The Battle of the Five Armies

[grumbler]

Yet while In understand that the text must be adapted to the screen, I wish he'd have treated the source material with more gravitas.

Hell, I think in some instances in the LOTR trilogy, he treated it with too much gravitas.

That is true, but the silly stuff he added in made the forced gravitas even worse by comparison.  The forced gravitas of the Charge of the Rhohirrim, and the subsequent fighting, gets ruined by the invincible ghost-dudes, whose arrival makes it clear that the Rohirrim should have just stayed home; the Orc army would still would have been a pushover had they never arrived and supposedly sacrificed so much.

Let's not even get to the fact that Jackson completely missed the point of what Aragorn was doing in the third book.

But I can't say anything about the Hobbit series, haven't watched any of it.

Ditto.  I suppose that I will get the movies on Blu Ray once they get cheap enough, but I'm really not all that interested in Jackson's interpretations of the books, other than to note that Jackson has probably prevented any really good adaptations from ever appearing.

[grumbler]

If anything the gravitas works even worse in The Hobbit, imho. Jackson takes a children adventure book - that's what The Hobbit is - and fills it with navel gazing and forced epicness, to make it more like the first LOTR films.

Jackson's idea to make the story more adult isn't a bad one, but he isn't the guy to do it.

[Valmy]

Ditto.  I suppose that I will get the movies on Blu Ray once they get cheap enough, but I'm really not all that interested in Jackson's interpretations of the books, other than to note that Jackson has probably prevented any really good adaptations from ever appearing.

Still far better than I ever dreamed possible.  I always presumed that a good adaption was not possible.  Instead we got a decent one.  I can live with that.  I am enjoying the Hobbit trilogy well enough.

[Admiral Yi]

I thought it was a horrendous idea to make it a trilogy in the first place.  Watched bits and pieces of the first one and wasn't impressed.  Don't plan on making any effort with the second or third.

[Valmy]

I thought it was a horrendous idea to make it a trilogy in the first place.  Watched bits and pieces of the first one and wasn't impressed.  Don't plan on making any effort with the second or third.

It is kind of silly.  Granted the book was kind of silly so I don't mind that much.  The action scenes are LOL-worthy which I find...out of place.

[Legbiter]

There's probably a good Hobbit flick in there if you took all 3 movies and got rid of the CGI filler.

[jimmy olsen]

I didn't find either to be cringe inducing, but they were tiring.  The truth is we could do the whole story in one film and all the rest felt like padding.

Eh... Tolkien really glosses over a lot of things that qould eat up a lot of time on film. I think two films was needed, three was too much however.

[CountDeMoney]

The forced gravitas of the Charge of the Rhohirrim, and the subsequent fighting, gets ruined by the invincible ghost-dudes, whose arrival makes it clear that the Rohirrim should have just stayed home; the Orc army would still would have been a pushover had they never arrived and supposedly sacrificed so much.

But the poetry of the charge was so poetic in its visual poetry. 

[Grallon]

But the poetry of the charge was so poetic in its visual poetry. 

The Charge of the Rohirrim was one of the best action sequence filmed IMO - but grumbler is right - the emotional weight of it gets completely diffused with the advent of the Green Goo - killing everything in sight.  Well one cannot prevent Jackson from being Jackson I suppose.

Still, and despite all this, there are moments where the film reaches heights the books don't.  I've already mentioned the White Council scene, which I know for a fact grumbler *will* appreciate once he gets his head out of his ass about it and actually watches the thing; there's also the scene between Elrond & Bilbo (extended edition) - or the scene where Gandalf goes investigate the High Fells.  That one may not be 'kosher' per se but fits the  general narrative so well.

In any case, I've already decided that trilogy was more positive than negative.


G.

[Admiral Yi]

I just watched the battle for Minis Tirith as a matter of fact, and the thought struck me--when the oliphants start charging, why the hell don't they just retreat?

[Valmy]

In any case, I've already decided that trilogy was more positive than negative.

Yep.  It was better than I thought a movie version could ever be and introduced a whole new generation of fans to the genre and the trilogy.

[Tonitrus]

I liked it when it first game out...but it's hard for me to look at it nowadays as anything other than way over-the-top Hollywood CGI masturbation. 

But then my curmudgeonly self would say that about most blockbuster films today and in the last several years. 

[Eddie Teach]

I am enjoying the Hobbit trilogy well enough.

It may just be I have lower expectations now than 10 years ago, but I'm actually enjoying them more than LOTR.

[grumbler]

I just watched the battle for Minis Tirith as a matter of fact, and the thought struck me--when the oliphants start charging, why the hell don't they just retreat?

Or just, you know, use the mobility of cavalry to go around them?  Yeah, that scene made a lot more sense in the book when the Easterlings were cavalry, not oliphants.  The fight against the oliphants produced a lot of good visual moments, though, so I write that off as a difference between film and books, rather than as pure Jacksonism.

[celedhring]

I just watched the battle for Minis Tirith as a matter of fact, and the thought struck me--when the oliphants start charging, why the hell don't they just retreat?

Or just, you know, use the mobility of cavalry to go around them?

There are recordings of horses being scared of elephants in ancient warfare, so that part sorta makes sense. I don't remember if that's shown in the movie though, and I'm not going to check.