I recently watched the Hobbit Trilogy and I REALLY LIKED it. Not as much as I like the LOTR trilogy though. I know that A LOT of people don’t like the trilogy, hate it even. Whether it is due to length, the side plots, the CGI, the dwarves, or other reasons. And yes I know that it’s not perfect or amazing (especially when compared to the LOTR). But there are some aspects that make the movies a fun/great/enjoyable movie to watch.
The trilogy gives the dwarves more depth. As stated before, I love the LOTR and think they are outstanding movies, but it centers a lot on hobbits, humans and elves. The dwarf is only used for comedic relief that has to constantly be saved. And I understand that the Hobbit is about the journey to a dwarven kingdom and that the LOTR is about the journey to destroy the ring. But we spend a lot of time in Elven kingdoms, Elvish is spoken quite a bit while Dwarvish is only mentioned once (even Black speech is spoken more than Dwarvish). Elves are also seen as the elite spices while dwarves are only spoken negatively by other species. In the Hobbit; yes the dwarves are funny and need saving but they are also very family oriented, musical (singing at meals), smart (Ballin convincing Bard), loyal (never turning from their kin), majestic (Thorin), protective (always looking out for each member), kind (cleaning Bilbo’s plates), determined (never changing their goal no matter the danger despite their size), great fighter (the way the use weapons and fight for their size). And although not all the dwarves were given time to show their personality, the band of dwarves gave off a brotherhood feel to them.
It provided great character development, for the main characters. Again the LOTR was amazing; the sets, the music, the fight scenes the characters. But there was no real character development except for three hobbits; merry (doesn’t care attitude to wanting to fight), Pippen (jokester to serious) and Sam (scared to one of the bravest). The rest mainly stayed the same; Gandalf is wise, Aragorn is moral, Legolas is cool, Gimli is funny. In the Hobbit Bilbo starts off as a man who wants to stay home and not do much, nothing to do with the dwarves. Through out the movie he warms up to them and risks his life to save them, and at the end welcomes them warmly to his home. Thorin starts off with this need to return home and get this gold for his people, not caring much for anyone else besides his kin. Throughout the movie is listens more to others and cares a bit more (looks out for Bilbo, helps fight the orc with Legolas). Once he gets what he wants he is more obsessed with the gold than his kin. But after seeing what he has become he realizes that his people are what matters not a destroyed city. Gandalf becomes more wary of things, people around him. Dwalin, who was the most loyal and listened to Thorin the most took a stand against him when he changed. Legolas opens up more and more defiant (and a bit more of a personality than in LOTR, come on I like Legolas but like he hardly talked and was only used as Mr. Fix it), than at the start of the trilogy. Even Thranduil opens up to the problem to the world and to other species (men and hobbits). Tauriel is also given some character development; she starts off as this naïve elf who wants to save everyone to this broken lost person.
The songs, though few are great. It shows a contrast to the elf songs in LOTR that were very choir like while the dwarfs are more boisterous. It showed aspects of the dwarf culture; that song was their way of telling stories, getting things done, or how they have meals. Like in the first movie the dwarves sing three songs, two were right on the spot songs around meal time. You can just imagine a group of dwarves singing through the great halls of their kingdoms or while they are mining (haha like the dwarves in Snow white haha). Not to mention they, the songs, are memorable, especially the misty mountain song. Man that was a good song, very ominous and emotional. You can feel the importance of it weighing down on you. And it is sang beautifully by Richard Armitage.
The female character that was not forced. Yes I know the love triangle was stupid and horribly done and I hate it as well moving on. I just like the character of Tauriel and that the fact that she is a woman is never in the foreground or used as a “strong independent female character” kind of thing. She is strong experienced fighter. But she is not independent; Thranduil raised her and Legolas is always at her side. I like that unlike the other elves she is curious about the world beyond their boarder. I also like that she wants to help others, probably due to the fact that her parents were killed and she was helped by the woodland elves and therefor does not want others to suffer lose like she has. I love the fact that she is not a better fighter than Legolas or show off or that she is over powered (like other female elves cough Gauladriel in Rings of Power). She still has qualities that we associate with female; a healer, emotional, quiet (a listener). I think that the relationship between her and Thranduil is really well done, very much like a daughter and father; fighting about their beliefs but in the end coming to a sort of understanding.
Smaug was just amazing. I don’t know much about CGI, but I think they did a pretty good job with it in terms of Smaug. Speaking of CGI, they did a really good job when it came to the dwarves and showing how small they were compared to humans and or elves. Yes the CGI does flop in other parts of the movie (especially the barrel scene). Benedict Cumberbatch was a perfect choice to voice him. He sounded to grand and threatening at times. I also liked how the used Smaug even after he died when Thorin was falling victim to the dragon sickness. It shows that the dragon wasn’t the true antagonist but the greed and the gold was.
The fight scenes were really good. Not all of them and may be not to the extent of LOTR, but still very fun to watch. It showed how people as small as dwarves fought as a unit. All the flashback fighting scenes were beautifully done to show the magnitude of it in terms of the dwarf history. Even the barrel scene was a good fighting scene. It really showed the abilities of the woodland elves, more specifically Legolas. The battle of the five armies was, in my opinion, very well put together. It should the different fighting styles of the species; the dwarves were better in close proximity fights and just went in for the blow. The elves were better in long distant fighting and were calculated, the humans were versatile and used their surroundings to fight. The weapons were interesting in terms of their design. It was very evident which weapons were made by dwarves and which were made by elves.
Again I understand why people hate it, and that there is no convincing people. I just wanted to share what I like about one of my comfort movies. But in all honesty, it is not as bad as the Rings of Power. At least the Hobbit closer connected in terms of the books and the lore.
