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№ 322 Middle-Earth on Film Retrospective

Season 5

Date

2015-01-16

Featuring

Ben, Matt

Length

1:15:59

Category

Review

Series

Tolkien

Essential

2020-04-16

Final discussion of Peter Jackson's Middle Earth films

Future Episodes

  • Narnia film comparison

Opening

Matt has had Ben's Narnia cartoon DVD on his shelf for 2 years. He's going to watch it so they can do an episode comparing the three film versions of Narnia.

Main Topic

Ben points out that Matt rated The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies 🟊🟊½ and the book 🟊🟊.

Top 6 Peter Jackson Middle Earth movies

Ben

  1. The Hobbit: Battle of the Five Armies
  2. The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug
  3. The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey
  4. The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers
  5. The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring
  6. The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King

Matt

  1. The Hobbit: Battle of the Five Armies
  2. The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug
  3. The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey
  4. The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring
  5. The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King
  6. The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers

Evangeline Lily said all of the love triangle scenes were filmed in reshoots.

The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers is Matt's favorite because he thought Gimli was funny.

Top 10 Worst Things About Peter Jackson's Middle Earth Movies

Ben

  1. Handling of pipe smoking
  2. Inconsistencies with the books
  3. Pacing issues in The Hobbit
  4. Arwen at the ford
  5. The dwarves in The Hobbit
  6. Increasingly-bad CGI
  7. Undermining the themes of the story
  8. Tauriel's love triangle
  9. Gimli
  10. Lack of passion and respect for The Hobbit book

Top 10 Best Things About Peter Jackson's Middle Earth Movies

Ben

  1. Treebeard
  2. The Shire scenes in The Hobbit
  3. Casting
  4. Soundtrack
  5. Gandalf
  6. Perfectly captured sequences: Riddles in the Dark, The Last Alliance, The Ride of the Rohirrim, Gandalf's charge at the Nazgul outside Minas Tirith, Sam carrying Frodo up Mount Doom, Sam coming with Frodo, Balrog, Theoden's charge at Helm's Deep
  7. Alan Lee and John Howe's art
  8. Gollum
  9. The Passion of the Hobbit (the transformation of Frodo from start to end)
  10. The passion and respect for The Lord of the Rings books

Peter Jackson went from being a respectful steward when making The Lord of the Rings to feeling ownership over Middle Earth when making The Hobbit.

Feedback

Mike Poteet defends The Hobbit movies.

Paul Lewis said Peter Jackson's cheesy dialogue and over-the-top visuals originated in his B horror movies.

Mickey likes Martin Freeman but says he played Tim from The Office instead of Bilbo Baggins.

Taylor pointed out the Jackson had to simplify The Lord of the Rings but expanded The Hobbit.