The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies

[Passdagas the Brown]

Love the Gandalf and Galadriel posters.

The Bilbo one isn't bad, but I can't help but be extremely pessimistic about how PJ will portray Bilbo's role in the battle (especially since GDT was planning on sticking to the book).

And as the old saying goes: "Expect the Battle of Naboo, and you might be pleasantly surprised."

[Beutlin]

And as the old saying goes: "Expect the Battle of Naboo, and you might be pleasantly surprised."

...as compared to the "Ewok"-Battle of Endor? This might be slightly off-topic but I could never find a common ground with those people who abhor Episode I, yet find nothing wrong with Episode VI. Both battles featured in those films are unmitigated disasters. Teddy bears battling an army of so-called professional soldiers? Give me a break. (But then again I find Star Wars ridiculous anyway, so I might not be best judge.)

PS: That last sentence was a joke. Disliking Star Wars makes me, of course, the best judge to single out its many vices.

[Voronwë the Faithful]

Bard.

https://www.facebook.com/TheHobbitMovie ... =1&theater

[Voronwë the Faithful]

How could the Legolas one be so bad when the others are so good?

[Primula Baggins]

I don't think Orlando Bloom has the face for this kind of gritty close-up. There's no there there. He may be a deep, intelligent, fascinating person (I have no idea), but he doesn't have the face of one.

[Elentári]

Love the Luke Evans' close up...reminds me of Jack Sparrow, just a little bit!

[Voronwë the Faithful]

I can see that. A grittier, more serious Jack Sparrow. Without the makeup.

[Passdagas the Brown]

And as the old saying goes: "Expect the Battle of Naboo, and you might be pleasantly surprised."

...as compared to the "Ewok"-Battle of Endor? This might be slightly off-topic but I could never find a common ground with those people who abhor Episode I, yet find nothing wrong with Episode VI. Both battles featured in those films are unmitigated disasters. Teddy bears battling an army of so-called professional soldiers? Give me a break. (But then again I find Star Wars ridiculous anyway, so I might not be best judge.)

PS: That last sentence was a joke. Disliking Star Wars makes me, of course, the best judge to single out its many vices.

Let me put it this way. In Return of the Jedi, I don't want the Ewoks to die. In The Phantom Menace, I want Jar Jar Binks and all the Gungans to die.

But in seriousness, I personally don't adore the Endor battle at all. The worst part of the original series, I would say (and I think most Star Wars fans agree, so I'm not sure what precipitated this straw man). But it is not even close to the CGI awfulness of the Battle of Naboo. I mean, at least the Ewoks were cute and cuddly (which is why I don't want them to die), and used arrows and logs and other real materials to make those ridiculous and implausible things happen. The scenes were tangible, despite being horribly cheesy. In the Naboo battle, we have a clumsy and horrifically annoying CGI character by the name of Jar Jar Binks stumbling across a CGI battlefield accidentally releasing bright blue CGI electric bombs that take out half the opposing CGI army by accident. Just a mess of pixels and idiocy, IMO, and I wanted all of it to be permanently deleted.

The goat-chariot scene we saw in the trailer for BotFA, and the fact that Bilbo is likely to be awake for the full BotFA, makes me very worried about it. Though I imagine it will still be a lot better than either the Endor or the Naboo battles.

[Voronwë the Faithful]

I'm not sure what the source of this is, but it is pretty cool.

https://www.facebook.com/DieSchlachtDer ... =1&theater

[Passdagas the Brown]

Woah! I love that.

[Voronwë the Faithful]

... the fact that Bilbo is likely to be awake for the full BotFA, makes me very worried about it.

I know that you and others put a lot of stock in the off-hand comment that GdT made way back when they were first beginning to work on the script about keeping the aspect of the story in which Bilbo is unconscious for most of the battle, but I never thought that that would actually happen, even if GdT had continue to helm the films. Of course we will never know, but I just can't see having the main, titular character disappear for a major part of the story, in the context of a film. That works perfectly in Tolkien's book, but I can't see it working in a film. Certainly not a Peter Jackson film, which of course is what we are stuck with. Instead, I am hoping that even playing a bigger role in the battle, Jackson does a better job of keeping Bilbo in character than he did in AUJ, where in a couple of places (Bilbo's fight with the little Goblin just before Riddles and most of all in Our of the Frying Pan) he veered why off course, in my opinion. One of the (many) reasons I like DoS better is that I can't think of any places in which that happened. It will be hard in the context of a film that is so battle-oriented, but the little I have seen so far makes me optimistic.

Actually, at the risk of terribly disturbing PtB, I am more than cautiously optimistic about this last film. So much that I have seen resonates well, and think there is a good chance that Jackson is going to find a real comfort zone with this film, and produces a real character driven political/war drama.

Nah!

[Elentári]

Re: the picture of Bombur, above, as much as I am impressed by the huge horn, it smacks too much of Gimli and Helm's Deep for me...the constant little nudges to LotR are becoming very wearisome for me...

On a more solemn note, this incredibly intense image of Thorin is awesome...

[Voronwë the Faithful]

Meanwhile, here is the (great) Thorin poster:



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[Elentári]

Beat ya!

[Voronwë the Faithful]

By a whole minute! But I think I'll leave it; it is worth posting twice.

I certainly see what you mean about Bombur and the horn and Gimli, but I'm hoping the context will be different enough that it won't be a problem. And anyway it is so cool that I don't really care.

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[Passdagas the Brown]

Voronwë,

What terribly disturbing words!

In seriousness, though, I'll go out on a limb and guess that this film will be better-received critically than the first two.

But re: the Bilbo thing. As with all the very conventional choices PJ makes (in both LOTR and TH), I find having Bilbo be an integral part of the battle a missed opportunity to elevate the film beyond the standard formula, and to tap into the perennially resilient charm of Tolkien's story. Film is a powerful medium, and I find the "works in a book, but not in a film" meme to be lazy. You can break the "rules" of narrative cinema, and create a masterpiece rather than a standard action-adventure (which is all PJ aspires to). Perhaps I'm too much of a creative type, but I can think of myriad ways to make it work. PJ, in my view, is simply not a visionary filmmaker. He aims for the middle.

-PtB

[Voronwë the Faithful]

While I agree that you can break the rules of narrative cinema, I question whether having Bilbo be missing for all of the battle, or most of it, is the right way to do so. Martin Freeman 's Bilbo is one of the best things about these films, and I would rather have more of him, not less.

Of course, one approach would be simply not to focus on the battle at all. But that doesn't mean that is the only approach.

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[yovargas]

Since my one line review of AUJ was "Every scene focusing on Bilbo is good; every scene not focusing on him is bad" (and though less true for DoS it's still not entirely off the mark there) my vote would definitely not be for a Bilbo-less battle.

[Passdagas the Brown]

Well, personally I think it would have been great to stick with Bilbo's POV for the entire story (apart from when Bard slays the dragon), and simply cut to black when Bilbo gets knocked unconscious. PJ could also rearrange the sequencing so that Thorin, Fili and Kili die before Bilbo passes out, so we don't miss an important and emotional scene.

[Voronwë the Faithful]

I don't much like this one, much as I liked the character in DoS:



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