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Upon watching it again, I've decided that I think Battle of the Five Armies was the weakest Middle Earth movie of them all. Not bad by any means, just a lousy end to such a delightful franchise
Saturday, 07-Mar-15 01:54:52 UTC from web-
Saturday, 07-Mar-15 01:58:26 UTC from web
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@northernnarwhal I'm actually not sure that I stand by my claim of "weakest" since it was arguably better than Desolation of Smaug. I just felt like it was too much baseless action, to many pointless subplots that lead to nothing, and too much Legolas.
Saturday, 07-Mar-15 01:59:33 UTC from web-
@zazie True, but if there's any director who can frame large battles really damn well it's Jackson. And while I agree with your point on Legolas, I thought Bilbo's characterization was handled well in the film and despite being a little under 3 hours it didn't feel like it overstayed its welcome.
Saturday, 07-Mar-15 02:02:19 UTC from web-
@northernnarwhal Bilbo's characterization in the entire trilogy has been fantastic, it's one of the definite high points. The thing is, Jackson is incredible at large battles, as we've seen in both Two Towers and especially Return of the King. However, I just felt like the battles in the movie weren't on par with some of Jackson's previous work. It wasn't bad enough to stain or otherwise damage the saga, I just feel like it was overall lackluster.
Saturday, 07-Mar-15 02:05:25 UTC from web-
@zazie i felt like they could rename the movie the "the battle of the 5 armies. Oh, and there is a hobbit too"
Saturday, 07-Mar-15 02:06:46 UTC from web-
@mushi To be fair, that part of the book focused a lot on the battle. It was like a single chapter though. Haven't watched the movie
Saturday, 07-Mar-15 02:08:03 UTC from web-
@nerthos i havent readthe book, but i've heard it is pretty different
Saturday, 07-Mar-15 02:08:45 UTC from web-
@mushi Tolkien's prose is sort of archaic. His specialization was not initially that of an author but rather a cartographer, so he was able to build incredibly detailed and cultured worlds that were developed and fleshed out, but this also meant that sometimes the story and characters played second fiddle to his world in his writing, whereas the films are much more heavily character driven.
Saturday, 07-Mar-15 02:10:58 UTC from web
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@nerthos That's another thing, the Battle of Five Armies was really short in the book, and the movie decided to drag the entire thing out into a full length movie, and I just feel like it didn't work that well.
Saturday, 07-Mar-15 02:10:55 UTC from web
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@zazie Fair enough, that's understandable. Also the worst for me is probably An Unexpected Journey, mostly due to serious pacing issues.
Saturday, 07-Mar-15 02:07:11 UTC from web-
@northernnarwhal Personally I feel like the entire Hobbit trilogy had serious pacing issues. I really enjoyed Battle of the Five Armies in theaters, but watching it home without all the spectacle, I just felt like it wasn't that great. Also Legolas is a big issue for me in it honestly. I never hated Legolas in Lord of the Rings, he was just far from being my favorite character and I dislike how shoe-horned he is into The Hobbit in general. I also feel like he's a much less interesting character without Gimli.
Saturday, 07-Mar-15 02:10:10 UTC from web-
@zazie I though Battle of the Five Armies was well paced for the most part. An Unexpected Journey was just unbelievably slow, which isn't always a problem, but most of the dialogue doesn't establish much that the viewer doesn't already know anyway. The film is just sort of a 2 hour prologue of sorts.
Saturday, 07-Mar-15 02:13:29 UTC from web-
@northernnarwhal Honestly, slow is something the Lord of the Rings did really well, especially in Two Towers, but I feel like the original trilogy had a sort of... charm that made the viewer willing to sit through the slow. The slow was enjoyable. Admittedly, Unexpected Journey did not have that same feel.
Saturday, 07-Mar-15 02:15:17 UTC from web-
@zazie That's sort of my point. The slow paced worked in the original trilogy because it was intentionally slow to establish characterization through banter (since the film trilogy was heavily character driven). We're given lots of insight into the characters and there's enough charm to motivate the viewer to keep watching, but Unexpected Journey plays a lot of its cards closer to the chest and isn't as engaging in that regard.
Saturday, 07-Mar-15 02:17:09 UTC from web-
@northernnarwhal Using banter and small talk as a tool for plot-progression and character development is rather difficult to do well. Peter Jackson has demonstrated both the exact right way of doing it in Lord of the Rings, and the wrong way of doing it throughout the Hobbit.
Saturday, 07-Mar-15 02:18:24 UTC from web-
@zazie Overall I didn't dislike any of The Hobbit films though, I just had a lot more issues with them in comparison to The Lord of the Rings trilogy which I hold in pretty high regard.
Saturday, 07-Mar-15 02:19:32 UTC from web-
@northernnarwhal This sums up my feelings pretty well. All of the Hobbit movies would be completely fine if they didn't have such high standards to live up to.
Saturday, 07-Mar-15 02:21:07 UTC from web
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@zazie I'd also like to add that if there was one thing I enjoyed about An Unexpected Journey it's that Andy Serkis was still absolutely phenomenal in the role of Gollum.
Saturday, 07-Mar-15 02:22:09 UTC from web
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@zazie Though I do agree that the banter between Legolas and Gimli was quite charming and added a lot to the character of Legolas. My favourite character was Boromir (RIP ;-;)
Saturday, 07-Mar-15 02:14:48 UTC from web-
@northernnarwhal Boromir's death would be near the top of my list of Favorite Moments From Lord of the Rings that Weren't from Return of the King
Saturday, 07-Mar-15 02:16:57 UTC from web-
@zazie Yeah, that was a really powerful scene. But it's really hard to compete with most of the scenes in Return.
Saturday, 07-Mar-15 02:18:03 UTC from web
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@zazie Also regardless on which Middle Earth film either of us feel is the worst, we can at least agree that The Return of the King is the masterpiece of the franchise.
Saturday, 07-Mar-15 02:04:06 UTC from web-
@northernnarwhal This I can completely agree with. For sure.
Saturday, 07-Mar-15 02:05:38 UTC from web -
@northernnarwhal Out of curiosity, which do you think was the worst?
Saturday, 07-Mar-15 02:05:56 UTC from web
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