How do you feel about the Hobbit trilogy now?

[Drizzle]

I think the first one is the best of 3. It gets progressively worse.

Same. The trilogy is worth a watch for the first film, the performances of Martin Freeman and Ian McKellen (plus Richard Armitage in the third film), as well as how they brought Smaug to life (besides the horrid confrontation between him and the dwarves at the end of the second film), but it's a far cry from Lord of the Rings. I haven't even watched any of them in about two years, since the extended edition of the third film came out. I don't think they're bad, I actually enjoy them to a certain extent, but there's no reason that should have been a trilogy. They would have been far better off as two 3-hour films, as originally planned.

 

[titansupes]

Saw the first one when it came out, and it was exactly as bad as i was expecting it to be. Still haven't bothered with the other two, and doubt I ever will.

 

[scarlet-witch]

I never cared for the Hobbit movies. They were overly long and boring to me. I can still watch the original LOTR trilogy over and over. The Hobbit films will never be like that for me.

 

[KillerMcQueen]

Jackson was the one who proposed a trilogy, no?

Yes and no. WB refused to extend the deadline for filming when the shoot started taking longer than anticipated, Jackson then proposed making it a trilogy because it was the only way he could get WB to give him more time to finish filming. Jackson wanted the first film to end at about the point where they met Bard initially. If he'd been allowed to do that there obviously still would've been a lot of the problems the films had, but I think it would've worked wonders for the pacing of the films.

 

[Brother Jack]

I loved them then, I love them now. I think they're better than the original Trio overall, except Fellowship.

I prefer them cuz they're less sappy and less homo-erotic than the original trio is to me and Overall, I just like the characters better. They're more entertaining for me. The action scenes are less gritty but more exciting, I find.

 

[Loden Greatstorm]

The same as I did when they came out: underwhelmed and annoyed.

This sums up my thoughts.

 

[LaughterLives]

Have you never watched them before?

 

[Grootster]

There are things that I like about them, but overall I can't say they're movies I want to rewatch all the time.

The Desolation of Smaug

I like the Desolation of Smaug best, I feel like it's the best paced Hobbit movie, and the finale is a lot of fun. There are a lot of over-the-top sequences, but most of them move along well, and are fun to watch (the spiders, the barrels). I don't really care for the Laketown battle with the Orks, and the love triangle was silly (I didn't really mind the new elf character, but the romance with Kili just felt cliche and dumb.) Legolas should have just been a cameo, this should have been his only scene: https://youtu.be/k_sVsU0m0IQ?t=71

The Unexpected Journey

The Unexpected Journey is good in some places (mainly in the Shire), but extremely bloated overall. The Radagast character was unnecessary, and the movie is filled with way too many dumb creatures. Granted most of them were in the book, but the movie turned them into goofy-acting cartoons (the Goblin King especially should have been menacing and cool). The entire Goblin town scene goes on way too long, and is immediately followed up by another overly long battle. Also, I hate the addition of Azog, it was so unnecessary. I actually predicted this character before the movie came out, because I figured Hollywood wouldn't be able to make an action movie without a main villain.

The Battle of the Five Armies

The Battle of the Five Armies is my least favorite. It seems to have no real structure, story, or pacing, it's just one long battle sequence (it's not even a creative or visually impressive battle). Bilbo is barely in the movie, and everything looks brown and bland because of the color filter. Also, there were some seriously dumb moments in this movie. The scene where Gandalf's staff runs out of battery comes to mind (this may have been in the extended edition). The first two films had dumb moments, but at least they seemed like they were trying to be somewhat dignified, this one seemed like Peter Jackson might have been trolling the audience a little bit (either that or just running wild). I like the opening and closing scenes, but that's about it.

I'm really, really hoping for a remake at some point with a different director and possibly a different studio overall. Just keep it as a single movie and stick closer to the book. Focus less on action and more on making it a children's fairy-tale adventure film. The animated version is still the best adaption, I'd also recommend checking out the video-game.

 

[MMMMM...Pancakes]

Needs to be cut into just one movie. Has there ever been a fan edit of this trilogy? I enjoyed the first one a lot, part two was ok. I liked the Smaug scenes, even though he talked too damn much. Part 3 was a dud.

 

[Hypestyle]

I need to watch them on DVD or something.

 

[TheVileOne]

I like things about the Hobbit trilogy. I like most of the actors in their roles actually. But they are heavily padded. Battle of the Five Armies had so many problems IMHO, especially Alfred. Also inventing a warrior female elf character for a romance with one of the Dwarves. Yeah, sorry.

 

[Tacit Ronin]

And it was making the extra effort to be so cliche. It was cringe.

 

[TheVileOne]

I'm just happy we were able to avoid warrior Arwen fighting at Helm's Deep, which would've made no sense. I was fine with giving Arwen a few more scenes and a more active role in the original trilogy. It gave Aragorn's journey a bit more agency.

But if the trilogy came out today, many people probably would've complained about the films being racist and sexist.

 

[Tony Stark]

I appreciate the performances in the film which were fantastic. I can't stand the extra crap that was thrown in that was a distraction including inventions of characters that were never in any of the books, and the Hobbit/Elf love story.

Unexpected Journey is my favorite of the three and the one that I think most closely resembles the books.

What sucks is I remember the feeling after watching Return of the King, that you had just watched one of the greatest film trilogies of all time, contrasted with my feeling after watching the Battle of the Five Armies that I was just sad that they ended on such a disappointing note.

 

[Mysteryman]

Still have not seen the Hobbit films
Still don't want to.

 

[Zant]

This trilogy made me a huge fan of Evangeline Lilly. Everyone seems to hate her character though.

 

[Fincher]

This trilogy made me a huge fan of Evangeline Lilly. Everyone seems to hate her character though.

I liked Tauriel.

 

[TheVileOne]

I like Evangeline Lilly a lot, but I hated that character. A forced cliche character and a forced cliche romantic subplot.

Like she goes after the dwarves because like "those are our prisoners not the orcs!" What kind of rationale is that to go after the Dwarves? It should've been more like "We need to track the orcs. They are planning something terrible and it could mean bad things for our village."

 

[FunkMiller]

One book stretched out to three bloated movies, simply to ride on the success of Lotr, and squeeze more cash out of punters.

A single 2.5 hour movie would have more than done the job.

The rest of the money could have been spent on making The Belgariad.

 

[SProsser]

The movies are ok. I'm not a fan of Lord of the Rings movies.

 

[SProsser]

I like Evangeline Lilly a lot, but I hated that character. A forced cliche character and a forced cliche romantic subplot.

Like she goes after the dwarves because like "those are our prisoners not the orcs!" What kind of rationale is that to go after the Dwarves? It should've been more like "We need to track the orcs. They are planning something terrible and it could mean bad things for our village."

Her character is annoying.