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[Mik2121]

Either there's a lot of hyperbole here or people seriously have some massive quality bar set for themselves. I know these are opinions and each person has their own, but saying this movie was absolute garbage... damn. I personally loved all three movies even if I know they could obviously have been better.

But this is so much better than not getting any Middle Earth movie at all.

I wonder if the OP didn't like the other two. Some people hated the first two and then watched the third and hated it too. It makes you wonder why this kind of people do this. If I hated a movie and it has a sequel coming the following year, I know I just won't go and watch it because, well, I expect not to enjoy it. Oh well...

 

[Turin]

This is next guys

PJ said he wants to make it.

Seriously though. Even if Jackson could regain the form he had with LotR, I'm not sure he'd make it as dark as it'd need to be in certain spots.

 

[Gravidee]

The rest of the dwarves die. Nothing else to be said really. Watch Fellowship and you see what happens to Balin.

That's not what I meant. It seemed as though everyone forgot what they were fighting over in the first place. We know from the book that the treasure was split up between the dwarves, lakesmen and elves. But we don't see anything in the movie hinting to this. For all the audience knows, Bard and all the other residents in Dale could have been wiped out. We don't even get to see Dain becoming king or any allusion to that notion at all. As far as anyone is concerned, Thranduil and the elves give up their share of the treasure, a whole bunch of humans died and what little dwarves that survived are living in the ruins of a kingdom with no leader. Would it have hurt to have some sort of epilogue to these events? The battle just ends, there's no weight to the aftermath or loss that people have suffered other than Thorin's death or Kili for those that care about that little subplot. I'd assume these scenes will be included in the extended edition but for the time being this is probably the worst theatrical release of the Middle Earth films I have seen.

 

[Sibylus]

Either there's a lot of hyperbole here or people seriously have some massive quality bar set for themselves. I know these are opinions and each person has their own, but saying this movie was absolute garbage... damn. I personally loved all three movies even if I know they could obviously have been better.

But this is so much better than not getting any Middle Earth movie at all.

I wonder if the OP didn't like the other two. Some people hated the first two and then watched the third and hated it too. It makes you wonder why this kind of people do this. If I hated a movie and it has a sequel coming the following year, I know I just won't go and watch it because, well, I expect not to enjoy it. Oh well...

I liked the first a fair amount, but felt the quality bar dropped from return of the king to AUJ. Felt the bar dropped again from AUJ to DOS, and then again even more sharply from DOS to BOFA. Pound for pound and minute for minute, the scenes and characters that stuck with me became ever scarcer as Jackson and crew got deeper into the project. I loved probably what amounts to two thirds of AUJ, half of DOS, and a third of BOFA if I'm feeling generous.

 

[Charles Foster Kane]

Strongly dislike the fact the thread title states OP's opinion as fact.

I find the concept of people having to state that what they're posting/saying is an opinion rather silly. Most people are smart enough to figure out when it's one or the other (context helps).

 

[garginator850]

GAF over exaggerates everything huh

 

[Windam]

This is next guys

PJ said he wants to make it.

Pretty sure Christopher has plans to ensure the rights to other works don't fall out of the Estate's hands, even after his death.

 

[Ishida]

The entire trilogy was fantastic. :3

 

[TAJ]

Pretty sure Christopher has plans to ensure the rights to other works don't fall out of the Estate's hands, even after his death.

Fuck yes. Give PJ time to die first.

 

[A Fish Aficionado]

But this is so much better than not getting any Middle Earth movie at all.

No. PJ ruined The Hobbit as he ruined The Lovely Bones.

He needs constraints.

 

[Helmholtz]

Mediocre ending to a mediocre trilogy. I'm not exactly sure what happened to PJ since the masterpiece that was the LotR trilogy, but the magic is gone.
I'd be lying if I said I wasn't entertained during the films. But that's about it. It's something I'm entertained by once, leaving me with little desire to revisit, because they're pretty empty and shallow otherwise.

