The Battle of the Five Armies SPOILERS ALLOWED Discussion Thread

[Barnald 377]

Most obvious in ROTK would be the 'What of the Wizard?' - 'I will break him' Witchking/Gothmog exchange, which goes absolutely nowhere in the TC. Actually that's a same film inconsistency rather than an EE to TC one, but you get the idea.

I may be wrong about this since it's been so long since I've seen the FOTR TC, but do we even get a reference to Lembas in that version? Because obviously it features in TTT and especially ROTK.

[Incanus 5,725]

Most obvious in ROTK would be the 'What of the Wizard?' - 'I will break him' Witchking/Gothmog exchange, which goes absolutely nowhere in the TC. Actually that's a same film inconsistency rather than an EE to TC one, but you get the idea.

I may be wrong about this since it's been so long since I've seen the FOTR TC, but do we even get a reference to Lembas in that version? Because obviously it features in TTT and especially ROTK.

Yes the lembas eating scene in Lorien was in the EE IIRC.

[Bilbo 3,709]

The TE's should be seen as mere work prints. Or trailers. An abridged preview of the complete version of the film coming out on Blu-ray.

Me and my friend were joking about this yesterday after seeing the film. The only times I've seen the TE of any of these films is when they randomly show up on TV, when the TEs came out on BluRay first, and the live to projection.

[SafeUnderHill 205]

[#SnowyVernalSpringsEternal 10,265]

The visuals in BOTFA are a huge step up from AUJ and many parts of DOS.

Yes!

[BloodBoal 7,538]

[SafeUnderHill 205]

[#SnowyVernalSpringsEternal 10,265]

Yeah. We never even saw Sebastian after that. I thought he was going to be a major character.

[BloodBoal 7,538]

[Incanus 5,725]

Yeah. We never even saw Sebastian after that. I thought he was going to be a major character.

Alas same goes for Daín's hog. The poor creature is just lost in the middle of the battle. I want more backstory on him.

[#SnowyVernalSpringsEternal 10,265]

Sidequel!

[BloodBoal 7,538]

[Bilbo 3,709]

The elk and the boar. R.I.P.

[SafeUnderHill 205]

[Incanus 5,725]

Yeah. We never even saw Sebastian after that. I thought he was going to be a major character.

Alas same goes for Daín's hog. The poor creature is just lost in the middle of the battle.

Actually, he's killed during the battle.

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOoooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo!

I thought he was just thrown on his back!

[Quintus 5,399]

Thoughts: http://www.jwfan.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=24637&p=1072163

[#SnowyVernalSpringsEternal 10,265]

Well, thank you for playing. See you once The Hobbit craziness has died down and the MB warms up for the SW frenzy.

[Quintus 5,399]

In descending order my final preference for this trilogy:

TDoS

AUJ

TBotFA

[#SnowyVernalSpringsEternal 10,265]

TBotFA

TDoS

AUJ

The reverse is true for LOTR

FOTR

TTT

TROKT

[KK 3,307]

I thought you liked AUJ more than DoS Lee.

[#SnowyVernalSpringsEternal 10,265]

Lee is fickle. One moment he's Apple, the Android, then back to Apple again....

[KK 3,307]

I feel like he really struggled with his emotions in this trilogy. He started off feeding into his closeted PJ fanboy side, but ultimately tapped into his proper judgement, but has overcompensated and now feels the need to toss out the entire franchise altogether.

[BloodBoal 7,538]

[Quintus 5,399]

Read me back KK, use the search engine. You're incorrect. I believe I ended my DoS review something like, "there and back again, back on track."

[#SnowyVernalSpringsEternal 10,265]

That's a beautiful line, Leigh!

[KK 3,307]

Ahh I see. All I remember is how overwhelmingly positive you were initially about AUJ. And then how lukewarm you were about DoS.

But naturally, like the rest of us, your opinions change over time.

And why did it take the Hobbit films to get you to post back in GD again?

[#SnowyVernalSpringsEternal 10,265]

The Force is strong with them....

[KK 3,307]

Ahh yes, the SW film will bring him back.

[#SnowyVernalSpringsEternal 10,265]

Oh yes. But he will pretty much hate that too.

[KK 3,307]

Nah. He'll love it. He'll overlook any flaws it might have and then pick on anyone who has any criticism of it!

[BloodBoal 7,538]

[#SnowyVernalSpringsEternal 10,265]

Hmmm...it would be fun to see the normally critical Lee fawn over the new film, jealousy defending every aspect in a TGP type manner.

[Quintus 5,399]

I did enjoy AUJ initially, like I did The Phantom Menace.

I enjoyed Desolation of Smaug and still think it's an enjoyable if uneven and problematic romp. I haven't seen it since last year.

