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I cringed when they announced it as a two part film. When they expanded it to three, I knew this was going to be a rough outing.

 

I'll end up seeing Battle of the Five Armies because my fiancee enjoys the series, but she also was feeling weighted down half-way through this one,

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The new Hobbit movies are unwatchable.  Lots of flash, lots of action, but there's nothing that really holds my interest despite my overall fondness for the source material.  In fact, it was pretty much the same reaction I had to Jackson's "King Kong" remake - sitting there watching everything on the screen and repeatedly thinking, "Boy, this just keeps going don't it."

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The new Hobbit movies are unwatchable.  Lots of flash, lots of action, but there's nothing that really holds my interest despite my overall fondness for the source material.  In fact, it was pretty much the same reaction I had to Jackson's "King Kong" remake - sitting there watching everything on the screen and repeatedly thinking, "Boy, this just keeps going don't it."

 

King Kong takes a giant nose-dive for me after he fights the T-Rexes. That was a great action sequence and then the rest of the film happened.

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I still think King Kong is pretty handily his best film, but to each their own.

 

These two Hobbit films have had a few sparks of life here and there, but boy do they drag.

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I still think King Kong is pretty handily his best film, but to each their own.

 

These two Hobbit films have had a few sparks of life here and there, but boy do they drag.

 

 

It's honestly a film I have always meant to revisit on Blu Ray. I saw it during its DVD release and have not bothered to watch it since.

Also, three friends sitting on a couch watching a three hour movie generally kills the enjoyment because we are thinking about whether we should start up a Texas hold em game or go back to playing Madden.

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  • 7 months later...

 So, we saw the Battle of the Five Armies this afternoon. It really loses the story of the Dwarves and just become a war film, but it's the sort of war film where there's a huge battle going on just off-screen while the hero characters skirmish around it or have long one on one boss fights. But I liked it - it's just funny how you can slice heads off Orcs all day and still get a 12A (OK-for-kids-if-they're-with-an-adult certificate) so long as the heroes don't visibly bleed, even from serious injuries.

 

 The ending is really open ended. As in, there's things that happen between this and Fellowship that might be interesting to see.

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MGM and WB only have rights to Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit.  So they can only film things referenced in those books.

 

One thinks that sooner or later, something like the Silmarillion will get filmed.  The Tolkien kids won't be around forever.

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As a side note, I figured out what was bothering me about the marketing for five armies.

To anyone that didn't know the book, it has to be weird that the apparent big conflict left at the end of the last movie with the big fucking dragon is being completely ignored, right?

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Narratively, this is the most unfulfilling film.  Tons of subplots are left unresolved.  Characters appear and get established and then just disappear.

 

It's like the theatrical cut of Return of the King.  They build up Gothmog as this vicious orc leader that nearly topples Minas Tirith. Suddenly he just disappears after looking all scared when Aragorn and his undead army of wraiths show up.

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  • 2 weeks later...

This gets extra points from me for the bit where Legolas gave Bolg a running hurricanrana off the side of a collapsing tower as it was falling down the side of a mountain.

Agreed about the missing subplots although hopefully they will release an extended cut next year with extra footage. Fwiw this film was 'only' 2.5 hours long which is pretty short for a Jackson Tolkein film...

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Just a shoulder shrug.

Nothing new, FX wise, just made it more of the same. hordes of armies. Giant wacky creatures. Destroyed buildings. Just seen it all before.

The only mildly surprising thing in the plot is the cowardly heel not getting comeuppance.

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Guest The Magnificent 7

Was entertaining due to the battles.  Best scene was elf-king guy's moose goreing 5 orcs and then elf guy lops off all their heads in one slice. 

 

Other than that, it was pretty devoid of any good cheer or humor.  The cowardly heel I guess was supposed to be the comic relief, but you kept wondering why Bard and the other humans kept giving this slimeball important jobs to do.  They would have banished him at the least after the crap he pulled during Smaug's destruction of Laketown.

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