 

[Windam]

Mediocre ending to a mediocre trilogy. I'm not exactly sure what happened to PJ since the masterpiece that was the LotR trilogy, but the magic is gone.

Exhausation, an initial desire to not direct them, and a massive budget. Dude had all the money he could need to blow on CGI instead of like in LotR where he could use it only where it was needed. I'm also sure that MGM/Warner demanded he make it as profitable as possible. PJ gets all the flack for the nonsense shit in the films, but I wonder how much of it was forced on him, if any? Regardless, the drop in quality between the two trilogies is tragic, but the hate it gets here is overblown. They lack soul compared to LotR, but on their own, they are fine.

 

[Helmholtz]

Exhausation, an initial desire to not direct them, and a massive budget. Dude had all the money he could need to blow on CGI instead of like in LotR where he could use it only where it was needed. I'm also sure that MGM/Warner demanded he make it as profitable as possible. PJ gets all the flack for the nonsense shit in the films, but I wonder how much of it was forced on him, if any?

I agree to an extent. He definitely took way too many liberties with the CGI. But even if a lot of it was replaced with practical effects, I don't think that would improve these movies that much. I feel like his skills as a director and storyteller just diminished so much since the original trilogy. And honestly I think a lot of blame has to go to the screenwriters too. They really dropped the ball this time around. Hell, I don't think Howard Shore stepped up enough either. There are so many parts of the LotR score that I can hum, but what about the Hobbit? Maybe the misty mountain theme from the first movie, but aside from that, I honestly don't recall any of the music. There were just so many things that were off with this trilogy.
I don't think the movies were terrible, but they're middling blockbusters that lack depth.

 

[Windam]

The Lord of the Rings movies were Peter Jackson's silmarils. Like Feanor, no work he would produce from that point on would be able to best them, and he (probably) knows it.

/geek

 

[Unknown Soldier]

Mediocre ending to a mediocre trilogy. I'm not exactly sure what happened to PJ since the masterpiece that was the LotR trilogy, but the magic is gone.
I'd be lying if I said I wasn't entertained during the films. But that's about it. It's something I'm entertained by once, leaving me with little desire to revisit, because they're pretty empty and shallow otherwise.

What happened?

(1) PJ got famous and people stopped telling him "No, you can't do this"
(2) WB really wanted to stretch The Hobbit to a trilogy
(3) The Hobbit maybe had enough actual content for 1.5 movies, it's a 200 page children's book
(4) Somebody, WB or PJ, really wanted to make the prequel trilogy to LOTR instead of you know actually follow the source material
(5) Whoever wrote the inserted not-from-the-book content was godawful and needs to never write anything ever again
(6) The Hobbit was written as a standalone story more than a decade before Tolkien wrote LOTR and was never conceived as prequel to LOTR
(7) The CG looked like shit in The Hobbit, no one seemed to give a fuck anymore
(8) What the fuck were all the LOTR characters doing in The Hobbit? What the FUCK?

 

[Windam]

(8) What the fuck were all the LOTR characters doing in The Hobbit? What the FUCK?

Old Bilbo and Frodo's cameo was well done, especially with how they tie it into Fellowship of the Ring. Elrond? Excusable, they did stay at his place. Legolas is excusable for being the son of Thranduil, but certainly not to the extent that he was given. A nice five minute cameo like Frodo would have subsided. Lord knows what happened there. Gimli being mentioned was a nice but pretty forced reference, since Gloin is his father (and that's pretty much all he's known for anyway). Sauron, Necromancer, checks out. Nazgul? Radagast? Galadriel? I don't know, man. Dol Guldur. Reference to Aragorn? Why the hell not? Two of the Three Hunters have already come up.

 

[R-User!]

Yeah, this movie was insanely bad....I honestly couldn't believe how bad it was. My friend (who thought transformers 2 was good) thought this was the best out of all six LOTR films.

I'm too lazy and on mobile, but the bolded deserves the J Jonah Jameson Spider-Man laughing gif.

