Hobbit 3 Talk

I suspect once they're all out on home video they'll be better received. The Hobbit really is one long movie in three parts. Even moreso than LotR trilogy was. On video people can watch them back to back so Smaug dies 10 minutes after he leaves the mountain instead of a year later.

Mr. White wrote: I enjoyed this review. Maybe because it validated my thoughts on the films, but mainly because, I didn't realize these flicks were making _more_ than LotR.

www.forbes.com/sites/markhughes/2014/12/...-is-a-mythic-marvel/

I had the opposite reaction: I thought it was a shallow, downright apologist article.

I don't use the term lighty. The way the writer frames the defense of the movie by pointing out that it's financially successful and pictures all opposition as parroting tired lines of "practiced faux-cynicism popular among online trolls" is either unlikely naïve or hopelessly insincere. He says he can't understand how any fans of the LotR films could "fail to appreciate" the Hobbit films. Perhaps it was the lack of Dolby's sound system when I watched the films on TV that made me dislike them, as he thinks it was so central to the film's experience that he had to link not once, but twice to it.

But it's not the apologism that worries me, rather it's the complete lack of insight on the film offered. Hughes is fond of making big claims in favour of the film, but he never elaborates or explains the logic behind those claims. Dissapointingly, he pushes foward the idea that "Smaug is the best depiction of a dragon to ever grace a film" in a single line before shifting gears and dedicating four whole paragraphs to talk about how important a higher frame rate was to the film. Characters and action get the same treatment. That, to me, is not quality criticism.

You know what this review reminded me of? The worst of game reviews. You know the kind, those long, poddling reviews of the latest AAA that rave about the sound and graphics being amazing while indulging in words like "high-definition" and "gunplay".

I've said it before, but I don't think they are great films. And the reasons for that are not the humour or the higher frame rate or anything like that.

A ranking:

Fellowship
Return of the King
Five armies
Desolation of Smaug

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Two Towers
Unexpected Journey

The line separates good and bad films. The two underneath I wouldn't recommend, but have to be seen to enjoy the respective story arcs of the trilogies.

how about favorite character across the six flicks?

For me it's not even close. Theoden all the way

Favorite scene, not surprising, the charge of the Rohirrm (sp?) in RotK

MattDP wrote: A ranking:

Fellowship
Return of the King
Five armies
Desolation of Smaug

---

Two Towers
Unexpected Journey

The line separates good and bad films. The two underneath I wouldn't recommend, but have to be seen to enjoy the respective story arcs of the trilogies.

interesting ranking. I agree that Fellowship is the best, and imo by a considerable margin. Fellowship is possibly my favourite fantasy film.

I'd probably stick Two towers in second and then perhaps Desolation of Smaug. I really didn't like return of the king much.

Wow. Several folks favor Desolation of Smaug over An Unexpected Journey (and more shocking...over some LotR films). I don't rate DoS much at all. What am I missing here?

Can't get some of those Dain scenes out of my head. Swinging that warhammer around, head-butting orks, all with dwarves, elves, and orks battling around him...perfect Warhammer Fantasy Battle scene. I'll be seeing this flick again real soon. Before it leaves the theater for sure.

My order;

1) Fellowship
2) Two Towers
3) Return
4) Five Armies
5) Desolation
6) Unexpected

My list was cut short, due to the Unexpected Disappointment of the Hobbit Trilogy:

1. Fellowship of the Ring
2. Return of the King (too many endings)
3. Two Towers (the 30 minutes before the Battle of Helm's Deep is boring)

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4. Unexpected Journey (bad enough that I gave up on Jackson's Hobbit Trilogy)

Mr. White wrote: Wow. Several folks favor Desolation of Smaug over An Unexpected Journey (and more shocking...over some LotR films). I don't rate DoS much at all. What am I missing here?

You're missing the first two thirds of the film, which are great. The trip through mirkwood, escaping from the elf king and the barrel riding in the river are top notch entertainment with nary a foot put wrong.

Ok, so Smaug is a bit of a disappointment, and the finale is preposterous. But given that Unexpected Journey is an empty windbag of a film, a showcase for almost all of Peter Jackson's flaws, DoS beats it handily.

