Official 'The Hobbit' Thread - Part 17

[Iceman]

[YT]2H4Q_aA4QiQ[/YT]Perfect end to the trilogy for the general audience/non-book readers.

 

[Iceman]

I was, and still am furious they did not film the Scourging of the Shire. Its excision was a terrible choice.

It wouldn't fit at the end of a Hollywood film. They could have filmed it and put it in for book readers for the EE though, I would have liked to see it. In the end they only hinted at it in the Galadriel scene in FotR.

 

[Victarion]

And that is why we have such disdain for the GA.

Plebs, nothing but dirty plebs.

Tauriel's arc seemed concluded with BOFA. Reworking the Nine from the LOTR trilogy so that they resemble their BOFA selves (I'm talking in the ring world where we see one of them stab Frodo, and any other scenes they have in ring world) is a change I would be alright with. I liked their spirit forms in this one.

 

[ares834]

Just came back from it. From what I heard, I expected a train wreck but quite enjoyed it. Loved how they switched from the large scale battle to the more personal struggle.

Also dat Morgoth name drop was epic. That entire sequence was very well done.

 

[jonathancrane]

I agree with Ares regarding that sequence.

 

[Quasimod0]

I definitely think it was a good decision to leave out the scourging. That's one thing I think the movie did better than the book.

 

[Doctor Jones]

I was, and still am furious they did not film the Scourging of the Shire. Its excision was a terrible choice.

Bit hyperbolic isn't it? You make it sound as if it was excised carelessly. For the book sure (though I still had a problem with it, it still felt tacked on) there was actual reasoning to its exclusion. The central plot to these stories is to destroy the One Ring. The Scourging of the Shire does was not direly say or move to story forward in a way, particularly since this is the conclusion of the entire trilogy. People complained enough about the multiple endings to ROTK, but an audience sits there for three hours and watching the previous two films with the expectation to see the main task, seeing the ring destroyed, only for things to wind down, and when they get back, the audience has to endure another 45 minutes of yet another climax. That isn't just a climax, that's a whole other act to a film right there. It's too much. This isn't irrational or blasphemous thinking. The rule of film: When you're done, get out of there. One can argue ROTK didn't do this but at least it had the sense to be completely about its falling action. At least the filmmakers paid homage to it in Galadriel's mirror.

 

[Herolee10]

Confused; so by Frodo seeing the so called "scourging of the Shire" in the mirror, does that mean that the event was going to occur at some point in the future within the LOTR films? I thought that it was just a vision of what would happen to the shire if Sauron gets his way.

With Sauron and Saruman both killed in the LOTR films by the time Aragorn is crowned king, who could possibly be the person responsible for overtaking the shire?

 

[Brother Jack]

I was, and still am furious they did not film the Scourging of the Shire. Its excision was a terrible choice.

They were right to remove it. It would have prolonged the ending even further adding yet another big action set-piece when the climax of the story had already taken place. The narrative reaches its climax when the ring is destroyed. In a book its much more permissible to ramble on but movies need to be relatively leaner. It's the same with Tom Bombadil, who is an interesting character but had no real bearing on the story and thus needed to be cut.

 

[CGHulk]

http://www.thedailybeast.com/articl...ter-jackson-says-goodbye-to-middle-earth.html

In fact, and correct me if I am wrong, I feel like there are way more beheadings in this trilogy than Lord of the Rings, many of which come at the hands of Legolas.

There probably are. See, the trick too, as a filmmaker, you’ve got guys fighting with blades. They don’t have guns or machine guns or grenades. So when you want to kill people, you’ve got limited options. One of the weird things with these films, which I must confess I actually quite enjoy, we sit around thinking how we are going to kill an Orc. You actually turn into a psychopath. And actually I can think of a hell of a great way to kill Orcs but I am always restricted by PG-13, unfortunately.

What would you have done if you had the R rating?

Oh all sorts of great things. I will tell you what, you wait for the extended cut of this film. There are a few Orc killings that we actually got knocked back. Because when we submitted this to the MPAA we got an R. So what you’re seeing is the result of heavy editing to even just get the PG-13. But there will be a little bit of Orc killing to be seen in the extended cut.

 

[craigdbfan]

The Orc killing in DoS was pretty brutal from what I remember.

 

[regwec]

I was, and still am furious they did not film the Scourging of the Shire. Its excision was a terrible choice.

We saw a glimpse of PJ's scouring in the mirror of Galadriel. It was predictably crude, noisy and mishandled. With that it mind, it is probably better that he left it out.

Confused; so by Frodo seeing the so called "scourging of the Shire" in the mirror, does that mean that the event was going to occur at some point in the future within the LOTR films? I thought that it was just a vision of what would happen to the shire if Sauron gets his way.

With Sauron and Saruman both killed in the LOTR films by the time Aragorn is crowned king, who could possibly be the person responsible for overtaking the shire?

In the book, the mirror shows things from the past, present, future or possible future at random. PJ turns it into a "here's what happens if you give up" thing. So I don't think he ever meant it to occur.

 

[Herolee10]

In the book, the mirror shows things from the past, present, future or possible future at random. PJ turns it into a "here's what happens if you give up" thing. So I don't think he ever meant it to occur.

Ah I see, thanks for the clarification.

Well, at least we can all look at the bright side. It's a good thing that Peter Jackson had tackled the LOTR films first before doing the hobbit since I would rather have the LOTR film series hold up with high quality than be brought down to what Jackson did with the Hobbit films.

 

[CapedCrusader14]

So finally got to see this.

I really, really, really, really didn't like it. Mainly just happy it didn't cost me a thing to see it.

 

[Asr]

Is the HFR version worth seeing? I saw the first Hobbit (AUJ) in HFR and it was totally distracting so I'm wondering if it's any better now with BOTFA.

I liked this movie even though it seems to have gotten a bad rep here, would rate it 7/10 though overall. I'm not sure I counted 5 armies though—Laketown, the dwarves, the elves, the orcs? Who was the 5th army?

I really liked how the ending tied directly back to FOTR—that was a nice touch, brought back memories.

 

[craigdbfan]

Orc, Wargs, Elves, Men and Dwarves.

 

[Marvolo]

Orcs, men, elves, dwarves, eagles.

Im pretty sure those are the five armies in the book. Wargs are just mounts not an actual army.

 

[craigdbfan]

You're right It's Orcs/Bats/Wargs, Men, Elves, Dwarves, and Eagles. I always forget about the latter.

 

[terry78]

The eagles are jerks that swoop in after the fact.

 

[Donut]

You're right It's Orcs/Bats/Wargs, Men, Elves, Dwarves, and Eagles. I always forget about the latter.

Couldnt Hobbit count as one of the five with Bilbo around ?

 

[Ipodman]

The Hobbit is the Hobbit in The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies

 

[Iceman]

The eagles are jerks that swoop in after the fact.

Yep. The eagles ain't no army. Just a bunch of birds looking for glory.

 

[ares834]

"So began a battle that none had expected; and it was called the Battle of Five Armies, and it was very terrible. Upon one side were the Goblins and the wild Wolves, and upon the other were Elves and Men and Dwarves."

 

[Iceman]

I don't count animals as armies, whatever the author's preferences.

 

[Victarion]

Legolas said something about goblin mercenaries at some point in the movie.

edit: Bats are people too.