re: Thoughts on The Hobbit: The Battle of 5 Armies (Spoilers)

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Thoughts on The Hobbit: The Battle of 5 Armies

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Bloated, boring crap

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would have appreciated a more "gritty" version of this movie. I didn't need the assistant master of Laketown character who got more screen time than Gandalf. I mean, who needs comic relief when there's so much comedy on display otherwise? Lots of bloodless violence (I know why... the ratings system) and comedic violence

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Agree 100%
The lack of grittiness and blood was overall the biggest issue for me

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...Some bad story edits in this movie.

What happened to Radagast? He's not in LOTR, so we will never know.

What happened to Tauriel after the battle? She's not in LOTR, so we will never know.

Who took over as King Under the Mountain? (I know it's Dain, but in the movie?)..

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good observations SpqrTiger


As much as I really wanted to like this movie A LOT, I just can't, the screenplay seems too poorly thought out and haphazardly thrown together, it just seems like Boyens and Walsh had a big cluster of story board ideas, started a thread on most of them, got flustered and then decided to fulfill their contractual obligation and get the eff out.

I in no way cared about the Alfred or Afrid, whatever his name was, character from Laketown and yet he constantly reappears, he's not a book character, plays no part in the canon of the story and adds nothing. It's sort of like one of those "we have to remind you men are base and mostly worthless people in ME" threads they seem to get fixed on. Yes Phillipa/Fran, we know, YOU HATE MEN, constant reminders.. unnecessary.

The worms/earth-eaters where entirely over the top, unnecessary and a waste of CGI resources, nothing about that was a good idea, and the trolls would have sufficed entirely as the ubber-creeps.

The entire Tauriel-Killi mixed race love affair, not needed and a waste of time, but no doubt it made all the hipsters feel "Kewl", but entirely unnecessary and a waste. I know it's an excuse for the "Legolas goes off on his own" theme at the end, but just isn't needed at all.

For the good additions: Adding the entire War of the Ring (LotR) thread was a nice addition if out of sync with the actual book. The battle between Sauron - Gandy/Galdariel/Elrond/Saruman never actually happened in that place at that time, at least, according to Tolkien, but it at least fits, tying in important and relevant characters to the impending monumental event. That scene could have even been better with some additions, maybe adding the sons of Elrond, (Elladan/Elrohir) who typically went with him on his orc harvesting safaris, but at least it wasn't a waste and wasn't poorly done.


The additional time with Bard, brought about his importance to the story, while it wasn't perfectly executed, it did help build the plot and gave him even more actual notice than the book really did. A scene at the end with a final parley between the actual leaders of the major factions would have been a nice addition.


Yes Radagast never gets more than a mention in even the main story and yet exploring his character would have been of great interest to the true Tolkien aficionados. Again too many good things that could have been done, while screen time was just wasted on thread/characters that brought little or nothing.

Rather unfortunate that the Walsh/Boyens/Jackson team finished on such a sour note, but probably best, based on this, that it's come to an end. Just wish they could have gone out at as high a level as they came in on.

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The lack of grittiness and blood was overall the biggest issue for me

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This was based on a children's book. Expectations were way out of whack for this series as a whole. This is not Lord of the Rings, written for adults. This is meant to be much more whimsical and light-hearted.

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For the good additions: Adding the entire War of the Ring (LotR) thread was a nice addition if out of sync with the actual book. The battle between Sauron - Gandy/Galdariel/Elrond/Saruman never actually happened in that place at that time, at least, according to Tolkien, but it at least fits, tying in important and relevant characters to the impending monumental event. That scene could have even been better with some additions, maybe adding the sons of Elrond, (Elladan/Elrohir) who typically went with him on his orc harvesting safaris, but at least it wasn't a waste and wasn't poorly done.

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This was my second favorite scene. Gandalf disappears in the book The Hobbit to go investigate the Necromancer and defeat him. We find out in the appendices to the Lord of the Rings that the Necromancer/Sauron was defeated by the white council at Dol Goldur. Isn't that the proper timing or am I missing something?

One of my biggest complaints of Lord of the Rings was the absence of the Dunedain (other than Aragorn) and Elrond's two sons, who come as a group to help fight. Since the sons of Elrond were totally absent from Lord of the Rings, they could not very well include them here. Plus, I do not think they were technically part of the White Council.

just got back. I liked some of it, but it just wasnt what i imagined when i was a kid. Some of the army/ action scenes were badass. Some were just cheesy. i wanted to see dwarfish women and culture like catapults and war machines and animals. I liked fili and kili, ending couldve been more satisfying, war scenes were not realistic like medieval warfare. i want to frick tauriel.
Dain is king under the mountain. It was nice seeing dwarf armies. Why didnt gimli have a cameo

aragorn would be 20 at the time.

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Gandalf disappears in the book The Hobbit to go investigate the Necromancer and defeat him. We find out in the appendices to the Lord of the Rings that the Necromancer/Sauron was defeated by the white council at Dol Goldur. Isn't that the proper timing or am I missing something?

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Ok you may be right, the appendix may reference the White Council driving him out at that time, I was thinking it was far earlier before or around when Isildur defeated Sauron but the main story only mentions that "Gandalf alone dared to enter the dungeons of Dol Guldur and discover the identity of the Necromancer". Who the White Council is exactly was never implicitly stated but here is who the "encyclopedia of Arda" authors surmise it would be:

Celeborn, Galadriel, Cirdan, Glorfindel, Elrond, Thranduil, Saruman, Gandalf and Radagast.

They give pretty solid reasons why they would have all been "in the circle of trust".

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Since the sons of Elrond were totally absent from Lord of the Rings, they could not very well include them here.

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Absent from the movie, yes, of course they are in the books or we wouldn't know they exist. Remember the movie isn't all that accurate, and the Sons of Elrond had some significant parts in "The Grey Company" as they pretty much formed the backbone of it along with Halbarad and the chief rangers of the north that traveled with Aragorn after the battle of Helms Deep, through the paths of the dead and fought with him at the Pelenor fields in front of Gondor.

Just seems like a major event like that might have had some more of the significant elf lords of the day at it, Glorfindel/Sons Of Elrond etc. In my view a lot of these throw away movie characters could have been ditched for actual characters from the books, but that's why I don't get to be the producer.

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aragorn would be 20 at the time.

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according to the encyclopedia of Arda he was born in 2931 and the ring was "found" by Bilbo in 2941, which would have made him 10 (by my math), I'm not saying that's absolute fact or your wrong or anything.

It kind of works for me that he would be 10 though, because by the time he's 20, Aragorn should have already been some what of a young badazz, orc killer, phenom and would have likely been able to contend with the events in the Battle of Five Armies, so it would explain his absence. But like the absence of Elronds sons, and some other notable Elves who could have also been there, it's evident Tolkien pieced together Middle Earth's history and didn't simply set down and right out a nice neat timeline of history where everything falls into place. Which also explains why it was such a magnificent creation and not just another work of literary art.