Just saw Battle of Five Armies tonight. It was ... decent. At the end of Desolation of Smaug I though "why on Earth did they leave the resolution of Smaug unfinished? It's going to be so anti-climatic." And yep, it was. But as soon as Battle of Five Armies started up and Smaug started lighting up Lake Town I realized studio executives thought if Smaug died at the end of the second movie no one would show up for the third movie. And they're probably right. Smaug's defeat was really anticlimatic, and after that the movie was just one, long, drawn-out fight scene.

This series really didn't need to be three movies long. I was really excited they were going to flesh The Hobbit out with some material from the appendices, but in the end driving out Sauron from Dol Guldor wasn't fleshed out much. Maybe it would have been squeezing it in to make it one movie, but three was excessive.

I think my favorite from the Hobbit movies is Unexpected Journey, but it's been at least a year since I've seen it and Desolation of Smaug.

Funny enough, I think my ranking goes in order of release.

Fellowship of the Ring
Two Towers
Return of the King
Unexpected Journey
Desolation of Smaug
Battle of Five Armies

Favorite scenes (in no particular order)
Balrog and Gandalf on the bridge (Fellowship)
Gandalf's epic falling fight with the Balrog (Two Towers)
Battle of Helm's Deep (almost half the movie of Two Towers, but way better than described in book, also it makes the Battle of Minas Tirith seem minisculte in comparison)
Riddles in the Dark
Bilbo's conversation with Smaug
Eowyn kills the Witch King

Most of those line up with my favorite parts from the books as well, but my favorite surprise addition in the LOTR movies is the scene where King Theoden visits the grave of his son.

Okay, this is one forum topic that I can easily get into. (Hi, I'm new here and should probably avoid my first discussion being negative!)

I disliked the new trilogy overall, but they got progressively better, with Battle of Five Armies being my favorite. Two main reasons I didn't enjoy the new trilogy.
-It's just a rollercoaster ride. The first two Hobbit films felt like all the Marvel and JJ Abrams films. Fun as a romp, but with this feeling like if you moved the camera a hundred feet to the left, there'd be nothing but bare rock everywhere outside of the shot. The third sort of had that feeling, but Jackson admittedly knows how to make an epic battle, and they were stuck in the same space, so it felt like they had to build up the location. It's a preference thing, but I am all about believable space.
-I wanted a story about Bilbo. I think Martin Freeman was the perfect casting for the character, and they could have told a wonderful story about him, but they chose to focus on an angry dwarf, and I don't enjoy watching characters spend literal hours being angry.

I thought this latest movie was actually pretty fun, but overall, as a huge Tolkien fan (and fan of the original trilogy), I felt they missed the opportunity to have fun and tell a wonderful 2-movie arc about a hobbit.

All that being said, I kinda loved the psychadelic moments of this latest movie. It felt super not-blockbuster and interesting.

My order:
1.Fellowship (my fave by far)
2.Two Towers
3.RotK
4.Battle (I could be convinced that Battle is better than RotK as a movie, but I prefer RotK. Pippin's song..)
5.Desolation (my least favorite as a Tolkien fan)
6.Unexpected Journey

fivethirtyeight.com/datalab/hobbit-battl...s-lord-of-the-rings/

more minutes than book pages, quite an achievement!

I saw Battle of Five Armies of the Holidays and enjoyed it quite a bit! My favorite scene has to be when the "DWARVES RALLY" HA!

Thorin's battle with gold fever is deep in its message for anyone who has given up honor for money or we can bring it home to the gamer universe, Free games for a favorable review, HA!

The "money is the root of all evil" theme is done very well but of course not as well as in "Citizen Kane"

Black Barney wrote: how about favorite character across the six flicks?

For me it's not even close. Theoden all the way

Favorite scene, not surprising, the charge of the Rohirrm (sp?) in RotK

Top 5 characters?

Theoden - has all the best lines
Samwise - the heart of the fellowship
Dain - fiery red, troll-slayer hair!
Boromir - duh...Sean Bean
Thranduil - the arrogant elf prick played to perfection