Now, you’ve read through dozens of reviews and opinion pieces on this film, so I’ll keep it short and sweet.
I loved this book as a child. A simple enough tale of Bilbo Baggins as he’s swept along on a quest to slay the dragon Smaug. He travels in the company of 13 dwarves and a wizard and overcomes many perils on his journey across the world.
I also loved Lord of the Rings and I thought the films were great…but that’s where the problem lies. Rarely did I feel that I was watching the Hobbit. I was watching a Lord of the Rings prequel.
Director Peter Jacksons justification for expanding The Hobbit into three movies was ($$) that he could incorporate the LOTR appendices, as they took place around the same time. Do you remember watching the Fellowship of the Ring? Did you really care how Sauron had been secretly building up his forces for the century beforehand? Was it an intrinsic part of the film that you would be lost without? Jackson seems to think so! The first 8 minutes or so of Fellowship were perfect. it told us everything we needed to know without once having a wizard racing around on a sleigh pulled by rabbits. (seriously)
Just to recap, backstory that wasn’t important enough to be put in the main LOTR book, wasn’t important enough to go into even the extended editions of the three films, somehow IS important enough to go into the Hobbit, a completely different movie!
Don’t get me wrong, this stuff isn’t uninteresting, but it has no place here. It bloats the length of the film, ruins the pacing and distracts from the plot. At times it feels like Bilbo is a side character in his own film.
I don’t hate this film or anything. Everything else, from the acting to the cinematography to the visual effects are of course, top notch. In the end, The Hobbit is a good film, but it could have been an amazing film and I guess that’s the most disappointing bit of all…
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