In case you missed it . . .
Yes, so a certain trailer for a certain trilogy was released online in anticipation of the cinema release of all three extended editions of The Hobbit. Here’s the result.
Below we take a look at the new shots in store.
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In the meantime, here are some of the extended/new scenes we can expect in The Battle of the Five Armies.
Bard chased by Smaug on Lake-town rooftops
(no surprises here)
Elves in Dale
Dáin and the Dwarf Rams
Elven Arrows vs Dwarven Ballistas
Catapult Troll before the Gates of Erebor
The Dwarven Chariot Chase
Legolas on Bat vs Orcs *sigh*
Gundabad Orcs on Ravenhill
What do you all make of these shots, so far? Excited? Afraid? Feeling bonkers?
Share you thoughts below! 🙂
A Tolkienist's Perspective 
Naturally, I think we (most of us anyway) welcome an extended Battle of the Five Armies. However, when considering how the extended editions deepened and enriched An Unexpected Journey and Desolation of Smaug, I get the feeling the only opening for more material in Battle of the Five Armies will be… more battle.
I just… I am speechless that Legolas is featured yet more riding the effing bat. Dude. REALLY? The river/barrel scene started Jackson going overboard, but he wallowed like a pig in slop with his acrobatic elves in the completely unnecessary Legolas vs Bolg grudge match. I am decreasingly excited by this re-release because I think Jackson is going to use it to showcase Legolas and his cold gazes, flips, gravity defying, etc. Will I watch it? Yes, but I think I’m done paying top-dollar just to watch Jackson’s fascination with Orlando Bloom. I’m hoping Jackson proves me wrong, but a trend is a trend.
I liked Legolas better back when he was only rumored to be a cameo in these movies.
Oh how I wish that was still so. Seeing him in the background in Thranduil’s “court” would have been tops.
I admit the Legolas stuff on the bat is a bit much, but that alone won’t detract from the viewing pleasure for me. The other stuff looks rather good.
I don’t care about more action scenes I want to see the funeral and more scence with Bilbo!
I never thought I’d say this but more action might be an improvement – no wait I meant to say better action would be. There was practically no blood, the characters fought like video game characters, and I’m sorry late Andrew Lesnie but your cinematography was not as emotionally impactful as it was in LOTR (it didn’t focus on the right things if you ask me).
However yes I would still give up better (hopefully R-rated action ;)) instead of the funeral scene and more character moments 🙂
Agreed David. As for Lesnie, I’m sure he found it cumbersome (as any other cinematographer would) to try and light and compose a scene where 2/3 or more is greenscreen!
Yes! Yes! Yes! Though the battle does lack some action towards the end. As long as it’s not Legolas/Tauriel action scenes, but more Dwarf Company action scenes, then I’m fine 🙂
I don’t care what else they may have as long as the home media version is pg-13. I detest rated R material. It tends to be very uncouth and lowers the quality of the production.
why do you detest R rated material (other than the fact that lowers the quality of production)? I find that it allows more opportunity to portray your vision. Anyways, I’m sure PJ realized it was last chance to be in middle earth, so he just said “fuck it”, and for that I respect him despite some of his directorial choices
I’m intrigued to see what will justify an R-rating. It may be something rather benign when compared to actual R-rated films. We’ll just have to wait and see I guess …
I imagine for most audiences TBOTFA EE will be a letdown because they’re expecting it to be a Braveheart, which has ruthless, gory violence throughout, when really it’s just The Kings Speech which was rated r because the word fuck slipped out once.
Where would the dwarves even get all those goats from? Did they just have them lying around until they needed cavalry? Or was it an entire new army of cavalry? Why the hell would PJ leave this out as it creates the plot hole of Thorin randomly getting a goat out of nowhere? And it looks like a good scene in which even the general audience would appeal to so I’m utterly confused right now.
There is no plot hole 4 Rams is with Dains armie when they first arrived.
Hey Mattias, there seems to be a ram or two in Dain’s army but they’re almost impossible to spot. For them to make an entrance later on with Thorin and Co is a bit of a stretch for an audience, who most probably missed them the first time.