 

[RS4-]

Why does it hurt so much?!!!!!

All the love shit is straight out of AotC. Name dropping of Strider.

Where is my "Young" Aragorn sequel now. My favorite scene is the Galadriel/Eye part.

 

[jtb]

it's so lazy to make a Lucas comparison with Peter Jackson...

but it's becoming scarily accurate.... down to the cringeworthy (and completely unnecessary) love subplot

 

[subrock]

i think the most awful part was the first part, which is why I didn't see the second or third

 

[Gleethor]

Why does it hurt so much?!!!!!

All the love shit is straight out of AotC. Name dropping of Strider.

Where is my "Young" Aragorn sequel now. My favorite scene is the Galadriel/Eye part.

I watched Attack of The Clones tonight, and as an avid fan of the prequels I'll tell you that the love dialogue in Clones is still worse than The Hobbit.

 

[Levyne]

I know I'm missing a long thread, but Bard shooting down the dragon with a single black arrow right into the Dragon's one missing scale is from the book, I'm near certain. I agree with everything else though.

 

[zma1013]

it's so lazy to make a Lucas comparison with Peter Jackson...

but it's becoming scarily accurate.... down to the cringeworthy (and completely unnecessary) love subplot

"Radaghast is the key to all of this."

 

[darkwing]

The Lord of the Rings movies were Peter Jackson's silmarils. Like Feanor, no work he would produce from that point on would be able to best them, and he (probably) knows it.

/geek

I have to agree with this, the first trilogy set the bar so high

 

[EatinOlives]

I enjoyed it, only because I turned my brain completely off and chose to be amused at the ridiculous budget they spent on CGI. I had to actively push away the shitty moments of the film (like the 10 million "oh my god Good Guy is about to get killed by an orc watch as the orc raises his weapon rreeeaalllyyy sllloooowwwllyy BUT NO GOOD GUY IS SAVED BY OTHER GOOD GUY IN THE NICK OF TIME" moments) from my mind from bothering me.

I also never read the books so I have no previous knowledge of how the story is supposed to go. Ended up working out in my favor since I could push away the ridiculous shit from my mind easier. I mean, even without having read the books I know Tolkien didn't write "and then Legolas Super Marios across falling chunks of rocks".

 

[zma1013]

The Lord of the Rings movies were Peter Jackson's silmarils. Like Feanor, no work he would produce from that point on would be able to best them, and he (probably) knows it.

/geek

He perhaps could have came closer if he stuck to the source material but instead of making a Hobbit movie he tried to make Lord of the Rings version 2.0.

 

[Turin]

He perhaps could have came closer if he stuck to the source material but instead of making a Hobbit movie he tried to make Lord of the Rings version 2.0.

But of course, every big movie requires an absurd amount of high octane action as a prerequisite. -__-

 

[TheRedSnifit]

I really liked it. Don't know why you guys hate it so much.

That said, I think the word "war" was said about 2000 times. Also, the worms disappearing.

 

[Envelope]

At least the hobbit films are good for reminding us how amazing the first trilogy really is.

 

[Kraftwerk]

eh, could have been better. Expected a lot more.

 

[watershed]

There were so many bad parts it's hard to choose just one. Alfrid was a waste of space. His character had no resolution at all. He just walks off to nowhere. The CG goats impossibly scaling a mountain for the sake of expediency. The small band of poorly armed, untrained men and women impossibly defending that poorly fortified town against an army of orcs. Legolas impossibly jumping on falling stones as they are falling. None of it made sense or even had any sense of internal logic. It was like watching a video game.

 

[peanutbutterlatte]

I really liked it. Don't know why you guys hate it so much.

You might try reading some of the posts that explain in great detail why. Or hell, explaining in a little detail why it's so good to you.

 

[coleco]

It was a bad movie. Maybe halfway I realized I didn't care about anything going on and wasn't enjoying it so I just left. All three movies were a chore.

