The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies

[raj101]

yeah hehe if you think I'm p*ying to get in, you YDKSAM(OMM).

[scootermcc]

Saw a preview in HFR IMAX and it was absolutely stunning. Nearly as good as Return of the King and I wouldn't bet against it getting a best picture nomination at next years Oscars.

9/10

Here's my thoughts: http://www.cinemabang.com/the-hobbit-th ... review.php

[raj101]

Battle of the Five Armies. hmm. So wheres the 5th army? NO I don't mean contriving a 5th army from the orcs of Gundabad. There was no eagle army in sight, thanks largely to that pesky meddling Peter Jackson thinking he can rewrite the work of a genius and get away with it. Not sure how anyone in the film making team could be dumb enough not to notice THAT THEY WERE MISSING 1 ARMY!! Battle of the Four Armies more bloomin like.

But apart from that BLINDER of a blooper, and a completely wasted anti-climax to the Smaug storyline (hes only in this movie for about 20 minutes ish, what a waste), this was an entertaining showdown akin to watching batting boxers going hell for leather at each other until they slowed to a glacier like grind in the last round as they wind down and gas out.

A lot of the settings in this trilogy look a lot alike (basically all of Rivendell, lonely mountain and mirkwood amounted to New Zealand heaths, pillars and mazes of crazy staircases), whereas back in the LOTR days there was a lot more attention put into the movies to make each setting look very unique if at times a little papier mache.

Watching it as part of the trilogy at the 8 and a half hour marathon last night, I was able to follow all the threads of the story through to their climax too. And all for free haha. An absolutely awesome night out without moving an inch for 8 and half hours!


Not sure its a great stand alone film, its more of a bad start (Smaug being ruined by being turned into something stupid and some of Tolkiens best prose ignored IMHO) that morphs into another entertaining battlefest. The battle is by no means perfect - there are quite a lot of humdrum moments that look utterly ridiculous - but it winds down the trilogy well. The Cleansing of Dol Guldor was well done, good to see Sauraman being a badass for once and Sauron getting turned into a UFO by Galadriel lol.


When the LOTR movies finally ended back in 2003 I was internally depressed for months but with this hobbit trilogy the send-off is bivalent - although you know their will be no more Jackson/Tolkien movies.... the good thing about this movie is that its also NOT the end since they lead directly into LOTR, which means you don't really need to feel bad about them ending- you simply now have to watch the LOTR movies all over again! (hopefully in an IMAX 3d extended edition release hehe).

[RAZORBACK]

Really enjoyed this, it's definitely the strongest part of the trilogy and whilst it isn't completely bloat free there's significantly less than there was in the previous two instalments.

Narratively speaking it moves along at a reasonably brisk pace and the battle sequences (which represent a large proportion of it's running time) are very impressive indeed.

Overall it's a very decent fantasy flick that more than deserves an 8/10 from me...

[scootermcc]

Really enjoyed this, it's definitely the strongest part of the trilogy and whilst it isn't completely bloat free there's significantly less than there was in the previous two instalments.

Narratively speaking it moves along at a reasonably brisk pace and the battle sequences (which represent a large proportion of it's running time) are very impressive indeed.

Overall it's a very decent fantasy flick that more than deserves an 8/10 from me...

We're in agreement again. That's twice this month

[RAZORBACK]

Really enjoyed this, it's definitely the strongest part of the trilogy and whilst it isn't completely bloat free there's significantly less than there was in the previous two instalments.

Narratively speaking it moves along at a reasonably brisk pace and the battle sequences (which represent a large proportion of it's running time) are very impressive indeed.

Overall it's a very decent fantasy flick that more than deserves an 8/10 from me...

We're in agreement again. That's twice this month

Yay

[FBS]

Saw this today in the higher frame rate.
Utterly boring. The first hour is dire word play. The Smaug situation is so quick that it feels like a joke.
The battle scenes are so lacklustre that it would have been out of place 10 years ago. The madness happens so quick and then is corrected even quicker. The worst of the trilogy and the main reason the story should not have been padded out to three films.

[Betty Botter]

Watched this in 3D, glad it we weren't on D-Box seats ! Not a clue who was who or what was going on, just lots of battles scenes but was swept along with the excitement.

[funthing29]

I wasn't sure what I thought of this after the screening on 1st December and I have since watched it again in HFR (which felt like an assault on my eyes at times) and am still undecided what my opinion is. I didn't hate it but found it an unsatisfying end to the trilogy. Strong performances from the cast, especially Armitage, even though some characters were completed sidelined. The plot has clearly been stretched to its maximum as the story takes a backseat to the battle sequences. Some of the fighting was impressive (such as Legolas' action scenes) but the orc/dwarf/elf/man armies facing off against each other did feel repetitive and some elements did not drive the story forward at all. I am really struggling to rate this as it is not a terrible film but I almost feel it may be the worst out of all 6 Middle Earth movies. If I had to give it a score out of 10 it would probably be 6.5/10.

[raj101]

saw this again, me being a big Middle Earth fan, and in IMAX this time. Once again it proved not really much more than a massive monster mash. Much of the more meaty characterisation is put to the sword in favour of the battle sequences. The end is probably the strongest part of the movie. It remains a mystery why Azog and Bolg were so hench compared to the other orcs.

I really do miss these films now they are gone, even though they are far from great sometimes. Hoping for IMAX extended releases of the LoTR soon.

Oh and my apologies for missing the eagles first time. I might have dropped off a few times during that hobbit marathon first time I saw BoTFA. There were eagles, I stand corrected.