The Hobbit Films: What worked? What didn't?

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I think I must have blocked out the final film - I don't remember much of that at all. Probably for the best. :smiley10:
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Lirimaer, hehe yes it probably is for the best.

It's funny though that you mentioned you must have blocked out the 3rd movie. I had watched them all just once and remember at least being entertained with An Unexpected Journey through the Riddles in the Dark scene. There were a lot of things that I didn't like and the end fight between Thorin and Azog was bad (plus the CGI looked really cheap), but I did leave thinking ok I'll go and watch Desolation of Smaug when I'm able. So, I watched that when it came out and completely hated it. Then I didn't watch the last one until over a year after it came out. I'm trying to remember what I thought about it at the time, and I have that same mental block.

Only watched them all that once and distinctly remember 1st, "Ok, it's clearly not LOTR but I can see where there's a movie here." The 2nd "Hate it, they pretty much just scrapped everything and went with a PJ fan-fiction story." I can't remember what my immediate reaction to the 3rd film was other than "what did I just watch?" It almost left me confused as if I had be sleep-walking through it all.

Then I saw they were doing a marathon on one of the cable networks, so I DVRed them and watched all 3 in a day. That's when my mental block was lifted, maybe I shouldn't have done it. :smiley24: There are movies that age well and there are movies that don't. I think the LOTR trilogy will age well (just a personal opinion). Every Thursday I've been doing almost like a throwback Thursday movie and watching something that was made in the 1980s or earlier. And most of those acclaimed films aged well. The Hobbit trilogy, despite being relatively new, just look outdated and old already.
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Apologies for the necro but those that found 'the Tolkien edit' as it was known as in my circles... Has anyone watched it and have comment on that version of it?

Honestly after the second one I didn't even go to theatres for the third movie and I own multiple copies of the LOTR trilogy and I don't own any of the hobbit ones.

The second one was bad enough I decided no this is not worth financially supporting. My comment by then end of movie nber two was this should be done already. The we added a third movie for Dul guldur got a 'why?!?' response seeing what was there and the whole dwarven love story nonsense was just insane.

Also the undwarvenlyness of many of the dwarves was just frustrating. (also Birs- shire -agast...)
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@Fuin Elda I've watched the Tolkien edit a few times, and like it quite a bit. It's fairly heavy-handed in its cuts (no Tauriel, no Birdshireagast) and more interesting, I found, in creating a faithful adaption than... well, an easy watching (four and a half hours is a long time to sit and watch, y'all).
But, of the Hobbit Edits, I think it does pretty well with a difficult task.
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I've got a copy of it that I have never watched was a bit worries about it. Do you know if it includes scenes from the extended editions? I have only ever managed to watch the theatrical releases I just couldn't bring myself to suffer through the extended editions even if they did make it slightly better for certain things.
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I am not 100% sure, but I think the Tolkien edit did come out relatively shortly after the final movie was released -- so, no, I don't think the extended edition scenes would have made the cut.
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@Fuin Elda, I’ve only seen the Desolation of Smaug extended, and it did not make the movie better. I saw an extended scene from Beorn showing up at the Battle of Five Armies and liked that scene, but overall I would not recommend the extended editions.
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As a die hard Legolas fan (and now it's out there :embarrassed: ) I must admit that I enjoyed watching Orlando Bloom as Legolas on screen again although Leggy isn't even around in the books, like so many other things aren't. However, I haven't watched the Tolkien edit tbh. Is it worth it though? Got mixed feelings about the trilogy tbh
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It is worth it @Legolas! That being said, it does reduce your Leggy boy to a very brief cameo, and eliminate Tauriel altogether.
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Legolas wrote: Mon Sep 21, 2020 2:35 pm As a die hard Legolas fan (and now it's out there :embarrassed: )
I think we all knew that little secret 😉

I also love him, so don't feel alone. Although I am not a fan of CGI Legolas who can't emote.

I will admit I enjoyed the Hobbit purely as a reason to explore the Woodland Realm. If it was just a hand cam going round filming the elves living their daily lives like big brother I would watch the shire out of that show.
The Wood-elves lingered in the twilight of our Sun and Moon, but loved best the stars.

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Lirimaer wrote: Mon Sep 28, 2020 11:34 am I think we all knew that little secret
@Lirimaer hahaha then I guess I was revealing the obvious lol
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Maybe we should lobby for the re-institution of LLL. *whistles*
The Wood-elves lingered in the twilight of our Sun and Moon, but loved best the stars.

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