The new Hobbit movie

[Nellisir]

Bluntly, I thought it was the weakest of the six, and most notably because of Legolas. Is there a clause in his contract that requires him to be the hero? I'm not particularly concerned about hewing to Tolkien's script, particularly when it improves the narrative, but this did exactly the opposite. It took the focus off of Bilbo and the dwarves, and put it on Legolas. It weakened and diverted the core story exactly when it should have been narrowing in.

Also, for some reason the movement of the CGI animals really bothered me this time.

 

[HobbitFan]

It's not that the Hobbit movies were especially bad fantasy movies....there were just terrible adaptations of the Hobbit book.
And whoever was holding back Peter Jackson from indulging in his excesses completely stopped in these latest 3. It's all the weaknesses of the LOR movies multiplied many times over.

 

[Nellisir]

And whoever was holding back Peter Jackson from indulging in his excesses completely stopped in these latest 3. It's all the weaknesses of the LOR movies multiplied many times over.

Ayup. I got the distinct impression that the storyline was basically "what did we leave out of other movies? Lets throw it in here!"
Also did not stand on it's own in any way, shape, or form.

 

[Wolf72]

I felt like the end battle of the armies was like the end of a night of gaming and everyone was really really tired ... Ok the Eagles show up and kill the other army! ... Werebears?! Crap! Yeah they showed up too.

I still have fond memories of the cartoon battle of the 5 armies (at least the Eagles coming to save the day) ... this one felt a let down to me.

 

[Nellisir]

I felt like the end battle of the armies was like the end of a night of gaming and everyone was really really tired ... Ok the Eagles show up and kill the other army! ... Werebears?! Crap! Yeah they showed up too.

That's...that's it exactly!

 

[NewJeffCT]

I never bothered to see the first two movies in the theater, as I was kind of turned off by them making 3 movies out of a 300 page children's book. I saw them on DVD, though, and was kind of underwhelmed by the first two movies. Didn't hate them, but just had that "meh" feeling about them.

However, I finally broke down & saw this one in the theater and liked it quite a bit, though I could have lived without the elf-dwarf romance. I thought it was the best of the three movies with the initial action sequence to start the movie, and then the standoff and Bilbo's attempted heroics, and then the big battle to finish.

 

[TarionzCousin]

I saw the movie yesterday and liked it more than I expected to. I thought Lee Pace as King of the Elves was awesome. And the war boar and war rams as Dwarven mounts were very cool.

 

[RedShirtNo5.1]

Azog, we have wormsign the likes of which even Sauron has never seen!

 

[Cristian Andreu]

I had a lot of fun with it. It's not very often we get to see dwarfs cursing and smashing orcs in movies, so I relished the opportunity. I even managed to find Thranduil somewhat cool, and that's a character I've disliked ever since I read the book at age 11.

It did feel a bit odd at first with Smaug dying so early and everything else being focused on the secondary plot regarding the war. Structurally, it would have made more sense for Smaug to be killed at the end of the second movie, but maybe that would have made selling the third to people harder.

Still, I enjoyed the whole ride (elf/dwarf fanfic aside). Did anyone else notice Bombur didn't have a single line in the entire thing?

 

[Rune]

Did anyone else notice Bombur didn't have a single line in the entire thing?

I'm not sure he had any lines in the book, either.