The Hobbit

Released:
An Unexpected Journey: December 2012
The Desolation of Smaug: December 2013
The Battle of the Five Armies: December 2014

Director: Peter Jackson

Rated PG-13

Run Time: 474 Minutes

Cast:
Ian McKellan: Gandalf
Martin Freeman: Bilbo Baggins
Richard Armitage: Thorin Oakinshield
Ken Stott: Balin
Graham McTavish: Dwalin
Aidan Turner: Kili
Dean O’Gorman: Fili
Hugo Weaving: Elrond
Cate Blanchett: Galadriel
Christopher Lee: Saruman
Lee Pace: Thranduil
Orlando Bloom: Legolas
Evangeline Lilly: Tauriel
Benedict Cumberbatch: Smaug/Necromancer
Luke Evans: Bard

When The Lord of the Rings movies were announced people were very excited, especially the folks who had read the books by J.R.R Tolkien.  The first film in the series: The Fellowship of the Ring launched in December of 2001, with The Two Towers in 2002, and The Return of the King in 2003.  The Lord of the Rings Trilogy became one of the most successful movie trilogies to date with the third film winning 4 Academy Awards.  I haven’t heard of any other fantasy film that has achieved that kind of success, and it’s mostly because of Peter Jackson who directed the films.  All the movies were filmed together.  It was a massive risk by New Line Cinema, but it clearly payed off in the end.  So, with The Lord of the Rings done, what about the story that preceded them: The Hobbit?  As luck would have it, The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings were two stories that the Tolkien estate allowed to be made into movies.  For a while it was assumed that Guillermo Del Toro would be helming The Hobbit films with Peter Jackson producing, but circumstances changed switching the roles.  Honestly, while I have a lot of respect for Guillermo Del Toro, Peter Jackson was probably the better choice for The Hobbit.  Why?  Because he has experience with fantasy epics, obviously.  The initial reporting was the The Hobbit was going to be split into two movies.  That made sense.  There’s a lot of stuff in there that probably wouldn’t have fit into one movie.  Now, remember: Each of the LOTR films was based on each book, but they had to remove and change certain elements so they could be released for a reasonable run-time: 3 hours.  But they left the real important stuff in so they wouldn’t split each book into two movies.  The Hobbit I could see with two movies.  Turns out that someone decided it would be best to split the book into THREE movies.  I’ll get into that later.

The Hobbit begins with Bilbo Baggins sitting on his bench when he’s approached by a mysterious stranger with a pointy hat: Gandalf The Grey.  After being offered the chance to partake in an adventure, Bilbo refuses.  That night his house is basically invaded by a company of 13 dwarves led by Thorin Oakenshield.  These dwarves are on a quest to reclaim their homeland of Erebor from the clutches of the evil dragon Smaug who had laid waste to the region years before.  While initially refusing to join them on their quest, Bilbo eventually catches up to them and agrees to help them retake their home.  Along the way, the group encounters trolls, orcs, elves and the aforementioned dragon.  I supposed I could have reviewed each Hobbit movie individually, but these three movies are still ONE story and it just makes more sense for me to review The Hobbit films as such.  The first film introduces us to our main characters, namely Gandalf and Bilbo.  The introduction for the dwarves is pretty amusing.  While it takes a little time to really get going, the film takes us from The Shire to The Misty Mountains with some incredible visual effects including the Rock Giants which is absolutely crazy.  The encounter with the goblins is also pretty cool, which leads us to one of the most pivotal moments in both trilogies: Bilbo’s encounter with Gollum.  The film also features a cool battle with orcs riding wargs with the lead orc, Azog being Thorin’s arch-enemy.  The second film begins where the first one ends, with the merry band of dwarves, Hobbit and Wizard making their way to the Lonely Mountain.  On the way, they encounter a man who can change into a bear.  He lets them borrow some horses which they ride to the edge of Mirkwood, a sickly forest that stretches for miles.  Gandalf leaves the group because he fears that there is something at an abandoned Elven fortress that needs investigating.  Making their way through the forest, they encounter spiders, and are rescued by Bilbo.  Afterwards they are captured by elves.  This second movie introduces us to Legolas, Tauriel, Bard and Smaug himself.  Legolas doesn’t actually appear in the book, and Tauriel is a completely new character.  The second film seems to be a little more focused.  It’s certainly has more action in it, especially when the dwarves reach Erebor and encounter the dragon.  This leads to one of the most spectacular scenes in the trilogy, and….wait, what?  The movie’s over?!  Damn you, Peter Jackson!