That's the thing about the new movie's opener as well; it doesn't really work unless you've seen the previous movie recently. But twelve months have passed for me and so for me to pick up where it left off after so much time has passed by had the effect of greatly diminishing the intended cohesion and power of the eventual dragon attack. It felt shoved in there. They should have ended the previous movie after Lake Town was destroyed and the dragon brought down. It worked beautifully for The Two Towers and Helms Deep.

[#SnowyVernalSpringsEternal 10,265]

That was less of an issue for me because I first saw it at the Hobbit marathon

[KK 3,307]

Lee has too much at stake with this film to hate it. A hopeful respawn for the classic childhood franchise, with the beloved maestro behind the score and old reverent cast appearing too. He'll one of the biggest hype-generators here. And should the film end up underwhelming, he'll then probably call us cynical Internet trolls.

And then a year later, he'll hate it.

Of course there's always the option that this film could end up being really good. But thinking positively ain't too fun

And before any of that gets misconstrued, I'm just pulling your tail Lee.

[#SnowyVernalSpringsEternal 10,265]

Oh no, you've summed up Lee quite well in just a few sentences

[KK 3,307]

I did enjoy AUJ initially, like I did The Phantom Menace.

I enjoyed Desolation of Smaug and still think it's an enjoyable if uneven and problematic romp. I haven't seen it since last year.

That's the thing about the new movie's opener as well; it doesn't really work unless you've seen the previous movie recently. But twelve months have passed for me and so for me to pick up where it left off after so much time has passed by had the effect of greatly diminishing the intended cohesion and power of the eventual dragon attack. It felt shoved in there. They should have ended the previous movie after Lake Town was destroyed and the dragon brought down. It worked beautifully for The Two Towers and Helms Deep.

Yeah, I'm wondering how that's going to play out for me.

[#SnowyVernalSpringsEternal 10,265]

Before watching TBOTFA make sure to watch DoS. You'll be fine.

[BloodBoal 7,538]

[#SnowyVernalSpringsEternal 10,265]

Yes!

[Quintus 5,399]

I was never into Star Wars much when I was a young kid. I sort of discovered them when I was about 17 after buying the VHS originals in search of something to become a fan of. Indiana Jones and Superman were my childhood movies.

[#SnowyVernalSpringsEternal 10,265]

I didn't get into SW till I was well in my teens also. Though I recall seeing SW on belgium TV when i was young. With Dutch/French subs

[Incanus 5,725]

I didn't get into SW till I was well in my teens also. Though I recall seeing SW on belgium TV when i was young. With Dutch/French subs

Yes the same. I really got to JWs music for the films first and then watched the movies when I was about 14 or 15.

[Quintus 5,399]

So anyway for the new Star Wars I don't really have anything to lose. Remember: the prequel trilogy already brought down everybody's expectations for the Star Wars franchise.

I do find Abrams hugely overrated though.

[#SnowyVernalSpringsEternal 10,265]

Overrated? I don't know many people who actually like him.

[Quintus 5,399]

The media seem to fawn over him.

[#SnowyVernalSpringsEternal 10,265]

Him and Kim Kardasians arse!

[Quintus 5,399]

Anyway how come the apologists of these movies are so readily unbothered by the absolutely weird look of them? Don't you find the unexplainable ethereal light which bounces off everyone's complexion to be really, really distracting? Jackson just can't leave things be. He has to have a tinker. He has developed an aesthetic which is somehow worse than Lucas'.

Even the scene where the Lake Town survivors clamber sodden out the the water onto the shore - a scene which takes place in broad daylight - looks like its being lit and highlighted by strange artifical light sources.

[#SnowyVernalSpringsEternal 10,265]

The only film where the artificial look bothered me was TROTK, were its actually a bit distracting.

None of these films look "realistic" though. Not even FOTR. Soft focus, loads of artificial lighting, the beginning of digital grading...

[KK 3,307]

Anyway how come the apologists of these movies are so readily unbothered by the absolutely weird look of them? Don't you find the unexplainable ethereal light which bounces off everyone's complexion to be really, really distracting? Jackson just can't leave things be. He has to have a tinker. He has developed an aesthetic which is somehow worse than Lucas'.

Even the scene where the Lake Town survivors clamber sodden out the the water onto the shore - a scene which takes place in broad daylight - looks like its being lit and highlighted by strange artifical light sources.

Agreed! And Steef, whatever you say, these films are easily the worst looking of the saga. I haven't seen BotFA yet, but from the teasers/trailers, it looks worse than DoS. I just don't understand why PJ needs to "edit" perfectly fine shots to begin with. It's infuariating.

And that's why DoS feels so very un-Middle-Earth to me. RotK had al that artificial lighting and all, but it still looks a lot better than these turds. Minas Tirith continues to be a piece of stunning composition that's been unrivalled by any shot in the Hobbit films.