work because I didn't care about anyone. So sad.

I was a defender of the three-movie structure. But man, this third one proved that that faith was incorrectly-placed. This would have been a great one or two movie series.
 

Poona

Member
I am so dissappointed they did not have Thorin's funeral and Bard giving him back the Arkenstone, etc.

Then the only stuff with saw with Dain was during the battle? C'mon.

Bit sad they didn't show Balin meet Bilbo at the end too to give him an update alongside Gandalf. Hardly anything of Beorn either. :(

I feel like the movie was just mostly fighting. Will hope the extended edition improves it but I tend to wonder if that footage exists why don't they just include it the first time.
 

enigmatic_alex44

Whenever a game uses "middleware," I expect mediocrity. Just see how poor TLOU looks.
You guys realize that the Extended Edition is gonna fixed most of the story resolution problems, right?

I was also very happy with the Dol Goldur scene, about time they showed a glimpse of Galadriel's true power.
 

ascii42

Member
I am so dissappointed they did not have Thorin's funeral and Bard giving him back the Arkenstone, etc.

Then the only stuff with saw with Dain was during the battle? C'mon.

I feel like the movie was just mostly fighting. Will hope the extended edition improves it but I tend to wonder if that footage exists why don't they just include it the first time.
I get the feeling they wanted to avoid the RotK situation where it has like 6 endings, but the movie suffered for it.
 

Chococat

Member
You guys realize that the Extended Edition is gonna fixed most of the story resolution problems, right?

I shouldn't have to buy the extended editions to get the end of the story. I paid to see that in the movie theater. Extended editions should enhance the theatrical version, not be a requirement.
 

Jokergrin

Member
okay that big troll that Legolas jumps on near the end, I may have dreamed this but was he really a fucking quadruple amputee walking around on stilt legs and with chains bolted to his eye sockets.

so much shit in this movie was way too over-designed
 

Niahak

Member
Azog actually is in the book...in a single line that mentions him as already having been killed prior to the story.

Also, Bolg, the other bad cg orc leader, was a/the leader of the goblin/orc army according to Tolkien but wasn't explicitly named as such in the Hobbit itself.

It actually seems like Jackson was desperately trying to find a recurring villain that could menace Thorin's party throughout the trilogy, saw the Azog thing and ran with that, and then found out that Bolg was already in the story and had to shoehorn him in, too.

Bolg is named in the book just as the goblin army arrives. I went back and read the book after I watched the first movie. IIRC the line is Gandalf telling Thorin "It is Bolg*, whose father you slew in Moria!"
(with a footnote saying Bolg is the son of Azog, who hadn't previously been mentioned in the book).

Haven't yet seen this movie, though. Might once it's out for rental.
 

Brakke

Banned
Had some dope scenes --wizard battle!-- and cool battle choreography --elves jumping over the dwarven phalanx! Pretty empty film though. Those elves shouldn't have jumped over that phalanx they got a bunch of themselves killed totally unnecessarily. Looked super cool right in that moment though. Sort of sums up the movie for me really; a lot of things that are cool and should be glorious but fall sort of flat because they're unearned or poorly considered. Worth a matinee anyway.
 
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