The Battle of The Five Armies Extended Edition Review!

An Extended Cut that fixes many issues but remains slightly inconsistent

Here it is folks! The long-awaited review of the extended edition of The Battle of the Five Armies is here.

Don’t expect a long discussion for now; just a quick look at each extended scene.

A few mild spoilers follow, in case you haven’t yet seen it.

The Thorin vs Azog Duels: An Analysis

Why AUJ’s scene works better than BOTFA’s

The comparisons are obvious and the decision to include an initial confrontation between Azog and Thorin at the end of An Unexpected Journey, cleverly foreshadows the eventual meeting at the end of film 3.

It is my intention to analyse the two scenes and work out why one works better than the other.

For the purposes of this analysis, I will be referring to the Thorin/Azog scene at the end of An Unexpected Journey as the “Pine Forest Confrontation”; whilst the scene in The Battle of the Five Armies will be referred to as the “Ravenhill Conflict”.

Time and time again, I have found that the Pine Forest Confrontation has been a constant tear-jerker since my very first viewing of the film. With the Ravenhill Conflict, the emotional resonance lies only AFTER the conflict has ended.

I do not want to go into much detail on the Ravenhill Conflict, as I’ve already said much in a previous post (The Problematic Climax of ‘The Battle of the Five Armies’).

What follows is a personal opinion and is not meant to generalise the overall feeling of any fans or viewers of the film.

The Problematic Climax of ‘The Battle of the Five Armies’

How Peter Jackson went places he proved he would never go

I have been a Peter Jackson apologist for a number of years: attempting to understand and explain to others certain decisions done by the filmmaker when adapting the Middle-earth stories tothe silver screen.

Never being a narrow-minded “Jacksonphile”, I tried – as much as possible – to understand his reasonings; but not always found myself in full agreement with the outcome of specific choices. However, I always accepted Jackson’s own thoughts behind the alterations he employed.

However, after viewing The Battle of the Five Armies, I have come to the conclusion that Peter Jackson has probably done some shocking errors of judgement in its third act; something I will undoubtedly find extremely difficult to accept why he made the choices that eventually ended up on the screen.

I can most certainly understand why, but I don’t think I’ll be able to agree or sympathise with those decisions.

The Gaffer’s Elite! Battles

Ranking All Things Middle-earth

In The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings, the story is everything. But what adds to the beauty of experiencing it, is witnessing the breathtaking conflict that takes place throughout the narratives. In this second installment of “The Gaffer’s Elite” series, I’ll be attempting the daunting task of classifying my most favourite confrontations from the Middle-earth films.

For last week’s post, see ‘Soundtracks’.  

Old Bolg back in The Hobbit!

From being slain in An Unexpected Journey to chief torturer in The Battle of the Five Armies

I’ve grown rather fond of the final appearance of Bolg in The Hobbit trilogy. Although I had some initial reservations, I’ve come around.

You may probably have noticed by now that the original design for Bolg (and originally Azog – it’s slightly complicated so here’s a link to a detailed post about the design history: Azog, Bolg … and Yazneg: The trio’s tangled design history), has made an appearance in The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies.

Missed him?

‘The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug’ – Review

-Smaug has finally arrived!

As promised, here’s a much detailed review of the second installment in ‘The Hobbit’ Trilogy. Having seen the film three times so far, I’m able to delve into a bit more detail concerning the workings of the film.

DoS: Major Editorial Changes?

This is more of a speculative post than actual fact – but it’s good to speculate nonetheless … 🙂

‘The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey’: A review

– My very long review … (no really, very long)

Perhaps a little late to post this now, but better than never I guess! So here’s my review on the first installment of ‘The Hobbit’ Trilogy, written after copious amounts of repeat viewings and the span of a few months.