The Hobbit: The Battle Of The Five Armies [Extended Edition] [DVD] [2014]

We very much enjoyed the Hobbit movies that we now watched in their extended version editions and with our young daughter. Similar to its predecessors in the trilogy the extended version of the Battle of the Five Armies is highly recommended as it will immerse you deeper into beautiful Middle Earth and its rich lore. And even though some of the critics labelled the theatrical versions of the Hobbit movies too long we loved the extended versions and some of the extra material. We would have gladly taken more of the added scenes.The 20 minutes of added scenes to the Battle of the Five Armies are an improvement. The story line, essentially a stretched-out version of only part of Tolkien’s fairly short children’s book, flows better. And the movie now forms a proper conclusion to a great trilogy. The issue in my view with the theatrical version was that the actual battle of the 5 armies, while spectacular, lasts so long that there was kind of a rushed conclusion to the theatrical version of the movie and therefore to the overall monumental trilogy. I still think that the overall Hobbit movie storyline doesn’t compare well with the gravitas of the Lord of the Ring story line. The Hobbit movies lean even more on action and slapstick. Yet we were thrilled to see the movie again and the extended version in particular.Watching the Battle of the Five Armies on our fairly high-end Oled screen with proper surround sound was a delight; the picture is fantastic and of high quality with the colours looking vibrant and bright. The blu ray does do a lot of justice to all the detail of the movie. The audio is equally great with the dialogue, score, and sound effects very well balanced. Such audio visuals combined into an experience that could hardly be better. The Hobbit visuals are much better than the 1st LOTR The Fellowship of the Ring that we now started to watched again in blu ray following this movie . LOTR looks more blurry and dated, with some scenes clearly relying on 1990’s movie technology. Some of the old LOTR trilogy effects, apart from the Gollum scenes, start to look noticeably off - comparable to the issues that Star Wars A New Hope had vs its later trilogy movies.Where possible we buy the 3D version of movies, I even prefer it over the cinema 3D experience. And the Battle of the Five Armies looks very crisp and immersing in 3D.In the Battle of the Five Armies first deals with the aftermath of Smaug’s awakening and the fate of Laketown. This is followed by Thorin’s struggle with his gold lust and Bilbo trying to manage the situation. In the mean while a familiar lord sends several orc legions to the Lonely Mountain. What follows is a nearly hour-long stunning and spectacular battle.Ultimately Bilbo Baggins’ returns to the Shire while the upsetting funerals of Thorin, Fili and Kili are include. The extra 20 minutes are scattered throughout the movie. The great battle of the five armies in the middle of the film is now ever grander including a chariot scene. There is a lot more Dwarf slapstick (Bifur’s axe head, Bofur mounting a war beast) and lots more orc blood and decapitations. And for example Legolas hanging from a bat while hacking through a line of orcs. The new material shows you Erebor’s crown being placed onto the head of Thorin’s cousin (Billy Connolly-voiced Dain Ironfoot).The 3 discs contains over 10 hours.. 10 hours! of extra’s and the list of included extra material is impressive (if you are into it), like- The Filmmakers Commentary,- New Zealand: Home of Middle-Earth - about the location with cast interviews, the 3rd part- Realms of the Third Age- The People and Denizens of Middle EarthAs it is a lengthy movie we watched it in 3 parts, this us into a similar mode as with a streaming tv series.The set also includes a digital copy. Nice in a sense. But I get very frustrated by the fact that I now have to run 4 different apps from movie studios each filled with their own digital copy format; iTunes, Flixster/Ultraviolet, Googleplay ect. And so far there is no proper way to integrate my collections of digital copies into a single place. Moreover, most will require wifi, which is not always available when travelling. Until this is being addressed these digital copies remain a half-baked freebie in support of self-copies.

