I have no idea why people preferred this over the first. I felt like it kinda dragged a lot. The first dragged in places but the duration of this one was far more noticeable.
Spoiler
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The movie suffered horrendously from a severe lack of focus. This was never a problem in the first which by and large kept the attention to no more than a handful of characters at a time. Lord of the Rings was quite able to weave a multitude of plot threads and character scenes together without any negative consequences but in this case I wasn't feeling it.
I think part of the problem is that at times, it tried to play itself too seriously. You'd have smatterings of comic relief with scenes like the barrel one and then Smaug himself would prove to be a somewhat generic overplayed Disney-esque villain. These things are all fine. It fits the tone of the intended movie and it fits the tone of the original work. To then offset this with some pretty ham-fisted attempts at serious drama just ended up hurting it in a big way.
Again, it's something Lord of the Rings could pull off effortlessly because I cared about those characters. I cared about every struggle and every emotional decision. I followed them without question because the movie invested me. I can't honestly think of one character from this movie that I cared about enough to invest any sort of attention on, so to spin out so many extended dialogue scenes (particularly the Tauriel and Killi stuff...dear lord) just wound up being a boring, long-winded distraction to the action which should have been the main focus.
The ending was piss-poor and forced and don't get me started on the necromancer. I could only picture Lucas during those scenes. Why the necessity to tie it so forcefully into the original trilogy? Why the need to include Legolas just so you can have whacky cameos? We know it's the same universe so let the story speak for itself.
It was good, and I still enjoy the world tremendously. Some of my favourite parts were just seeing the different places and people (like the forest and the shapeshifter). I do have to say that the movies definitely suffered from being broken into three now. I can't feel myself getting excited about the conclusion at all.
"The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies" instead of There and Back Again. I wanted TaBA tbh! It just feels more classic and connected to LOTR I guess. But apparently this new title better describes what the third movie is about so that makes sense
I had always hoped that before making it a trilogy the first movie should be There and the second one be called And Back Again. But alas I was okay with that being the third one, not a fan of this new title. Trying too hard to sell the end battle.
eh it's not really what the movies are going for. it's a very lighthearted subtitle that implies something more fantastical and WHIMSICAL than srs war scenes
lol hasn't the entire point of the Hobbit movies (and book) been lighthearted WHIMSY?
It's been a looong time since I've read the book but I remember there's even a few comical scenes in the middle of the war. Like the "game of golf being invented"
yeah but i thought DOS was kind of short on SILLY moments (part of the reason I much preferred AUJ) and I imagine that trend is going to continue into the final entry
And yes i do expect this to be less silly than the book considering in the book Bilbo gets hit in the head by a rock accidentally and we skip the whole last half of the battle.
instead bilbo's probably gonna be DEATHLY AFRAID of getting hit and we will get a drawn out scene of him escaping peril while periodically cutting back to the battle
