Press a button, more orc s running across a plain

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I think it would've been cool to have one shot of Mordor at the end, where the spirit of Sauron arrives at the tower of Barad Dur and explodes into a ball of flames, becoming the Eye of Sauron

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That would have been an awesome post credits scene!

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which ran 45 minutes after the ring was destroyed without including the Scouring of the Shire was ridiculous.

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FIFY

I do wish the would have kept Bilbo noticing the bare patch on Smaug and the thrush telling Bard. By leaving that part out, it discredits Bilbo's part in killing Smaug.

I really enjoyed it. Saw it in 3D HFR and was very impressed. It really seemed like you were looking through a window vs watching a movie.

High points for me:
Smaug-- my favorite dragon ever on film. Amazing effects, terrifying power, and great dialogue.
Thorin's madness- I don't think I appreciated this enough from my reading. I personally thought his madness, although attributed to the treasure, was actually due to the ring being near him. In fact, once Bilbo left, the madness improved. In addition it seemed like the Elf King had some madness when Bilbo was near.
Death scenes- impressive amount of main character's dying in a well done fashion- really brought some gravitas to the movie.
The entire opening sequence of Smaug was just awesome.
I really enjoyed the free'ing of Gandalf and the confrontation with Sauron as well. As mentioned above I think Sauraman fell under his spell at this point.

Low Points:
Legolas going from being weightless running up rocks to suddenly using his inertia to toss down what must be a 500 lb orc with his legs around the orc's head. Also the preceeding sequence where a bat carried him.. just stupid. Also how did he manage to turn himself upside down while holding onto the bat before he jumped onto that spire?
The ram mounts of the dwarves just seemed too "Warcraft"y for me.
The addition of 12 dwarves turning the tide-- pretty silly but I could use could attribute it to them being heroes and armed with magical goodies from the mountain.
The villain/comic foil from Laketown was mostly lame.

One more question for Tolkien gurus. Gandalf talks about how important Lonely Mountain is in the coming war, yet Mirkwood and Lonely Mountain play no part in the LOTR series... why?

Thanks!

Did anybody else notice that once they put on armor, Gloin is wearing the helmet that Gimli wears in LOTR?

From reading the book, I though Thorins madness was really the gold and not the ring. I actually thought that scene in the movie ok. There were many others I couldn't abide.


Oh and Merry Christmas to you all Entertainment board guys.

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The villain/comic foil from Laketown was mostly lame.

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I may be way off on this, but were they setting him up to be Worm Tongue from The Two Towers? I kept getting that vibe from him.

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The villain/comic foil from Laketown was mostly lame.

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I may be way off on this, but were they setting him up to be Worm Tongue from The Two Towers? I kept getting that vibe from him.

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They definitely made them virtually they same character but I don't think it is actually Wormtongue. The Battle of Fiber Armies was 60 years before LOTR making Alfred at least 80 by then. Wormtongue was actually Rohirrim. That being said, Jackson may not care at all about all that

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The Battle of Fiber Armies

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The Battle of Fiber Armies was 60 years before LOTR

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Can someone help a non book reader out with this? If that's true, then that means Aragorn was supposed to be in his 80s in LOTR? Saying this because the elf king told Legolas that "Strider" was in his 20s when he was to go look for him...

Aragon is not a plain human. Him and his line from Isildur down are the Dunadan which are like super humans. In the extended edition of Two Towers he has this talk with the chick from Rohan that goes over his age.

http://lotr.wikia.com/wiki/D%C3%BAnedain

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Direct descendants of the Dnedain are known to live longer than normal Men. A good example is Aragorn who, in the movies, tellsowyn he is 87 years old, although he appears to be relatively young. (It is said that Dunedain live three times longer than normal Men; that would translate to appx. 150-170 years of average lifespan, given normal human lifespan of 50-60 years (Life span similar to that of the Middle-Ages, not that of modern times). It is possible with the blood of the Dnedain renewed by Aragorn and Arwen's marriage that some generations thereafter would experience lifetimes similar to that of the generations following Elros - between 400 and 500 years of life).

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Thanks KidDoc.

Finishing up reading Fellowship now. I remember why elves bother me. Tolkien bores me to tears with the elf scenes. They're like a precursor to every too serious superhero you've ever seen. They take themselves too seriously.

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The Battle of Fiber Armies was 60 years before LOTR

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Can someone help a non book reader out with this? If that's true, then that means Aragorn was supposed to be in his 80s in LOTR? Saying this because the elf king told Legolas that "Strider" was in his 20s when he was to go look for him...

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According to Tolkien's time line, Aragorn was 10 at the time of the hobbit. He was still old by our standards at the time of LOTR, but posts above explain that we'll.

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They're like a precursor to every too serious superhero you've ever seen. They take themselves too seriously.

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Which is true to Tolkien's depiction of them - every race he created had a flaw. The elves were greedy for knowledge and certainly took themselves too seriously.

Or, for a more contemporary interpretation, Tolkien was caught up in his own world and really needed an editor, because the elf scenes are like watching paint dry.

Yes I took my ritalin today.

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Or, for a more contemporary interpretation, Tolkien was caught up in his own world and really needed an editor, because the elf scenes are like watching paint dry.

Yes I took my ritalin today.

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Blasphemy!

Nice of bilbo to show up to speed along dialogue all the time too, "oh heres what you need!" "I'll go steal that!" "you forget I have a magical ring that you remember I have later!"

its a good thing Kate's character was created too, otherwise how would Tolkien have driven the battle scenes?

Best of the three. I guess that's not saying much, but I was entertained

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The Battle of Fiber Armies was 60 years before LOTR

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Can someone help a non book reader out with this? If that's true, then that means Aragorn was supposed to be in his 80s in LOTR? Saying this because the elf king told Legolas that "Strider" was in his 20s when he was to go look for him...