This for me is the best of the extended versions in The Hobbit trilogy. The original version has plenty of reviews already and of course many people had issues with it - myself included - especially in regard to how it strayed from the books, but this is a review purely on the merits of this extended version.With issues comparing the original film to the source material aside, I didn't feel the final film in The Hobbit series was the climax I had hoped for when I came out of the cinema - despite there being lots of action, big heroic moments and searing sentimental sequences it felt a little flat and didn't seem to flow particularly well. With these added and extended scenes the final film now feels a lot more cohesive and complete and I actually wanted to watch it again as soon as it finished! A big improvement. The bulk of the extended and new scenes are around the main battle itself and many of them I just can't understand why they were taken out in the first place - there are some really beautifully realised battle sequences that seem to have far more attention to detail, choreography and better polished effects than those in the original cut - in fact, nearly all of the additions in this area were superior in this edition to anything that was in the original and the climax seemed to have more impact and much better editing. The extended battle between the elves and dwarfs is much improved and it was great to see a lot more of Dain and Thranduil leading the fight against the orcs and far more moments of Thorin and our original dwarfs in the main fight (again, why not leave them in the original in the first place!?) and there is one amazing sequence that not only adds a whole new high-action section including a super dwarf chariot chase, armored goats, trolls and wargs but also makes each of the original scenes either side of it make a lot more sense and I found this with a lot of the new material - it just made the film a lot more cohesive and enjoyable and a lot more seemed to be resolved than in the original. I felt much more immersed in the story and more connected to the film as a result.Despite being around 20 minutes of new scenes compared to the 27 or so in the second film, this feels like it adds a lot more and really was a worthy extension which really improved the film for me. I can't comment on the 3000 or so hours of other extras spread across all the discs as I haven't made a start on them yet, but the extended movie itself was brilliant and worth the price alone. As is common in the extended films, you do have to change discs half way through the 157 minutes of this extended version but it's worth the effort of course.***VERY SMALL / SEMI-SPOILERS***I was glad the earlier subplot involving Gandalf, Sauron, Galadriel, Elrond, Radagast and the Nine was extended which I really enjoyed and we also get to see the death of one of the main support characters, funerals of the fallen and the coronation of the new king.The other addition here is clearly a lot more visual (rather than implied) violence - there is actual blood and guts in parts, noticeable only by its absence in the original, and LOTs of dwarfs and goats getting squashed by battle trolls!

Extended version is much more immersive and, similar to LOTR, has all stories and takes what director originally had in mind. If you ever consider buying these movies, buy extended versions *only*!That being said, The Hobbit films are epic. A variety of intense action and fantasy, full of suspense and Middle Earth mysteries.With spoilers ahead, I must say Dol Guldur is probably the most epic scene for me of all 6 movies, LOTR combined. It's just perfect, takes your breath away how terrifying everything is. A marvelous Peter Jackson's vision of a dark fantasy. Galadriel shines here. Behind the scenes reveal that Cate Blanchett played everything by herself! Yes, even the green, witch-like creature that confronted and banished Sauron. She's *NOT* a CGI. I couldn't believe it. She did everything by herself, the terrifying face with spooky eye bags... it was Cate with the makeup!The presentation is also very nice. Behind the scenes are so entertaining and so much fun. They also reveal that all cast members had such a good time on the set. Some of them, Martin Freeman included, had the eyes full of tears when they finished their roles and waved everyone goodbye.Then, there's a very nice commentary from both Peter & Philippa. Always glad to hear their stories after watching the film.What can I say, this is the perfect gift and completes the Hobbit trilogy collection! It also makes me very sad that years from now, there'll be no Middle Earth films, no Peter Jackson's fantasy, no reason to go to and finish the nightly film premieres at 3am.But in a way, I'm so glad we can make an extended movies marathon ourselves at home.

Pt BR no 3d

Excelente edición, el estuche y los discos llegaron impecables, sólo hago el comentario de que la versión en 2D no cuenta con los subtítulos en español pero la versión 3D si los lleva. Aun así por precio y calidad la recomiendo ampliamente ya que considero que es de las mejores ediciones del mercado para los coleccionistas del formato en 3D.

Works on my PlayStation 4 the Blu-ray disc and the 3D Blu-ray disc.

Wie bereits die Extended Editions von Teil 1+2 heben diese das schon gute Niveau der Kinoversionen noch einmal spürbar. Die UK Edition hier ist wie die beiden vorhergehenden mit 3D Cover gesegnet (im Gegensatz zur einfachen deutschen Ausgabe). Eine deutsche Audiospur ist nach wie vor nicht vorhanden, dafür neben English noch Portugiesisch (brasilianisch) und Französisch.

I bought this to replace the one a family member bowered and lost. Great copy. Lots of extras