The Hobbit (film series)

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In Peter Jackson's defense, that makes it consistent with human society since the beginning of time. It's pretty human to be motivated by profit and reputation.

I'm sure the Tolkien estate makes a pretty penny off these films too.

 

So I saw the last film on Sunday. The Battle of Five Armies. Certainly welcome your thoughts.

I was a little disappointed in some things; Beorn is in it for about 8 seconds, and the eagles barely matter. The romance between Tauril and Fili still makes no sense, though at least they shared words in this film (in the last movie, they just, what, stared at each other?).

In the end I thought it was fairly satisfying. As silly as much of the final battle was, it was also cool watching the elf and dwarf armies battle the orcs together.

But I was most frustrated with the fantastical elements. Watching Legolas run up falling rock (yes, as stone fell from a crumbling tower, he ran up it like a stairs and leaped off it, in contravention of all known laws of physics) caused me to laugh out loud in the movie theater.

Apparently Gandolf, Galadriel, Saroman, and Elrond are the Middle Earth's Avengers. In a few mere minutes they nearly defeat Sauron and all the Nazgul together, but they fail to follow up and let them flee.

 

I also saw the final movie. I have never been able to get in to reading Tolkein, but I have enjoyed all six movies. Therefore, I don't know what is accurate and what isn't. With that I really liked the last movie.

My only complaint is that the wizards never seem to use magic. I don't know if there is some sort of background that makes them not use it. However, watching Gandalf wade in to battle with a staff and start slaying orcs just didn't make any sense to me. Isn't he an old man. I would expect him to die pretty quickly.

 

I guess the director played a few too many Devil May Cry games or some such. Wouldn't be so bad if it didn't clash quite strongly with the rest of the movies.

Whelp. Called it.

That's kind of a thing in the books, yeah. Wizards don't really do shows of magic. Nor do elfs. Nor does Sauron. The wizards are more or less like Sauron and are not so much old mortal men, but more like lesser gods. In the end of the Lord of the Rings books (and I presume the last movie as well, though I didn't see it) Gandalf returns home to the land of the gods (upper-earth? I forget the name), where also the elves were born/created (but not the men or the dwarves or anything else). Except unlike the elves, he actually makes both journeys to and from middle earth in a single lifespan.

 

From what I understand, Gandalf can only use his full powers against unnatural creatures. Against ordinary men, he only has "ordinary" powers. Still enough to make his sword strikes hit pretty hard though, along with what seems like the ability to ignore fatigue.
The way the book words it IIRC is that he can't decide other peoples' fates directly and he can't make other peoples' decisions for them. He can put himself in harm's way and defend himself (and anyone nearby) if necessary, which explains all the running around, but something like killing the steward of Gondor with a Lightning Bolt and then taking over the defense of the stronghold is illegal. Fighting the Balrog nonstop for eight days (includes a "very long" fall into a freezing underground river and a furious chase up one of highest peaks of the Misty Mountains) in a battle which apparently took down half the mountain, completely legit.

Smaug in the movie wasn't bad. Wish he was played as an insane dragon or something as interesting but cheesy evil overlord is fine I guess, since the book is a classic and all.

 

I though the talk of Bilbo and Smaug was pretty well done - the best part in the second film.

I saw some of the third film over the shoulder of my girlfriend, but it seemed way too slow paced and drawn out. It's pretty impressive that they managed to make an epic battle seem rather boring.

The stuff with Legolas jumping from falling stones to falling stones reminded me of some videogame sequence. Or anime or something. Way over the top. Also all those final battles with different orcs was really confusing to me. Maybe because I hadn't seen much of the rest of the film, but I just couldn't tell them apart.
"Didn't they just kill this guy already?"
"Oh, it's another one that's kind of the same."

 

Gandalf is from Aman, the land of the gods and is the "Lesser Avatar" or "Last Manifestation" of one of the gods on Middle-Earth. So are the other four Wizards. Saruman is a lesser spirit of Aule(God Creation/Smiths), Gandalf is Olorin, a lesser spirit of Manwe(King of the Gods). They were made "mortal-ish" and sent to Middle-Earth by the gods to help the last vestiges of the Elves, Dwarves and Men combat the evil of Sauron.

 

LOTR was such a complex movie. Of course I loved it but my girlfriend didn't much get it. The hobbit series explains much of the back story in LOTR.

 

I read the book again just before the movies came out, so that I could be extra indignant.