The Hobbit: The Battle of Five Armies fan reviews... SPOILERS

[Voronwë the Faithful]

I'm sure it will be in the EE.

And thank you.

[Passdagas the Brown]

Been doing a bit of reflecting after yov's question (and in the face of the end of the PJ-Middle Earth era). The more I think about it, the more I believe it's Ken Stott's Balin that makes me appreciate these films more than I might otherwise. He's my favorite character and actor across all the films, and he keeps me connected to the story. He's also sort of a combination of my older brother and grandmother, which helps!

I'd be curious to hear more about his scenes in the BotFA.

[Voronwë the Faithful]

Well, DCole did say

I'll comment on the first 2/3 of the film later. For now I'll focus on the "bad" moments in the last 1/3 of the film. Mostly to put the information out there, and prepare you for the film.

Well, V, since you included it among the important points that you hope were in, I assumed you would consider it "bad" if it wasn't "checked"

Personally, for me the good far, far outweighs the bad because the important points are checked

And based on the detailed spoiler review, Fili and Kili both do die defending their uncle (which is what I said before; I said nothing about his "body").

[Elentári]

Er...Fili and kili may have gone with Thorin to defeat Azog, but I thought the spoiler said Kili dies trying to save Tauriel... and they have both split away from Thorin and Dwalin when they are attacked. That is not defending him in my book.

Hidden text.

At Ravenhill, Fili and Kili split off from Thorin and Dwalin to locate Azog. Bilbo arrives and warns Thorin and Dwalin of Bolg. They realise it was a trap and Fili is soon captured by Azog. He is pierced through the back and dropped off a precipice to his death. Kili is driven into a rage and charges up a flight of steps to reach Azog, but is faced with loads of orcs. Thorin reaches Azog first and they have an epic fight, loads of callbacks to their previous encounters.

Bolg arrives and Bilbo is knocked unconscious. Bolg fights with Tauriel attempts to reach him, Legolas isn’t quite here yet, I won’t spoil why (unless asked later on). He’s quite brutal with her, throws her into a wall, etc. It’s looking like he’s going to kill her, before Kili leaps on his back and wrestles with him for a short while. Bolg gains the upper hand, holds Kili down and fatally stabs him, Tauriel can only look on in agony as he dies.

You can't wriggle out of it that easy....

[Voronwë the Faithful]

Close enough.

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[Voronwë the Faithful]

It just occurred to me that no one has said whether the end credits had any kind of sketches like they had for ROTK. I would guess not, since someone would have said so if they were there.

[Elentári]

Yes they do...I read comment from someone on TORN that the audience sat quietly and respectfully through the whole lot (that was in NZ, I believe!)

[Elentári]

DP, sorry...

[Elentári]

And I am already seeing things that undermine the things that he talks about that he doesn't like. He says in his review that there is a kiss between Tauriel and Kili, but in actuality he confirms later that she kisses him after he is dead (like Aragorn and Boromir). Big, big difference than an romantic kiss between two living souls.

BTW, Vashetti on TORn (who has owned to writing the detailed spoiler post, has confirmed that Tauriel kisses Kili on the lips...so to all intents and purposes it's meant to denote "romantic" feelings, not a "blessing" type kiss on the forehead like Aragorn/Boromir or Galadriel/Frodo...

[Voronwë the Faithful]

Does he kiss her back?

Good news about the credit drawings!

[Passdagas the Brown]

Apparently not, as he's dead at the time.

[Voronwë the Faithful]

Yeah, I understood that. I was making a little joke.

[Frelga]

Thousand points to PJ for Zombie Kili. Galvanized by the kiss, he rushed back into the battle and only falls over when it is won.

Come on, PJ. You know you want to.

[Voronwë the Faithful]

From the one and only Telemachos of TORC:

My initial impressions are that it's the best of the three, though it's very much a part of the same. If you hated the first two, I don't think this film will make you dramatically change your mind. That being said, it felt like the most faithful of the three as well. There are digressions, and obviously invented sequences and characters, but for the most part events unfold in the order they do in the book and characters essentially follow their book counterparts as well.

Bilbo has more to do; he's the moral centerpiece of the movie, doing much the same things he did in the book. There are some very nice emotional moments between Bilbo and Thorin, Bilbo and Gandalf, Dwalin and Thorin, etc.

The action is grand, huge, and evokes some of the better moments from the LOTR battles at its best. Legolas remains King of All Kickassness, Thranduil remains Ice Queen of Middle-Earth, and Dain is surprisingly rad (and funnier than I would've expected).

The movie ends well, and ties together with LOTR in a lovely minor way. My first thought was I wanted to watch FOTR again.

In response to some questions from Siddharth (our own SV):

Legolas has significant screen time but I wasn't bothered by it. His character is actually fleshed out a bit more than I expected. His battle antics I find pretty amusing, as I always have. PJ does seem to try to outdo himself with the Legolas Action every movie, and there's several in this one. If you got annoyed by his previous mega-stunts in the other movies, you'll be annoyed by them here. Personally, I find them absurd but fun.

I actually disagree with the reviewers saying Bilbo has little to do. His non-battle screen time seems fairly equal to Thorin's, off the top of my head, and he's the complete moral center of the movie. His actions play out very similar to the book. Even during the battle, where he doesn't have much to do, he's still given a bit of inclusive activity to keep him present (he goes to warn Thorin, Kili, and Fili, who're off fighting on a remote peak, that another wing of Gundabad Orcs are about to ambush them). Certainly he's much more of a presence here than in DOS.

The credits are very similar to ROTK's. I hadn't heard the song before, and it works well as fond nostalgia for all six movies.

Oh, and there's a moment that's totally DUNE. I thought it was great, but it may bother some.

For PtB I asked this:

What role do ravens play?

We'll see what if anything he says that adds to what we already have heard.

[Passdagas the Brown]

Thanks for carrying the message, V-man! Appreciate it.

[Voronwë the Faithful]

Here's his answer:

Hidden text.

Nothing is specifically said, but it's strongly, strongly inferred that Thorin uses them to communicate with Dain.

[Telemachos]

Yo.

I don't remember seeing

Hidden text.

Tauriel kiss Kili in any way.

[Voronwë the Faithful]

Yo, indeed! That's gotta set some kind of record for the longest period of time between registering at a messageboard and making your first post! Eight years and seven plus months! It's great to see you here.

Hidden text.

Very interesting. Either these other people (or person, I don't remember whether more than one has reported the kiss), or it is very unobtrusive. Either way, that is encouraging to hear!

I don't know why I am putting that in spoiler tags, other than that I can.

[Telemachos]

I didn't even know I had registered until I tried just now and was told the username was already in use.

Reading through some of the earlier comments... I don't have many of the complaints that others did. I'm also surprised about the claims that Dain is CG. Huh? He's no more CG than any of the Dwarves we've seen before, unless maybe you're talking about a stunt double or something.

I liked Legolas' stuff. Absurd? Absolutely. Fun? Absolutely. At least this time his Mega-Stunts were fairly inventive... although I guess if you hate what he did during the Barrel Sequence in DOS, you'll hate him here too.

The

Hidden text.

worms

were completely unexpected, but I thought they were a cool touch (not to mention being an homage -- intended or not -- to DUNE). A friend of mine said afterwards he thought PJ decided to literally interpret some of Tolkien's language instead of treating it metaphorically:

Hidden text.

the couple of references to the worms of the north; treating that as an actual definition instead of an alternate way of describing dragons

Dain's appearance was awesome! One of my favorite moments in the movie.

[Telemachos]

btw, should I keep putting spoilers in tags, or is this a thread where they can be discussed freely?