{"id":25531,"date":"2021-11-28T16:16:57","date_gmt":"2021-11-29T00:16:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/michaelhans.com\/eclecticism\/?p=25531"},"modified":"2021-11-28T21:40:10","modified_gmt":"2021-11-29T05:40:10","slug":"thoughts-on-the-hobbit-trilogy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/michaelhans.com\/eclecticism\/2021\/11\/28\/thoughts-on-the-hobbit-trilogy\/","title":{"rendered":"Thoughts on The Hobbit Trilogy"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class='__iawmlf-post-loop-links' style='display:none;' data-iawmlf-post-links='[{&quot;id&quot;:1573,&quot;href&quot;:&quot;https:\\\/\\\/boxd.it\\\/GZk&quot;,&quot;archived_href&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;redirect_href&quot;:&quot;https:\\\/\\\/letterboxd.com\\\/film\\\/the-hobbit-an-unexpected-journey\\\/&quot;,&quot;checks&quot;:[],&quot;broken&quot;:false,&quot;last_checked&quot;:null,&quot;process&quot;:&quot;done&quot;},{&quot;id&quot;:1574,&quot;href&quot;:&quot;https:\\\/\\\/boxd.it\\\/nmS&quot;,&quot;archived_href&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;redirect_href&quot;:&quot;https:\\\/\\\/letterboxd.com\\\/film\\\/the-hobbit-the-desolation-of-smaug\\\/&quot;,&quot;checks&quot;:[],&quot;broken&quot;:false,&quot;last_checked&quot;:null,&quot;process&quot;:&quot;done&quot;},{&quot;id&quot;:1575,&quot;href&quot;:&quot;https:\\\/\\\/boxd.it\\\/43aU&quot;,&quot;archived_href&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;redirect_href&quot;:&quot;https:\\\/\\\/letterboxd.com\\\/film\\\/the-hobbit-the-battle-of-the-five-armies\\\/&quot;,&quot;checks&quot;:[],&quot;broken&quot;:false,&quot;last_checked&quot;:null,&quot;process&quot;:&quot;done&quot;}]'><\/div>\n<p>After re-watching The Hobbit trilogy (extended) for the first time in a good few years, I\u2019m solidly of the opinion that, while good, there are some definite tonal issues throughout. It\u2019s really as if Jackson just couldn\u2019t decide if he wanted to keep the darker, mostly serious approach of the LOTR films (which isn\u2019t to say that those don\u2019t have humor) or go with a somewhat lighter kid-oriented approach as befitting the book\u2019s recognized status as a \u201cchildren\u2019s book\u201d, and ended up with a mix of the two (with the added \u201cextended universe\u201d material contributing a lot of the darker stuff) that is just kind of weird and doesn\u2019t always work.<\/p>\n<p>The <a href=\"https:\/\/boxd.it\/GZk\" title=\"Letterboxd: The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey\">first movie<\/a> is definitely the best, with Goblintown as the low point, and the Bilbo\/Gollum encounter the highlight. The <a href=\"https:\/\/boxd.it\/nmS\" title=\"Letterboxd: The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug\">second movie<\/a> is still pretty strong, though the barrel escape swings too far to the goofy side of things and Laketown is dreary. Similar to the first, it\u2019s the Bilbo\/Smaug encounter that stands out. <a href=\"https:\/\/boxd.it\/43aU\" title=\"Letterboxd: The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies\">The third<\/a> is just so dreary, from start to end; little more than three hours of gloom and destruction, and I can\u2019t really find a particular lowlight or highlight. However well done it is \u2014 and it is \u2014 it\u2019s kind of a slog to get through.<\/p>\n<p>I still enjoy the trilogy as a whole, but it definitely starts strong and then goes downhill (even if only slightly, not off a cliff or anything) from there.<\/p>\n<p>Other assorted thoughts:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>\n<p>Why are the goblins the only builders that add any sort of railings or guardrails on their bridges (and even they are inconsistent about it)? Elves do manage to get some on their balconies, but bridges? Of elves, humans, dwarves, and goblins, only goblins seem to have, if only occasionally, figured out that falling off might be a bad thing.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<li>\n<p>It\u2019s rather amusing to watch these films while sitting next to someone who says, \u201cyou\u2019re not even <em>in<\/em> this book!\u201d every time Legolas comes on screen.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<li>\n<p>How does Smaug know about Thorin? You pretty much get the impression that Smaug showed up, took over Erebor, and then just snuggled down under his gold security blanket for six decades until Bilbo wandered in. There\u2019s the strong implication that Smaug is in league with Sauron in some way (dragon telepathy?), but Smaug really seemed pretty well-informed on the goings-on outside of the Lonely Mountain for a dragon who hadn\u2019t been seen in so long that some wondered if he had died.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<li>\n<p>The eagles are such a convenient <em>deus ex machina<\/em> that I find them one of the weakest parts. They swoop in, save the heroes, and then swoop away. I\u2019d actually forgotten that they turn the tide of the final battle, and spent much of the Battle of the Five Armies trying to remember who the fifth army even was.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<li>\n<p>I was excited to get the extended editions when they were first released \u2014 and as I said above, overall, I do still enjoy them \u2014 but now not only am I wondering if going back to the theatrical versions would be easier to go through, but I\u2019m also finding myself more curious about tracking down one of the \u201cjust the book\u201d fan edits that edit out all of the extra bits to just focus on what\u2019s in the original book.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>After re-watching The Hobbit trilogy (extended) for the first time in a good few years, I\u2019m solidly of the opinion that, while good, there are some definite tonal issues throughout.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2037],"tags":[4067,4070,4069,372],"class_list":["post-25531","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-tv-and-films","tag-an-unexpected-journey","tag-the-battle-of-the-five-armies","tag-the-desolation-of-smaug","tag-the-hobbit"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/michaelhans.com\/eclecticism\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25531","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/michaelhans.com\/eclecticism\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/michaelhans.com\/eclecticism\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/michaelhans.com\/eclecticism\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/michaelhans.com\/eclecticism\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=25531"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/michaelhans.com\/eclecticism\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25531\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/michaelhans.com\/eclecticism\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=25531"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/michaelhans.com\/eclecticism\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=25531"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/michaelhans.com\/eclecticism\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=25531"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}