The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies

[Jokes & Bats]

If I'd seen the film that gif was from I might understand it.

 

[The Ween]

Just watched all extended LOTR films on blu ray and....well....they make the Hobbit look like dog dirt.

I wish the Hobbit would have been made 15 years ago like LOTR so that it would be....good.

If the Hobbit films were made 15 years ago, there would be people complaining about how the LotR looks because I'm sure it wouldn't be the same.

It's like the new SW movie coming out. It won't have the same "feel" as the OT. It just can't.

 

[DiFabio]

Unless . . .

. . . Peter Jackson made Hobbit and LOTR back, to back to back, to back! I think at one point, Hobbit was part of the Miramax deal in the 90s.

 

[The Ween]

Unless . . .

. . . Peter Jackson made Hobbit and LOTR back, to back to back, to back! I think at one point, Hobbit was part of the Miramax deal in the 90s.

I wonder how good Smaug would've looked back then. LotR didn't start filming till '99.

Who knows though. I guess we'll have to wait till the reboots.

 

[Khev]

We could have even had a 2003 Martin Freeman as Bilbo.

 

[The Ween]

We could have even had a 2003 Martin Freeman as Bilbo.

Never knew he was so double jointed!

 

[Xenoburger_]

I wonder how good Smaug would've looked back then. LotR didn't start filming till '99.

Who knows though. I guess we'll have to wait till the reboots.

Dragonheart - 1996:

 

[crows]

I wish the Hobbit would have been made 15 years ago like LOTR so that it would be....good.

they would have been much more creative with how they went to make it.

CGI is making filmmakers lazy when it comes to this. yeah making a movie is really hard work, (Of course) and CGI is not easy to create... but in the past directors had to get more creative with how they dealt with the limitations of practical effects, that's kind of the charm of movies like Jurassic Park or even the first Lord of the rings.

limitation led to creativity.

Now filmmakers have all this technology that is supposed to help them create these amazing movies yet they lost that sense of creativity that they used to have.


Look at movies like Aliens, Jaws and Terminator and compare that to Alien Vs Predator, I am Legend or the Star Wars prequels. All this CGI to make them able to do whatever they want and the ingenuity is completely gone now

the Hobbit sadly falls into this. they have so many tools to create the story they wanted but they lost that magic touch

 

[The Josh]

Good links Josh, but I wouldn't feed the trolls any longer. A pretty ridiculous amount of hyperbole being thrown around in an attempt to criticize this film. Saw it for the third time, this time with the kids yesterday. Such an amazing movie. That opening Smaug sequence just keeps getting better and better.

On another note I've been going through the DOS filmmaker commentary. Really interesting stuff (as always.) Jackson mentioned that he did want to have the Mirkwood elf parties in the movie but didn't film them just because of how long the Mirkwood scenes already were. He had Kili overhear the partying and comment to them to Tauriel so that at least lip service could be paid to them to acknowledge that they were happening.

So many great locations and sets in these films. People have no idea (or, as I suspect are just being deliberately obtuse in not recognizing that New Zealand's landscape and real sets are just as much a part of The Hobbit films as they were the LOTR.)

No problem. Hope you enjoy the site. Like I said its a great resource. I know. I'm done. There's a certain quote from Forrest Gump at how I look at some people in this thread. I'm sure you know which quote I'm talking about.

I'm sorry some don't like the movies. It sucks but I've enjoyed the ride and have others I can chat with. That for means a lot and so I as someone who has dedicated a lot of time over the years to Middle-earth. I'll always have a group to chat with.

 

[The Josh]

I got the book set for christmas celebrating 20 years of weta, a worthwhile pickup that will take weeks to get through.

View attachment 154864

That is a great book. I have that and I also have this version.

 

[jye4ever]

they would have been much more creative with how they went to make it.

CGI is making filmmakers lazy when it comes to this. yeah making a movie is really hard work, (Of course) and CGI is not easy to create... but in the past directors had to get more creative with how they dealt with the limitations of practical effects, that's kind of the charm of movies like Jurassic Park or even the first Lord of the rings.

limitation led to creativity.

Now filmmakers have all this technology that is supposed to help them create these amazing movies yet they lost that sense of creativity that they used to have.


Look at movies like Aliens, Jaws and Terminator and compare that to Alien Vs Predator, I am Legend or the Star Wars prequels. All this CGI to make them able to do whatever they want and the ingenuity is completely gone now

the Hobbit sadly falls into this. they have so many tools to create the story they wanted but they lost that magic touch

While I enjoy the Hobbit trilogy, crows is speaking the truth here.

 

[crows]

this article touches up on some of the stuff i was talking about

The 6 Stupidest Things The Hobbit Movies Wasted Money On | Cracked.com

 

[Khev]

While I enjoy the Hobbit trilogy, crows is speaking the truth here.

But not with regard to The Hobbit. They exhibited an insane amount of creativity for this trilogy, not the least of which was inventing the synchronized camera system so that they could film Gandalf (and other humans) in normal human sized sets while Bilbo and the dwarves were in separate large scale sets to simulate their small size. Roll the two cameras at once and the actors get to play off each other in real time with everything syncing up perfectly and the scales overlapping for a perfect match of large and small characters without any CGI or doubles involved.

But of course for some people it's fun to ignore stuff like that because in addition to the epic locations, epic sets and first rate actors they also had some CG characters and landscapes. Oh the humanity.

And CGI isn't why AVP sucks compared to Aliens or I Am Legend sucks compared to The Terminator. The latter films just sucked, period. They wouldn't have been these awesome classics if practical makeup and puppets were used more abundantly.

The Phantom Menace was filmed on 2D traditional film stock with tons of real sets, practical makeup and miniatures. Other than Jar Jar and the Pod Race it was made with many of the same techniques as the OT. The non-CG scenes still sucked and The Hobbit with it's 3D HFR digital film and greater number of digital characters still blows it away.

 

[crows]

well, the link explains it a little better

 

[DiFabio]

 

[RIDDICK]

CGI is making filmmakers lazy.

 

[crows]

but this is... So much better guys!

(not even the candles or the cups were real, so much better guys )

 

[furystorm]

Absolutely brilliant work that!

 

[jye4ever]

But not with regard to The Hobbit. They exhibited an insane amount of creativity for this trilogy, not the least of which was inventing the synchronized camera system so that they could film Gandalf (and other humans) in normal human sized sets while Bilbo and the dwarves were in separate large scale sets to simulate their small size. Roll the two cameras at once and the actors get to play off each other in real time with everything syncing up perfectly and the scales overlapping for a perfect match of large and small characters without any CGI or doubles involved.

But of course for some people it's fun to ignore stuff like that because in addition to the epic locations, epic sets and first rate actors they also had some CG characters and landscapes. Oh the humanity.

And CGI isn't why AVP sucks compared to Aliens or I Am Legend sucks compared to The Terminator. The latter films just sucked, period. They wouldn't have been these awesome classics if practical makeup and puppets were used more abundantly.

The Phantom Menace was filmed on 2D traditional film stock with tons of real sets, practical makeup and miniatures. Other than Jar Jar and the Pod Race it was made with many of the same techniques as the OT. The non-CG scenes still sucked and The Hobbit with it's 3D HFR digital film and greater number of digital characters still blows it away.

While I enjoy the LOTR trilogy, Khev is speaking the truth here.

 

[Khev]

While I enjoy the LOTR trilogy, Khev is speaking the truth here.