Hobbit, The: BOTFA (ExtEdition/UV) (BD)

Ah, the final part of the Hobbit trilogy. It is also the shortest Extended version of the three movies (An Unexpected Journey and The Desolation of Smaug) but the 20 minutes extra running time are once again edited so perfectly into the movie that you sometimes notice that something has been added. The Battle of the Five Armies again takes a lot of liberty in the adaptation of the book to the screen. Which - once again - might upset the story purists but that has been done well. The story-line wraps up nicely and by the end of the 2 hours and 43 minutes you can roll right on through watching all the Lord of the Rings movies. But, there is also a little bit of the problem that I had with this movie. There clearly has been the idea with the studios to outdo the Lord of the Ring in scale. Which makes no real sense. The Lord of the Rings is the build-up to where the world goes to war. But somehow, the war that we get in The Battle of the Five Armies features armies that look larger than even the battle at Gondor, and they dwarf the armies of the Orcs and the Uruks for Helm's Deep in The Two Towers. And it does look awesome once again, but because of this, I would advise for a week or so between to sit-throughs of both trilogy; simply not to compare them to each other in too much detail. Just like the book, this final part of the trilogy is far less a fantasy movie but rather a war movie. It is a great movie, but - just like the book (again) - it feels a bit like an sequel-story building upon the fantasy story that covers the first two movies. I think Peter Jackson did very well to have ended the 'Desolation of Smaug' where it did, and bring the rest of that part of the book to this last movie to not make it a huge difference in movie styles. The acting is great again, the action sequences are beautifully filmed, and there is again a lot of stunning scenery to be enjoyed. The extra 20 minutes exists mainly of a lot of extra - fantastic - gorey shots during the war. You want to know the 10 best ways to kill an Orc? Well, this is the movie for you. Enjoy this one as the conclusion of The Hobbit trilogy.

I'm that guy. The one who'll shell out another $10 for an "Extended Edition" or a "Director's Cut" of a movie. I'm the guy who'll sit and watch a 2 hour movie, and then sit and watch another hour or two of special features. I not only enjoy movies, but the work that goes into making them. The technology and mostly the hard work. Now, a lot of times, an "Extended Edition" will have a few minutes of scenes that were cut out due to "time constraints" or they didn't "help the story along", and after seeing these, I would agree, but I still enjoy seeing them. Makes me feel like I'm seeing the "whole thing", the movie as it was intended. Now, I know that you'll never see a movie as it was intended, especially one based on a book, because that movie would be 8 hours long, but I still get a feeling of completeness by seeing those deleted scenes. In the case of the extra scenes in this movie, yes, they do not really progress the story much, but they are oh so good to watch. Especially the scene that was added during the final battle at Erebor. It filled in some gaps that, honestly, I didn't know were there until I saw it, and it had me on the edge of my seat cheering and laughing at the same time (you'll know it when you see it). I know people have given Peter Jackson crap about stretching the book into 3 movies and how people say it's a slog to watch all 3, but I really enjoy The Hobbit Trilogy movies, more so than the Lord of the Rings Trilogy, actually. And this one is no exception. The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies Extended Edition is well worth the price I paid to purchase it and is definitely worth the price of rental. I would suggest, if you rent/purchase it, you do so when you can sit down and watch all 3 together. Everything ties together much better and that feeling of "completeness" I got at the end of it all was just a nice warm fuzzy.

My favorite all time movie is the Lord Of The Rings. Its only natural that I would love the Hobbit movies also. This Battle of Five Armies has a lot of non stop action in it. I also had a lot of mixed emotions watching this, as there is a lot of people who you want to be good, turn bad, then back to good again, along with the sad ending for some of the characters. The death of Thorin brought back awful memories of my dad who died in front of me in real life, it was very traumatizing to me at the time, and still is. I love the story-line of this movie, the acting and even the fighting scenes. To ME they are very well done. I have always like the dwarves in these movies, as Gimli was always my favorite in the Lord Of The Rings. In this movie I got the impression that dwarf king that came to help Thorin was a much better fighter than Thorin was. I'm glad I purchased this, and waited for this extended version to come out. I just wish there would be more "middle earth" movies. This probably isn't a good review but there are so many here I just wanted to state my opinion.

This five disc set is a fine looking steel book edition. The digital copy code that was included could not be redeemed out side the UK territories, but for me was a small issue. My first order was lost but the seller provided a quick response and replacement. Pleased to find a standard non-3D copy alone with the two 3D movie discs and the two bonus features discs.

Great film!

fab thanks

The box set is great, 2d & 3d extended ED. Only thing better will be 4k one day

I saw the cinema release of this title whilst I was recovering from surgery in hospital. I hated it; simply thought that it was never-ending battle for a hoard of gold and lucre. The extended version, as per usual, makes all the sifference in the world. It takes the time to lay the plot work which extrapolates the history of the battles at this final edition, yet Jackson leaves space for empathy, love, humor, and the wonderful prospect that we will see the bulk of these characters very soon when the Lord of the Rings bigins several details later. I paid this one forwar; I've been a huge fan of this franchice, so I was more than happy to pay for the release of the disk ahead of time. There are two more archival discs, and the movie comes in both 3D and ordinary Hi-Def, as well as Ultra Violet - so you can play it anywhere you go. A fabulous price for the very last release of Middle Earth movies, and the extras discs have been contiguous right since the Lord of the Rigns through all 3 of these 'The Hobbit' movies. I have loved these with a passion, and they take pride of place in my blu ray collection!