The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies (2014) (1 Viewer)

[dpippel]

I still regret that we'll never see del Toro's Hobbit. Jackson's take is pretty much a loose retread of LoTR IMO. While there were a few good moments in the three Hobbit films my primary reaction to them was boredom, and I really have no desire at all to see the Extended Editions.

 

[Tino]

After DelToros last two terrible films, I'm glad Jackson was handed the reigns. Dunno what's happened to DelToro lately but imo he has lost his way.

 

[Josh Steinberg]

After DelToros last two terrible films, I'm glad Jackson was handed the reigns. Dunno what's happened to DelToro lately but imo he has lost his way.

I thought you liked Pacific Rim - or am I misremembering either the order of Del Toro's movies or which ones you liked? I haven't seen all of his films but overall I've found them to be well done technically but just not to my tastes.

 

[TravisR]

I understand why people didn't like Crimson Peak but that was probably my favorite Del Toro movie.

 

[Tino]

I thought you liked Pacific Rim - or am I misremembering either the order of Del Toro's movies or which ones you liked? I haven't seen all of his films but overall I've found them to be well done technically but just not to my tastes.

I didn't hate Pacific Rim. It was ok. Maybe I was being too harsh as his last two films weren't really terrible. Just really disappointing. More so because I really like DelToro.

 

[Tino]

I understand why people didn't like Crimson Peak but that was probably my favorite Del Toro movie.

[emoji15]





[emoji13]

 

[dpippel]

After DelToros last two terrible films, I'm glad Jackson was handed the reigns. Dunno what's happened to DelToro lately but imo he has lost his way.

Even at the risk of having something not that great, at the very least del Toro's take on The Hobbit would have been very DIFFERENT from Jackson's, which was nothing more than more of the same LoTR formula that made him and the studio so much cash. I would have welcomed a failure of the type that del Toro might have attempted. Instead we got, um, what we got.

 

[Sam Favate]

Jackson's quote is taken out of context, which isn't fair. Sure, the Hobbit movies have a troubled production history, but we all knew that, and it was primarily due to MGM's bankruptcy, which caused Del Toro to bow out and have Jackson step in at the last minute so the films could make their deadline. Overall, I think he did a pretty good job, even if I think the Hobbit should have been one movie.

 

[Tino]

Quote

"which was nothing more than more of the same LoTR formula"

Is that so bad? Sounds like a compliment to me.[emoji12]

I get what you're saying Doug. Too bad we'll never know.

 

[dpippel]

It is indeed too bad. Life is often full of disappointments.

 

[Sam Favate]

I just watched the extended edition of the Battle of Five Armies, and while I still like the film, I found this extended edition to add the least to the film out of the six Middle Earth movies. Most extended editions add some great character moments, which deepen our understanding of and affection for the people in the story. But Five Armies' extended sequences are almost all extra violence and humor, with the violence being over-the-top and gruesome. It's no secret that's why the extended edition earned an R rating, which I feel is a serious mistake in a film series of 5 other films rated PG-13.

I've often said that while the LOTR trilogy is a huge achievement in film, it also gave us the software (Massive) which created battle scenes with hundreds or thousands of combatants, and it's been used so much at this point (nearly 14 years since The Two Towers) that it's rather dull. How many more movies do we need of armies fighting in middle-age gear? I can't even count all the movies I've seen with this, and I have by no means seen them all.

I love Peter Jackson's Middle Earth films, but this extended edition confirmed for me that the Hobbit movies are, by far, the lesser achievement.