The EE needs to explain the four rams ridden by Thorin, Fili, Kili and Dwalin towards Ravenhill. The Dwarf army have a cavalry of rams doesn’t bother me at all. These were from the Iron Hills, after all; so I’d expect some mountain goats in the area 😉
Where’s my fricking 2 hours of extended material? Turns out it was only 20 minutes? what a bummer 😦
Whoah, are you saying you would rather have TBOTFA be longer than ROTK? More is always better, but I’m not sure THAT much more.
Just saying. Hahaha. No matter how many hours they add to BOTFA, it will never be as epic as ROTK. LOTR forever!!!
If they don’t include the coronation of Dain and the burial of Thorin, including Orcrist being buried with him, I’m going to be severely pissed off.
But still even then it wouldn’t feel complete. I think they would have to include Fili getting decapitated (an ongoing rumor that might be in the EE), Gandalf looking in the Palantir (and foreseeing Smaug and the orcs overpowering the dwarves), Bard becoming king of Dale (or just some that concludes Bard’s character arc), Bilbo’s return journey (maybe something along the lines of Bilbo staying with Beorn and Elrond a while; isn’t he supposed to be gone 30 months? Good gracious that’s even longer than LOTR. Anyways at least that’s how long he was said to be gone for; though it felt like 1 or 2 month at the most)
He is good for 13 months.
When Bilbo is back in the Shire, Bilbo is told by the auctioneer that he was gone for 30 months and presumed dead. For some reason though he chose to make the last two hobbit films take place over 2 weeks like with TTT and ROTK (except the hobbit is supposed to take place over months, while the last 2 lotrs aren’t)
I believe the auctioneer actually says 13 months … which would match with the book timeline. But I may be mistaken.
I’m talking about Jackson when is say ‘he’ btw
It would be nice if there is more material related to the book and which help enrich characters’ stories. I am hoping that this is still the case, at least in part. I enjoyed the films and was glad they were made by PJ. I did not mind some of his bigger changes in the centre of the story but would have preferred something more in keeping with how the book ends. For me the films have provided visuals aids that have helped enhance my imagination of the story told in the books so even if this extended version is disappointing I will still get it. There is just no hope for a Middle Earth addict like myself. 😉
Well, I was kind of excited about getting the extended cut, but it is not that much extra time and we have mainly seen battle/action shots (which in my opinion is the last thing this already-action packed film needs). So, I’m a bit dissappointed about the shots. But hey, I can still hope that they have yet to reveal the great bits!
If the scene that made this film R-rated is not incredibly full of impact, I will not see the point of adding it. But, time will tell what happens! I am still a little bitter after my first (and so far only) screening of Battle of Five Armies, so I am careful of getting my hopes way too much high up. Definetly looking forward for the Behind the Scenes Documentaries more than the film itself. 🙂
I wish to see a lot of things, but definitely I’m excited for the Dol Guldur extended part!
I really hope they include the funeral scene that has been rumoured. I’m not sure I want to see my battle scenes, except maybe the chariot chase as that was in the original trailer (if my memory serves me correctly). It would be nice to have a bit more of Bilbo’s journey back, as it felt just a little too rushed at the end.
I laughed when I read your sigh about Legolas and the bat…PJ really does seem to like his acrobatic elf. He should have just left it with Legolas sliding down the stairs in The Two Towers.
Cannot agree further! Let’s hope those 20 minutes of footage comprise mainly of the funeral scene and some character moments with the Dwarves and Bilbo – which were sorely lacking from the film. Alas! It would seem Legolas and Bat acrobatics are part of the Extended … *sigh*
I strongly suspect the acrobatics may take up a large portion of those precious 20mins…I preferred LOTR Legolas where he was mostly not told what was going on in the scenes and he just had to react. Maybe this is his chance to shine? 😛
even then though I wasn’t a *huge* fan of legolas, or gimli for that matter (I only liked both of them in fellowship). Even though neither of them in any of the movies had any depth, in fellowship the character were taken seriously and weren’t over the top.
I agree, as they became more and more central it was like they were only there to provide humour and to swing around killing orcs. A bit of humour isn’t a bad thing, but it felt like it was the only reason for them being in the scene at times
Turns out there might be 36 minutes instead of the rumored 20.
https://www.amctheatres.com/movies/the-hobbit-the-battle-of-the-five-armies-extended-edition#552-10132015-56453
Says on the website that it’ll be 3hours 0 minutes. I really hope it’s true