"I sorta liked Battle of 5 Armies extended edition. . ." Topic

BotFA has been consistently trounced here on TMP, but I just watched the extended cut and mostly enjoyed it (possible spoilers below).

The first two thirds of the film are nearly identical, but when the actual Battle heats up, we see the rough edges smoothed over. The elves and dwarves actually come to blows before the orcs show up. The battle in Dale is more clearly seen as an actual flanking move. We finally get to see Beorn in action. We see the women and old men of Laketown help turn the tide. Alfrid meets a well-deserved end. And we get the rumored touching funeral for Thorin and kin, followed by the crowning of Dain.

The biggest addition is a long sequence in which several dwarves punch a giant war/scythe chariot complete with repeating ballista through the orc army to help Thorin reach Azog. Totally not Tolkien in feel, but how can a wargamer resist? It's ludicrous, but it somehow works! And it answers the question – where did those goats come from?

The extraneous additions (i.e. interspecies hanky panky) are still there, of course, and still annoy. But there are some strong performances by the actors involved. These films will never compare to LOTR, but BotFA is probably my favorite of the Hobbit trilogy.

I finally saw it recently. It had more of a Games Workshop than Tolkein feel to me. My wife, who has never read Tolkein said at the end of the movie, and I quote, "That was just silly."

I too got a GW advertisement vibe to the extended ed, the anti arrow bolt throwers and dwarf chariots were pretty silly, as was the troll jockey bits.

Now if they had put in substantially extra Beorn, that may have balanced that out.

Thanks Spudeus, I'll check it out.

No, no, no.

Now I have to find you and eliminate you.

I'm so sorry.

I'll put it on my Netflix list. Since I just saw "Terminator: Genysis" and "Tomorrowland" via this route I don't think it can really get any worse watching the extended version of BotFA.

Thanks for the heads. I love the movie as is and because of the nice gaming feel. Are they planning on releasing an extended edition box set of the trilogy?

I actually noticed an extended box set on Amazon (at least in blu-ray); I own the individual copies so will stick with them.

I'll pick it up so I'll have the set, but besides extending it, I have this dream where they un-extend the bits with Legolas.

Well, fast forward and chapter skip lets you un-extend to your heart's content! Though that would mean cutting out Tauriel as well. Frankly, the films desperately need an injection of red-headed elf hottie.

Nope. Can't do it. Can't reward PJ for this travesty of a movie. Can't sit through the overblown crap again to watch a few moments of overblown hopefully-not-crap that might make the previous crap less crappy, if I squint just right. Can't even skip through the overblown crap, because I know it's still there, like aspartame mixed into an ice cream bar; gussy it up all you want, it still tastes terrible. I love the real thing too much.

Instead, I'll read my beloved, bedraggled paperback copy with JRRT's own illustration of Bilbo floating on a barrel, arriving at the huts of the raft elves, with the Lonely Mountain far off in the distance. And I shall see the real story in my mind, the glory and the quiet, the battles and the moments after, and relish a tale of adventure and awakening as it was meant to be.

HERETIC! BURN HIM!

While the synopsis does explain why some of the bits are a bit choppy in that movie, it does little to convince me that it was any good.

As usual, YMMV.

I have seen that Chariot portion and there is a very good reason why it was cut from the film.

It was a "Jump the Shark" moment.

The Dwarves and Elves fighting was okay.

Though the Elves were stupid to jump over that nicely built Dwarven Shield wall.

Should have just shot arrows in the masses of Orcs but no they had to jump over the wall and get themselves killed.

That mass leap bugged me too, though I can kinda see PJ's POV. We had seen so many elven arrow volleys in lotr he probably thought 'how about something different this time?'.