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Aragorn did die at 210 I believe

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2) A group completely being overrun and surrounded somehow gets a renewed tip of the battle when 12 or so more dwarves enter the fray. I can't see them being that influential. I was really expecting to see some huge golden war machine come crashing through the gate and just steam roll the orcs as that would explain how 12 new entrants could account for a balance shift.

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Tolkien actually addresses this in the story by referring to the heroic nature of Thorin and his kin as they join the battle.

In the Tolkien universe a hero is worth 100 regular men in a battle, and a regular man can still probably take out a couple orcs.

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Best of the three. I guess that's not saying much, but I was entertained

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I'll stand by the first except the bunnies.

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One more question for Tolkien gurus. Gandalf talks about how important Lonely Mountain is in the coming war, yet Mirkwood and Lonely Mountain play no part in the LOTR series... why?

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As I recall, there were other battles and fronts in the war with Sauron. Return of the King simply focused on Rohan and Gondor.

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A group completely being overrun and surrounded somehow gets a renewed tip of the battle when 12 or so more dwarves enter the fray. I can't see them being that influential. I was really expecting to see some huge golden war machine come crashing through the gate and just steam roll the orcs as that would explain how 12 new entrants could account for a balance shift.

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Tolkien actually addresses this in the story by referring to the heroic nature of Thorin and his kin as they join the battle.

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Vis-a-vis the book, I thought the size and organization of the Orc "army" was ridiculous. In the book, I always envisioned a loose confederation of small Orc mountain tribes.

Adding a dozen top notch Dwarf warriors would make a difference in that scenario. (Setting aside Jackson's "Laurel and Hardy" depiction of Thorin's group.)

If the Orcs were this numerous and organized, they would have wiped out the Iron Hills Dwarves and the Rohirrim long before LoTR.

Finally saw this last night. Definitely best of The Hobbit movies. Two things that really bothered me:

1. The Bard continually allowing Alfred to look after his kids knowing full well he's going to screw them over at some point for his own greed. Just didn't make any sense.

2. The Rams. They materialized out of nowhere. They were not with the dwarves army when they showed up. When they realized they had to get up the city and chase the orcs all of a sudden these Rams were standing there ready to be ridden. Stupid.

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Finally saw this last night. Definitely best of The Hobbit movies. Two things that really bothered me:

1. The Bard continually allowing Alfred to look after his kids knowing full well he's going to screw them over at some point for his own greed. Just didn't make any sense.

2. The Rams. They materialized out of nowhere. They were not with the dwarves army when they showed up. When they realized they had to get up the city and chase the orcs all of a sudden these Rams were standing there ready to be ridden. Stupid.

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THOSE are the things that bothered you?

Not the elf/dwarf romance after only being together in a prison for like may be a day?
Not Bard being able to make a makeshift bow that can shoot a freaking iron arrow when they could have written the screenplay to use the real damn thing that was already shown in the second movie?
Wizard fight with Sauron yet they were ignorant 60 years later....
Legolas?

My daughter (8) and I were reading the book and at the same tune this was being released. I decided to watch the first two on HBO Go and then go see the 3rd in theater to evaluate letting her see them. No friggin way. The book's story was just so good. I'd love to see a two-parter true to the book. No way I'll screw up her vision of the story with the crap Jackson gave us.

We're reading FOTR now. We will see about the movies. I'll need to watch them again.

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My daughter (8) and I were reading the book and at the same tune this was being released. I decided to watch the first two on HBO Go and then go see the 3rd in theater to evaluate letting her see them. No friggin way. The book's story was just so good. I'd love to see a two-parter true to the book. No way I'll screw up her vision of the story with the crap Jackson gave us.

We're reading FOTR now. We will see about the movies. I'll need to watch them again.

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LOTR movies are FAR more true to the source material than the three Hobbit travesties.

I just finished Battle of the Five Armies, and I cannot believe nobody has mentioned the terrible CGI during Thorin's reflection scene while walking over the "gold river."

A previous poster described these movies as not having the heart that went into the LotR trilogy - and I would completely agree with that idea. The LotR movies were all released during finals week when I was in college, and I would go and watch the midnight showing - and would then have an 8am final a few hours after the movie ended. It didn't matter. They were so good, and had so much to them.

For the Hobbit Trilogy, I've typically caught them on HBO or through RedBox months after they've come out. It's really sad, as I couldn't wait to return to middle earth after the LotR ended. Jackson's quality of work has never been the same, and I really wish the Del Toro/Jackson collaboration worked out after all to get Jackson away from his duties as a director.

Is it too soon to reboot the Hobbit?

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I just finished Battle of the Five Armies, and I cannot believe nobody has mentioned the terrible CGI during Thorin's reflection scene while walking over the "gold river."

A previous poster described these movies as not having the heart that went into the LotR trilogy - and I would completely agree with that idea. The LotR movies were all released during finals week when I was in college, and I would go and watch the midnight showing - and would then have an 8am final a few hours after the movie ended. It didn't matter. They were so good, and had so much to them.

For the Hobbit Trilogy, I've typically caught them on HBO or through RedBox months after they've come out. It's really sad, as I couldn't wait to return to middle earth after the LotR ended. Jackson's quality of work has never been the same, and I really wish the Del Toro/Jackson collaboration worked out after all to get Jackson away from his duties as a director.

Is it too soon to reboot the Hobbit?

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Peter was definitely too overindulgent but you give DelToro way too much credit.

He was a producer of these, and he helped write the script. He is just as guilty as Jackson, even though he was not behind the camera.

Someone soon will release a kickass 2-3 hour condensed version of this movie that will (mostly) rock. Just waiting for that day.