The third and final Hobbit movie picks right up where Desolation of Smaug decided leave its audiences hanging.  After the dwarves battle Smaug, he flies to Lake Town and burns it to the ground, or water.  During the ensuing chaos, Bard successfully kills Smaug and the movie can finally begin.  After retaking Erebor, Thorin begins to act strangely.  Word has spread of Smaug’s destruction, so The Lonely Mountain’s treasure is basically up for grabs at this point.  Gandalf has been taken prisoner by a mysterious Necromancer and Thranduil has come to mountain to claim what is his.  Thing is, the elves aren’t the only army that have come for the mountain.  Dwarves, orcs, and goblins would soon descend upon the mountain.  The Battle of the Five Armies is about as straight-forward as you can get.  We get to see Elrond, Saruman and Galadriel rescue Gandalf and battle what would become the ringwraiths.  It’s actually pretty cool to see these guys in action.  We also get to see how truly powerful Galadriel really is when she banishes Sauron back to Mordor.  This also leads up to the main confrontation in the story, which is the name of the movie.  I have to tell you, WOW!  That is something to see.  This is the most action-packed of the three movies.  The last hour of the film is straight action.  It’s epic and absolutely thrilling.

All is not sunshine and rainbows in the land of Middle-Earth however.  Believe it or not, the addition of Legolas and Tauriel aren’t an issue for me.  In fact, I’m glad they’re a part of it, even if they aren’t in the book.  Some of the issues I have with The Hobbit films stems from the fact that there are three movies instead of just two.  Two movies, I could understand, but three?  That’s really stretching it, especially when you consider that each film is not even 3 hours long.  The Battle of the Five Armies is the shortest of the bunch at 144 minutes.  When I heard that they were going to make three movies, I had to question how they were going to do that.  Basically, they lifted several elements from the appendices from the Return of the King book.  A lot of these elements were present in all three films.  They wanted to tie in with LOTR, so they made Sauron a behind-the-scenes villain of sorts, much like he was in LOTR.  One of the elements lifted from the appendices was Sauron’s presence at Dol Goldur, where had set up shop so he could search for the One Ring.  It was certainly interesting.  But that was never a part of The Hobbit.  There was also a plot line where Sauron had sent his armies to aquire the Lonely Mountain, because to the north was the ancient kingdom of Angmar.  I don’t seem to recall that Sauron had ever wanted to bring Angmar back from the dead, even though the kingdom’s leader, was the greatest of the 9 ringwraiths.  Some of these elements make sense, but others really shouldn’t be here.  The romantic triangle between Tauriel, Legolas and Kili was awkward at best.  It just seemed really out of place.  It all ties in with the LOTR Trilogy, but I don’t think it needed to.  The Hobbit was a simple adventure story.

Stretching The Hobbit over three movies means they had to pad certain parts just so they could flow properly, and that’s just not how you really want to tell a story.  That being said,  The Hobbit films are still a fantastic set of films set in Middle-Earth.  The characters are unique and interesting, and there’s plenty of humor.  It’s also visually exciting as the movies are filmed in New Zealand.  So, we have some very pretty pictures.  The acting is spot on, and it’s definitely awesome to see Orlando Bloom as Legolas.  He was always fantastic in that role.  Evangeline Lilly is stunning as Tauriel, but she can certainly hold her own with the rest of them.  Lee Pace is interesting as Thranduil, who came to The Lonely Mountain for his own reasons, but ends up allying with the men and dwarves.  Luke Evans really gets into his role as Bard The Bowman.  One of the main reasons why The Lord of the Rings trilogy resonated with me was because of the interactions between the characters.  You got to know them quite well, and by the end of the story you really didn’t want to see them go.  The same kind of sentimentality is applied here.  These are characters you get to know and love over the course of three movies, so when the final battle hits, the stakes are incredibly high.  The only character I really didn’t care about was Albirt.  He was a weasel, and I didn’t care for him one bit.

At the end of the day, The Hobbit is nothing more than a simple adventure story, but it’s one that has a lot of heart behind it with some amazing action sequences and great acting.  Yeah, I think they could have done with a little less CG, but Smaug was brilliant.  Sadly, not everyone feels the way I do about these movies, and honestly, I don’t think they stand up as well as The Lord of the Rings.  But these are not bad movies.  On the contrary, I love them.  However, there are issues which stem from the fact that The Hobbit wasn’t adapted THAT well.  It was only ONE book.  My final verdict on The Hobbit films is a respectable 8/10.  While certain issues bring these movies down a bit, the final package is still very impressive and I definitely recommend them.

 

 

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