2001-2003. Peter Jackson stunned the world with his adaptations of the famous Lord of the Rings trilogy. They took the world by storm. If you hadn’t heard of Tolkien’s Magnum Opus, you certainly were one to find out quickly as these movies came out. They were emotional, touching, thrilling, and just all around epic. A series worthy to have a trilogy. Peter Jackson really did capture a certain magic in these films. A magic that is still present and holds up to this very day.
And now, if you’ll permit me to borrow some dialogue from Jurassic Park.
And you know what, Mr. Jackson, before you even knew what you had, you patented it, and packaged it, and slapped it on a plastic lunchbox, and now you’re selling it, you wanna sell it. The Hobbit trilogy.
Yeah, as you might be able to tell, I’m not the biggest fan of this trilogy. Now before I get all sorta of accusations and hate from the fans who are just accusing me of saying I hate it because it changed so much from the book, let me just say this. “Calm the heck down. There’s more to it than you think.” I have more problems than simple changes from the book, because unlike a lot of people, I understand that an adaptation is what it is. An adaptation. Adaptations make changes. I understand that, and am open to that concept. Even the Lord of the Rings trilogy diverted from certain things the books had. I guess what made that trilogy so strong however, was that the changes didn’t change so much of the original story, and were changes that people could see making sense. The Hobbit trilogy…not so much.
My main problem with the trilogy, is that honestly…I only see Peter Jackson trying to convince us that this was somehow supposed to either surpass, or be just as epic as the Lord of the Rings…and that is just something that isn’t possible. Firstly, the Hobbit when it was originally written by Tolkein was a very simple tale. I’ve read the book before,, and can say that the Hobbit was much simpler than the Lord of the Rings trilogy, and it was very much a story for children. Peter Jackson aimed to give us this…grand adventure. Am I saying the Hobbit isn’t a grand adventure? No. It’s a classic. But Jackson went about it in way too many wrong ways. Ways that backfired.
And permit me to be a little…hurt in some ways that were different from the book. I can’t say I have no problems with changes from the book, because there are some things that just did not sit well with me. And the very first thing that comes to mind was the constant foreshadowing of Sauron. ESPECIALLY in movie two, Desolation of Smaug. Sauron isn’t even mentioned in the book. If I remember right the “necromancer” is mentioned, which does become Sauron, but there is no corruption of the Ring, and Bilbo uses it rather…freely. In fact, Bilbo treats it like any other person would treat a ring. He finds it, it’s a nice little thing to take home. He puts it on, finds out it can make him invisible, and uses it to his advantage here. He doesn’t feel the presence of Sauron as he seems to in the movies, he doesn’t lose it, find it and call it “mine” like Gollum would, heck it’s just a ring in the book. So why the sudden change? Not only did it ruin one of my favorite moments of the book (the conversation with Bilbo and Smaug), but as a guy who knows who the villain of the Lord of the Rings trilogy is going to be, just saw this as a move that wasn’t necessary and dumb. On the scene I just mentioned, I really enjoyed the talk that Bilbo and Smaug have. Bilbo keeps Smaug on his nerve, and constantly confuses Smaug as Smaug cannot find Bilbo because he is wearing the ring. He is making Smaug somewhat nervous perhaps, on the edge, and angry with the constant riddles that Bilbo rains down from all over the place. Reading it is suspenseful, and thrilling, and rivals some of the most thrilling moments of the Lord of the Rings trilogy. Once Bilbo removed the ring in the movie, I just had to shout in my mind “No!” because all the elements of suspense and thrill were effectively killed right then and there. Smaug should have just eaten Bilbo right then and there. Heck…as awesome as Smaug looked, he really didn’t act like the dragon I hoped he would. In fact, once he was killed, I was sort of thankful, because as threatening as he was trying to seem in the movies….he was pathetic. He built himself up both in movie and book (good job on nailing his boasting, I enjoyed that scene), but My god, when he’s chasing the dwarves all around Erabor, when he’s facing Bard the Bowman, and just making simple threats “You cannot save him from the fire, he will burn!” all I’m thinking is…WHY ARE YOU TALKING?! BURN HIM! Smaug is killed by the classic villain movie mistake of talking too much? Come on! I mean I know Smaug has this reputation of thinking he’s above them all, but….I hate to constantly bring up the book, but in the book, he just straight up razed the town, not taking anything from anybody.
I’m going to return to Sauron briefly, because though I will say that Jackson’s inclusion of Gandalf’s “side-quest” in the movies was…an okay move. Again, I don’t think it was necessary, but if Jackson was gonna squeeze a trilogy out of this one book, I guess he had to think of something. But the execution of this side-quest was bad too….because at it’s finale, I was wondering if Jackson even remembered making the Lord of the Rings trilogy. One thing I just don’t get is why Gladriel was so amazingly powerful in this trilogy. In the Lord of the Rings trilogy, she is described as a terror almost. A being of immense power. I am sorry to say I can’t remember the exact words used to describe her in the movies, but she was built up incredibly. And in the movies…as Cinemasins pointed out…all she does is send the Fellowship out with some magic trinkets…after she almost single-handedly banishes Sauron’s form to Mordor…by herself in the Hobbit movies. What the hell? I’ll give credit that Saruman does say that the confrontation has severely weakened her, but still….she’s built up in the next movie trilogy as an elf witch of incredible power. It just doesn’t add up to me. I can’t say I’ve read the short story that talks about this thing with Gandalf discovering Sauron, but….still. I also feel that the banishment of Sauron, and Saruman’s mentioning of the Ring of Power, would have immediately clicked in Gandalf’s mind. Like “Oh wow, I think Bilbo might have something of interest here!” In fact, it’s not until years later in the original trilogy that Gandalf gets suspicions. I mean…once again…as Cinemasins points out, did Jackson even bother watching his Lord of the Rings Trilogy? Heck, wouldn’t they at least INQUIRE about Bilbo’s ring? (Special thanks to CinemaSins. Love your videos.)