 

[a916]

Seriously, what is up with those faces? There's a weird high contrast, or image levels adjustment going on that gives everyone a stark shadow on half of their face while outdoors. It's very jarring...

EDIT: This:

Super blown out on one side, super dark on the other and the details are lost on both sides (and it was done on every character which it even worse, most apparent under the brim of Gandalf's hat)

 

[ultracal31]

I kinda wish they spent some more time designing the dwarf armor to be more...visually unique? It's a wee bit difficult to tell them apart from the orcs especially during a clash

 

[Kathian]

Seriously, what is up with those faces? There's a weird high contrast, or image levels adjustment going on that gives everyone a stark shadow on half of their face while outdoors. It's very jarring...

EDIT: This:

Super blown out on one side, super dark on the other and the details are lost on both sides (and it was done on every character which it even worse, most apparent under the brim of Gandalf's hat)

This is not done throughout the film at all. I don't like the effect when it is used but from memory its pretty much environment specific.

Don't remember this scene in film three tbh; is that Erabor? Is this not from the first film?

I kinda wish they spent some more time designing the dwarf armor to be more...visually unique? It's a wee bit difficult to tell them apart from the orcs especially during a clash

Other way around I feel. Orc culture is pretty much non-existant. Dwarves have their own identifiable armour, just the Orcs have grey metal so don't really stand out. Armoured orcs over CGI I'd suggest would have been better (also more fitting).

 

[a916]

This is not done throughout the film at all. I don't like the effect when it is used but from memory its pretty much environment specific.

Don't remember this scene in film three tbh; is that Erabor? Is this not from the first film?.

It's like that for all the films, almost exclusively I believe for outdoor sun shots. And it's most evident on Thranduil and under Gandalf's brim, his forehead. (I just finished watching the 3rd movie in theatres which is why it's so recent)

 

[Jack Remington]

The film was fucking rad as shit. Don't know what you are all banging on about.

This. The movie kicked ass.

 

[Dryk]

Out of all the things that bugged me about this movie, all the characters that have to die breaking off to climb the mountain for their big death scenes pissed me off the most.

 

[Sinfamy]

Why did the dworves remove their heavy battle armor before going to help in battle?

Why did the fate of the battle rest on the shoulders of like 6 characters?

Why can't a wizard do wizard things?

How did the human army grow in such great numbers, from what looked like two dozen sickly, dirty farmer peasants to a hundred battle ready warriors?

What ended up happening to the Arkenstone?

Why was the ring so reraly used?

Why do zero characters die through out the entire trilogy except for the very end when you didn't really expect it and it was done cheaply?

Why are orcs so "evil all the time" are there peaceful ones? Females?

Why?

 

[hom3land]

Why are orcs so "evil all the time" are there peaceful ones? Females?

Why?

When elves first appeared, melkor (saurons boss) stole a bunch of them, tortured and breeded them into orcs

 

[SoundsOfScience]

It really wasn't that bad and I enjoyed it a lot more than The Desolation of Smaug (the barrel escape scene is fucking awful). I only had three big problems:

1. The Romance: Fucking terrible. So ham-fisted and just shitty. Why create a strong female character only to have her act as a conduit for a romance sub-plot? Seems to backwards and she would have been a great, albeit somewhat one-dimensional character, if they just chopped that shit romance out.

2. Basically being LotR prequels: I get why they did this, but it was still pretty lame.

3. Lack of Bilbo: This is a problem I have with Desolation of Smaug and The Battle of Five Armies. I understand that he basically just hides out during the battle in the book, but the movies and book are called the fucking "Hobbit. Love me some Martin Freeman so his diminished role in both movies was baffling and saddening.

But I still enjoyed it. Wouldn't say it was awful, just a pretty good movie.

 

[Grinchy]

I hated this movie. I enjoyed the first 2, but this one was just such a let down. I can't even pinpoint my most hated element. I was ok with the Smaug opening, but it felt short. The dragon dies in the first 10 minutes and that's when you realize the rest of the movie is going to be nothing but exhausting and unbelievable CG battles.

