Discuss The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies
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Anyone else find "The Hobbit" films utter garbage?
posted by aholejonesSTAFFMOD on November 1, 2017 at 4:17 AM
I recently had the misfortune of watching all three over a period of what seemed like an eternity, but was probably more like a month or so. I watched the films in segments to alleviate the overwhelming sensation of boredom associated with each of these films. Not sure where to start with the many issues these films suffer from, but just to start, I have to mention I found the story rather pathetic and the dwarf characters who had the vast majority of screen time had zero charisma and personality and watching the film you couldn't care less what happened to them. Then there's Gandalf who forgets he is a wizard in every other scene he is in and barely uses his "wizardly" powers in the movie and hacks and slashes with a sword like any other fool in the movie. Not sure what is going on with the elves who seem to come straight out of Ninja school and it seems an elf can take on about a hundred orcs in most of the movies, but in the end, you have an entire arm of said elves who get their asses handily beat by the same orcs, whom again are then beat because a dozen or so dwarves had a change of heart and now want to join the fray. Said dwarves seemed to get their as$es kicked in most of the films, but now they can apparently suddenly turn the tide of war. I love how those orcs who are built like sh*t brickhouses are apparently made out of sugar and wet paperbags and in the first two films and die if one even decides to look towards them. Let's also point out that the "love story" was pathetic. "If this is what love is...I don't want it" Boohoohoo.
Reply by Renovatio
on November 1, 2017 at 5:46 AM
@aholejones
Lovely name by the way... Yes, these movies are overrated... The appeal seems to be for fantasist who love seeing orcs and gnomes and such... They really do work for them, but if you're not a huge fan of Hobbits and elves, then these movies are very weak as the drama falls flat and the "action" has no consequence...
Reply by BarkingBaphomet
on November 1, 2017 at 6:12 AM
i wouldn't go so far as utter garbage, but they are very messy and bloated.
Reply by lmao7
on November 1, 2017 at 6:29 AM
Not really garbage, LOTR is waay better for me. As said many times by readers of the book, should have been a single film and not a trilogy.
I haven't seen it but someone posted before (not sure if here or on IMDB) like someone edited the 3 films into 1 and said it was the better version. Will post if I find it.
From here: https://www.themoviedb.org/movie/122917-the-hobbit-the-battle-of-the-five-armies/discuss/58ad3e56925141078a00395f
http://www.maple-films.com/downloads.html
Reply by AlienFanatic
on November 1, 2017 at 7:13 AM
Yep. I really, strongly disliked the direction that PJ took them. I have the utmost respect for him as a filmmaker and the LOTR movies are some of my all-time favorites. But the fact that they stretched and already thin novel out to the breaking point in three films, the massive overuse of CG, the ridiculous "romance" added between--was it Gimli?--and an elf, and numerous other problems I have no interest in ever watching any of the movies again.
I dearly wish he'd just filmed one, or a maximum of two, chapters and had done so with a minimum of CG--as he did with the LOTR films. The project was a mess from the start, though, with Guillermo Del Toro jumping ship forcing PJ to rush into production. They should have taken more time.
Now, PJ COULD redeem himself by doing a limited TV series--ala GOT--with the Silmarillion..
Reply by NotoriousRio
on November 1, 2017 at 10:33 AM
The Hobbit trilogy is a series of films dictated by greed, the short story that it is could of easily of been one movie and all the better for it.
Peter Jackson and Fran Walsh may have gotten away with adding new content to the far superior Lord of the Rings movies but here the added content and new characters just seems so off and disrespectful to Tolkien with the amount of changes they made.
Reply by NotoriousRio
on November 1, 2017 at 10:39 AM
It will be many years before it happens but I'd rather a new set of directors tackle tales from the Silmarillion, after the Hobbit I'm sick of PJ and his wife ruining Middle-earth, I want him well clear of it but he'd probally be too old by then anyway.
Reply by MirrorMask
on November 1, 2017 at 11:27 AM
I wouldn't call them utter garbage, but completely forgettable.
Reply by FlyingSaucersAreReal
on November 1, 2017 at 3:20 PM
They could've told the story of the Hobbit in two films. It was bloated. Unlike the Lord of the Rings films, which were trying to tell a very big story with a lot of characters in three films.
Reply by tmdb53400018
on November 1, 2017 at 9:24 PM
Could never bring myself to watch them. At least one is in the IMDb Top 250, though.
Reply by Russ007
on November 4, 2017 at 7:59 AM
It was just too heavy on CGI. I remember being in the theater about 3 years ago watching the final Hobbit film and EVERYONE laughed when that guy hopped on the falling steps. The room was dead silent up to this point in the film. Really puts it into perspective.
Reply by Irina
on November 4, 2017 at 1:24 PM
Thanks God, I'm not alone with this
Reply by aholejones
on November 4, 2017 at 1:54 PM
You know, of all the problems in this film, I just can't get over that Gandalf uses his wizardly powers maybe once or twice in the whole film series. What was his function in the trip or even in the film? They might as well have brought a plumber or a botanist for the trip and they would've been equally useful, or, more accurately, useless.