Speaking of Bilbo…..in a trilogy that is entitled “The Hobbit”, there is surprisingly very little story about the Hobbit. That’s something the book nailed. It focuses almost entirely on Bilbo. There are scenes with Thorin and the other dwarves, but it mainly focuses on his perspective. Here…it jumps all over the place. From the Gandalf side-quest, to a dwarf and elf love story, to Laketown politics…look, I was open to these things… I was open to the character Tauriel. I was open to the Bard’s lowered rank (in the book if I remember right, he’s already a well respected member of Laketown), but they just didn’t get executed well enough. I thought the unlikely love story between Kili and Tauriel was rushed, and just…silly. I rub my head in annoyance everytime I hear that clichéd line of “If this is love I don’t want it!” Seriously, I haven’t heard such bland dialogue since "Attack of the Clones". It was a clever move to get us to remember one of the dwarven names out of the 13 that travel with Bilbo…I’ll give it that much. Fili, Kili, Thorin…I can name maybe three more before I come to the conclusion that they weren’t meant to be remembered because this is a story about…BILBO. And yet Martin’s talents are wasted with him standing off to the side while Jackson tries to entertain us with over-the-top action sequences and battles that just bored the hell out of me. I mean seriously, I thought that Legolas’ action in the Lord of the Rings trilogy from shield-surfing to taking down an Oliphant with three arrows to the neck was bad enough. His gravity defying jumping of bricks and dwarf heads, to over the top combat near the river, and Legolas isn’t the only one guilty of this. Tauriel shoots an arrow that deflects an already shot arrow in the air?! I understand that Elves are superior fighters in every way to men and orcs, but there are things in these movies that are pulled off that are by all means, near impossible.
If I had to select a movie that I actually enjoyed in this trilogy…strangely, it’s the first movie, Unexpected Journey. Because it was successful in making me want to see more. It was successful in raising my eyebrow. It was slow, and wasn’t perfect, but the changes that were made were fun enough. The clever tie-in of trying to reclaim Moria, and how Thorin earned his title was fun to watch. It made me want to see a sequel. It wasn’t a perfect start, and many critics agree with that, but it made me anxious for the next year. Desolation dragged. And it was where I started to see the major problems with these films. It just wasn’t working. Again, there were things that were great. But by the time Battle of the Five Armies hit, I sat there, just bored out of my mind. The third movie made the second movie’s dragging look like the Kentucky Derby. I mean there was barely a hint of story from what I saw. It was just dragged too much.
I will take the side of some when I say this. This trilogy should not have been a trilogy. If Jackson wanted to make The Hobbit, fine. Why stretch it into a trilogy (other than a cash grab)? Why add in so much and try to convince us that this adventure is supposed to rival the adventures of the Lord of the Rings trilogy? There were three books, which made sense that it would garner a trilogy (My God can you imagine if each individual book of the trilogy garnered their own trilogy of films? Shoot me). All of them were long, but they were far from boring. Even the extended editions of the Lord of the Rings movie, while adding more to already long films, keep your interest! The Hobbit should not have gone any longer than two movies. If Jackson wanted to add more, fine…but why drag? This trilogy didn’t even come close to matching the trilogy that follows. It may have hit home in a few places, again, I think that Martin was a perfect actor for Bilbo, Smaug looked fantastic, and despite what I’ve said, there was some very fun action in these movies. And despite the fact that the obvious green-screening effect can be noticeable…there were times that these movies were just gorgeous to look at. But they fail to hold up the trilogy on their own, which brings me to my final verdict.
The Hobbit Trilogy all in all, is a two out of four stars. These movies are painfully average. Maybe even below average. I would score it even lower, but there is enough to warrant a score of at least one viewing. But as far as these being considered a classic prequel trilogy…I have to say these movies are very forgettable. It’s a shame I have to call it that, because honestly, I love the story of the Hobbit. But we just have a classic case of Jackson trying to do what Lucas did with Star Wars, by trying to convince us that these would be just as fun and just as greatly executed as the trilogies that would follow them chronologically. And they ultimately failed to do that. What will come up next? I don’t know, but after this, I think Jackson should venture out of Middle-Earth permanently. I don’t think Tolkien’s followers want him to take a chance with anything else. And I can’t say I blame them.
Feel free to suggest movies for me to look at. Leave a comment down below telling me your thoughts on the movie, and as always, thanks for reading.
Unexpected Journey: 2.5 / 4
The Desolation of Smaug: 2 / 4
Battle of the Five Armies: 1.5 / 4
Overall Final Verdict: 2 / 4