Most of the character motivations make little sense, or at least they aren't presented in a way that helps them make sense. Bilbo and Thranduil are the only characters I was buying into. Just such a terrible film.

 

[El Daniel]

"Radaghast is the key to all of this."

It's so dense. Every single image has so much going on.

 

[NaDannMaGoGo]

Movie is a piece of shit. On an absolute scale it's awful to me so I don't care if you can defend it by telling me that the likes of Transformer 4 or so are even worse. It's true, they probably are but that doesn't help the Hobbit in any way, shape or form.

Probably not the worst scene but one that really rounded up all this ham fisted, overt writing for me...

Bilbo's insanely cheesy "he was a friend" that he delayed until he came home for extra impact. I just couldn't believe it. I was like "oh god, he's not gonna say it NOW, that's not really going to happen? That's why he couldn't say it earlier, when saying his good byes to the dwarves? To get this especially cheesy moment out of it? Come the fuck on."

 

[agrajag]

My least favourite part was Large Marge 2.0 and then all of a sudden she got weak for no damn reason. Gandalf was once again nerfed (PJ hates Gandalf for some reason), and the nazgul were made too powerful. Their main weapon is fear, not battle prowess. In LOTR Gandalf by himself was able to hold off a bunch of them on Weathertop. Now all of a sudden the white council struggles to drive them off?Also, Saruman's whole "leave Sauron toe *wink*" was really cheesy.

 

[astroturfing]

i quite enjoyed the first two movies, they had a decent amount of adventuring and nothing really annoyed me too much.

but this one was just.. i dunno. i just can't get into a fantasy movie without any adventure, just one big battle that wasn't even all that big because the orcs were bad at combat and their massive worms disappeared for no reason, and just a few dwarves managed to turn the tide of the battle. to call it anticlimactic would be an understatement. and OF COURSE there had to be some "unexpected" deus ex machina force that comes to save the day (i tried to guess who it would be, but didn't guess it would be the eagles.. thought it would be something more interesting).

as someone who understands nothing about any of the Tolkien books, and just wanted some cool adventure films to take me away for a couple hours i'd rate the first two movies about 7.5, but this one was more like a 4 at best. disappointing.

and fuck me was Alfrid bad.. so so bad. he should've been hanged.

 

[bengraven]

Strongly dislike the fact the thread title states OP's opinion as fact.

Many people enjoyed this film, including myself. It's not a masterpiece by any stretch of the imagination but i do not agree the film was "Awful". There are several flaws to point out but as Vashetti already stated there is three Hobbit threads already, none of which have an opinionated thread title.

Yeah, the title really bothers me. I don't think it was the OP's fault, it was a different topic. So it was a mod who hated the movie.

Or it was a joke. I'm hoping it's a joke based on the vocal side who didn't like the movie, because this is ridiculous if not.

 

[Maddocks]

The worst part for me is Tauriel, what happened to her after that? she just cried about losing love and did nothing with her life? the major issue I had was that. Create a character and never give her some closer.

Return of the King had like 4 endings, all of them great and you felt that sense of completion. Sadly that is completely gone from this. It really felt like a....ok well, we done here, bye!

 

[CapitalismSucks DonkeyBalls]

It's like that for all the films, almost exclusively I believe for outdoor sun shots. And it's most evident on Thranduil and under Gandalf's brim, his forehead. (I just finished watching the 3rd movie in theatres which is why it's so recent)

I think it had to do with having to shoot it at 48fps at such a high resolution. I know PJ had remarked that they had to up the makeup and colors for a lot of the sets or else they would look fake and gimmicky if filmed with the same earthy tones as LotR.

Sadly, PJ's reliance on technology resulted in a lot of the shortcomings seen throughout the trilogy, especially in the sets and CG department. He should have just held his 48 fps load until the next Tin-Tin movie.