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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[heftysmurf]

kranchammer[/url]":23dn6sqm]

Faramir[/url]":23dn6sqm]

Hesster56[/url]":23dn6sqm]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.

Agreed on Bombadil. Once you bring in the nigh-omnipotent you either make him less than the God he was or you have to spend a lot of time explaining why he didn't whup Sauron on his own. His inclusion in the book is consistent with Tolkien's world but it's incompatible with standalone movies where Sauron, the Elves and the rest of Middle Earth "just are". When re-reading the LotR I occasionally skip his section.

I'm also unconvinced (now moreso than ever) that Jackon had the artistic finesse to pull him off effectively without it turning into a Radagast rabbit carriage chase.

 

[heftysmurf]

caldepen[/url]":3mughlb0]Yeah the barrow-downs was an unforgivable omission. I also disliked his changes to the motivation of the Ents. In the books they get involved for purely altruistic reasons and in the movies they get involved for revenge. I guess he changed it so kids in the 21st century could understand I suppose.

Good point about Faramir. When I was a kid I always liked Faramir as I am a younger brother as well and could relate to the relationship he had with his brother. I also felt more kinship with Faramir because he seemed to have less responsibility and therefore nobler intent due to that fact. He did things for the right reasons rather than having to choose a path because he thought that was where people wanted him to go.

Absolutely this. Ents of ancient wisdom, take forever to discuss anything, make bad decision after days of moot then get riled up and go to war in literally 5 seconds after Treebeard goes into hasty nerd rage so sudden it makes Iraq look well planned.

 

[heftysmurf]

Hack-n-Slash[/url]":g6hg1e08]

Solomon Black[/url]":g6hg1e08]

Hack-n-Slash[/url]":g6hg1e08]If we both accept as fact that Return of the Jedi and Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix did not really lose money, then it's a lot harder to use "big budgets" as support in the "studios take risks" argument.

That's not "Hollywood Accounting" that's more like "Springtime for Hitler" an entirely different scheme not supported by your article therefore an entirely unsupported statement. Its a unverified conspiracy theory and that's it.

So... you're taking the position that Return of the Jedi and Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix have yet to break even?

Wish I could make a loss like those movies did.