[Perdogg]

ping

[buwaya]

This whole thing was bloated into a disaster.
The last thing it needs is more footage.

[Politicalkiddo]

I hated the Hobbit movies. During the last one I walked out of the movie theater.

[Ken H]

Could have been a fantastic movie if produced in the 1950s by the same talent that made The Ten Commandments and Forbidden Planet.

[qam1]

The film adds just 20 extra minutes, but packs a lot of emotion into those minutes

By "lot of emotion" they mean another long boring drawn out battle between 1000s of CGI characters.

[Olog-hai]

I sometimes find it funny to read the complaints about “changes” between the Hobbit movies and books. Aside from much of the added stuff in the Hobbit movies actually being mined from the LOTR Appendices and (in some cases) the Lost Tales and Silmarillion (except of course Azog surviving the battle at Moria et cetera and no mention of the Balrog as in the other Tolkein material), I wonder why people don’t react the same way to the drastic changes between the book version of “The Wonderful Wizard of Oz” (in which the Wicked Witch of the West is a minor character that appears in only one chapter) and the movie version (silver slippers changed to ruby, the experience changed to a dream, Glinda being changed to the Good Witch of the North whereas she is the witch of the South in the book, etc.)

[A_perfect_lady]

I want a version where Thorin Oakenshield doesn’t die. That was one hot dwarf.

[Jim from C-Town]

The entire Hobbit movie should have been one three hour film that followed the book. The first one was so bad and so full of nonsense that I fell asleep and I have read that book at least ten times.

It is a children's book or at least a young adults book. A true following of the book without all the added nonsense including a stupid chase when the dwarfs escaped the wood elves including the kind of gymnastics and that would make Olga Korbut blush was more embarrassing than artful.

[sphinx]

PJ is drunk on special effects and needs a good editor. He did a spectacular job in LOTR in creatively visualizing and presenting a Middle Earth landscape and bestiary that far exceeded the expectations any of us brought to the theater. The first LOTR film was a true cinematic landmark. But then the bloat began.

Mostly PJ wastes time with over-extended sequences. How much of this is directorial indiscipline and how much a cash-driven desire to cash in on extra movies, I don't know. (The Hobbit would have been excellent as two films.)

Beyond that, most of PJ's adaptations were ok in my book. (Ok, Legolas didn't really need to be entangled in a romance, but teenage girls like that sort of thing, so I'll let it go.) There were, however, two wretched mistakes: the Great Goblin scenes and subsequent escape in Moria, and the nonsensical battle with Smaug in Erebor. There was apparently no adult in the production company with the clout to tell PJ that turning these episodes into video games for ten year olds was not a good idea. I'm almost surprised he didn't work JarJar into the plot.

[who_would_fardels_bear]

I just saw the last one.

In the final battle it seemed like the blue pixels beat out the read and green pixels.

I'm kind of confused about why so many people cared about what color pixels won.

[Retain Mike]

I have always held the opinion that no screen writer or director could ever approach the skill of a great writer. Therefore bringing one of their books to the screen could involve removing, but never adding. Changes could be at the bare minimum required for placing the written word into a visual medium.

So much for my wisdom as a producer who could come up with maybe $80 for a movie.

[Vaquero]

In college in the 60s I read the ring trilogy and the hobbit twice (at least). When Jackson’s interpretation of “fellowship of the rings” came out I took my boys to see it. It was beautifully crafted, but something was OFF. When Jackson’s King Kong came out I took my kids to see it. It was beautifully crafted.....but it was WAY OFF.

Jackson should be hired as a cinematographer and special effects director....but his leftist take on things in his film keeps me away from the theater and even home versions of his films.

Sorry but not a fan.

[MarkL]

Thanks for posting this. It’s funny, I’ve been hoarding the Hobbit movies since they came out in extended edition, and I finally received the last one a week or two ago.

New Years day a friend and I watched the first 2 movies, and the last movie the following day.

While I’ve read read LoTR many times over the years, I only ever read The Hobbit once, and it was about 40 years ago, so I had forgotten much of the story. But I have to say I really enjoyed it, even with my friend constantly complaining how far PJ had strayed from the store.

I learned to divorce books from the movies when I saw “Starship Troopers.” At first I hated how the movie strayed from the book (let’s face it, the only things the book & movie had in common was there were space ships, and some of the names of the characters.) It was so bad, that RAH’s widow demanded that all references to RAH in the credits and promotion be removed. But let’s face it, if you want to see a mindless, fun “shoot-em-up,” it’s pretty good for a bad movie. I think featuring it on MST3K would improve it, but it’s still fun.

I felt the same way about LotR and The Hobbit. I just set aside my knowledge of the books, and enjoyed the movies. Granted, I did get quite angry due to PJ’s leaving the scouring of the Shire out of the movie, but still, I enjoyed it.

And the fact that I had forgotten most of the details of “The Hobbit” let me enjoy it that much more.

Thanks for the post!

Mark