The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies

[Beate]

Blimey - I never saw any of the above mentioned FMUKers! Glad to hear vealster wasn't in a parallel universe.

[kevinknapman]

So thankfully The Battle of the Five Armies turns out to be a fittingly epic and reasonably satisfying conclusion to The Hobbit trilogy. Offering up plenty of decent spectacle to what was admittedly a needlessly drawn out adaptation of a relatively short book. From Smaug's fiery destruction of Laketown to the battle of the title and a thrilling mountaintop fight that brings together the dwarves and elves against the orcs, it's certainly visually impressive. All that plus Christopher Lee and Billy Connolly kicking all kinds of arse.

Performance wise, this is Richard Armitage's film, giving dwarf king Thorin a considerable amount of weight amidst the special effects. Martin Freeman and Luke Evans also do a fine job and Ryan Gage offers amusing comic relief as the spineless, snivelling Alfrid (a million miles away from his King Louis in The Musketeers). Sadly the dwarves themselves barely make much of an impact again with only Armitage, Ken Stott, Aidan Turner and Dean O'Gorman making an impression.

Remarkably Peter Jackson also manages to avoid the multiple endings and reluctance to let go that made the final stages of Return of the King a bit of a slog (as good as it ultimately was). Allowing The Hobbit trilogy to bow out a little more simply and with less fuss (it's actually around 15-25 minutes shorter than the previous two films). Overall a solid end to the series.

[PeachyLollipop]

Well, I landed, rushed home, dumped my luggage and headed to the 02 and got there at 6.40 to be told that the red carpet was at 7.30pm and film would start at 8.30pm. They were the best security I have met so far, kept you updated, and they let us save our seats and go out to get something to eat, which I was really grateful for as was starving after my flight and a day of travelling. They then could not start the live feed and then told us that they would start the film 10 minutes early, despite telling us that we could not see the film before the red carpet finishes.

What a turnout of FMUKers, although missed Beate and shmile. Lovely to see vealster, funthing, c_t, livi92, elski, rawsalsa and missgotty.

Well I thoroughly enjoyed it and thought it was well worth the wait. Visually amazing. The battle scenes too were amazing.

Saw the screening at West india Quay.

hehe vealster, you were at 02 Greenwich, I know, as you were sitting next to my OH! That long wait has done your head in!

Wow, we had a full house and I didn't see anyone!

Thank you to my ticket fairy, husband and I really enjoyed the movie and the waiting for it to start was quickly resolved with a sneaky trip to Five Guys.

[Yinster]

Saw this in Glasgow tonight with some Fmukers though Yinster was noticeable by her absence! Very surprised!

I didn't realise I have such a presence wherever I go. Good to see chelle1973 even though I nicked her seat and Alythonian.

Having never seen the previous two it didn't long for me to work what was happening in terms of this film. However I guess if they stuck all the films together it would be epic. This for me was not a lot of plot (two events happening - the dragon in the village and then the battle) with lots of visual stunning backdrop. I did almost nod off a couple of times but I think that was due to being in the screen a hour before the film starting at 20:15 and jet lag. This could easily be a hour shorter but then you won't get that visual stunning look. It did fell the battle was almost in real time like Pearl Harbour. Billy Connelly was the surprise actor for me. Almost unrecognisable.

5/10 but might changed once I see the other two.

[baty]

There were quite a few seats empty in Cardiff last night, mostly in the front though. It was in one of the larger screens with more leg room, which suites me. Why do large groups of people turn up wanting to sit together 10 mins before the start ..... grrr

We had flashes of bbc news as they tried to get the link working. Not much of real time red carpet but in the end we mainly had a re-play of people squashed down and looking like the dwarves in the film!

We had trouble with the start of the film, sound too loud, 3D didn't work properly then blank screen with sound. After about 2 mins of groaning from the audience, hurray it came back, although not from the start.

What a crash bang wallop of a film.

Beautiful scenary, it should get an oscar for itself. Wished that the other dwarves had more to do and had more lines etc the majority of them had little to work with I felt. Ryan Gage was excellent as the 'baddie' character, funny and bad at times. I found Kate Blanchett extreemly scary in her scene, more so than in the Ring trilogy when Frodo offers her the ring!
The battle scenes were gory, so many heads flying round and I did have a tear or two for the demise of certain characters.

Overall i enjoyed the film 9/10

[weliveandbreathewords]

I tried to prepare the best I could, but this broke me.
I was a blubbering mess by the end of it and I'm sad to see the Hobbit go.
tauriel and kili were beautiful and thorin and bilbo were beautiful

That being said...

The opening scene was epic and tense then the huge battle scene at the end was lacking in comparison, only when thorin and azog face off, did the tense atmosphere reappear.

My opinion seems much like London, dain looked and felt rushed, seriously don't get the point of having a cgi dwarf when the rest are costumed actors although I liked his pig mount, the headbutting looked fake and cheesy :/
there was a significant lack of 'air time' for several characters that have been at the forefront till this point, it seemed very much focused on a thranduil/bard bromance and gandalf generally seemed useless.
One thing that threw me was the instantaneous way thorins behaviour seemed to change, and when the dwarfs in Lake town rejoin them, we hear he's been 'down there for days' where moments before it was the night smaug attacked... how is that days?? The passage of time wasn't laid down right

Urgh I don't know, I will see it again but I was so ramped up for this film but it just cannot compare to the two previous films for me
7/10

[prettyxcool]

a sneaky trip to Five Guys.

We preferred and went to GBK! Much better, and suggest you go there next time and have the Taxi Driver and skinny chips!

[McG]

Saw this in Glasgow tonight with some Fmukers though Yinster was noticeable by her absence! Very surprised!

I didn't realise I have such a presence wherever I go.

I had assumed you were coming because of our communication on FB yesterday morning. Glad you still got to see the film even if it was in Edinburgh!

[raj101]

heads up on the Thursday evening NON-imax triple hobbit bills at cineworld. http://www.cineworld.co.uk/whatson/the- ... bill?f=all

It appears that from the booking site they may be switching you into another screen for the final film, so just be aware that you may be moved into a smaller screen for that post midnight final parter.

I'd feel very shortchanged if they did that, since moving from say the imax-ish screen 7 in wandsworth to the quite smaller screen 8/9 would really bother me personally.

That said, for the proper IMAX screenings its a fairly good deal for hobbit fans, all three films in IMAX and 3d for under £20 ( about £6.50 for each imax screening wow but just watch out for those leg ulcers cos you'll be sitting down for 8 hours on the trot!)

[weliveandbreathewords]

And to think us cineworld premium users get the whole thing for free i might utilise it