Battle of the Five Armies is a soulless end to the flawed Hobbit trilogy

Ars' resident Tolkien nerd on Peter Jackson's problematic final chapter.

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[kranchammer]

It strikes me that these movies are the creation of a person with a genius for visual filmmaking that has lost or stopped listening to the voices that tell him that hey, maybe this is a bit over-the-top or maybe we should pay more attention to the story and less to paying WETA to make cool-looking shit.

 

[kranchammer]

Faramir[/url]"boks7h5]

Hesster56[/url]"boks7h5]I, for one, am waiting for the De-Extended, one-movie edition. I watched the first, could see the level of cgi "hijinks" they were embracing, and hit the eject button. The LotR movies are nigh-perfect, this series crumbled under its own needless expansion.

The Fellowship of the Ring extended edition was excellent (notwithstanding the tragic elimination of Bombadil). In the Two Towers and especially in the Return of the King, you can tell that PJ was already getting bored of the source material and the quality suffered.

The first hobbit movie was a travesty, and I after that I stopped paying attention.

I feel the same (although I never missed Tom Bombadil, that was actually a necessary subtraction, imo). I really enjoyed the LOTR movies, but the changes to Faramir, to Aragorn, and to Denethor made me suspect that Jackson really didn't 'get' the material.

 

[kranchammer]

Wickwick[/url]":nntmugnq]

zebostoneleigh[/url]":nntmugnq]You say it's the "end." Perhaps it can be the end of middle earth films in general.

Well, unless they're just going to completely make up source material they've run out. Everything else from JRR and his son covers material earlier than Middle Earth.

I have an ugly feeling we will be seeing an original The Adventures of Legolas and Young Aragorn next.

 

[kranchammer]

caldepen[/url]":11ojl5gx]I think the timing may be right to roll in the Dragonlance... Please no more Tolkien... Lots of material out there just have to choose it and then market it properly.

Or better yet, a Games of Thrones-esque miniseries based on some of the better (slim pickings, I know) D&D authors' works. Tales from Icewind Dale (Drizzt, naturally! ), etc.