Poll: Of Jackson's Hobbit films, which is your favourite?

[Hawki]

Yes, I said "Jackson's" Hobbit films, and yes, this is spurred from the Lord of the Rings thread. Not as a tit for tat thread, but I figured that if one trilogy was being discussed, the other can be discussed as well.

I'm going to come out and say it - I like the Hobbit films. They're not in the same league as the Lord of the Rings films mind you, and they do suffer from issues such as pacing, some CGI overuse, tonal clash, and...Tauriel. ;p Okay, maybe not - after all, people generally seem fine with Arwen taking some of Glorfindel's moments, but of course, Arwen is at least a canon character. There's also how that this didn't need to be three films, even if we account for appendecies material. That said, part of me kind of likes how this is a trilogy - a sort of 'ring theory' if you will.

So, yes, I'll put it this way - if the Lord of the Rings trilogy is "excellent," the Hobbit trilogy is merely "good." I have a feeling that a lot of the resentment towards it comes from it being not as good and there being far more cynicism these days, and in some areas, I'm guilty of this too (e.g. The Force Awakens). I'm not saying that anyone who genuinely dislikes these films is in the wrong, but speaking personally, I did enjoy them, warts and all.

As for the best? For me, Desolation. An Unexpected Journey felt like "butter, stretched over too much bread," to borrow a phrase - plodding on, with plenty of nice material, but lacking the 'meat' that Fellowship had. Battle of the Five Armies is what happens when you stretch the last few chapters of a book into a full movie that gives you a long, somewhat enjoyable battle that still drags, and for me, is easily the weakest in the trilogy. Desolation I feel got the balance right. It flows much better, it gives us book material with appendicies material, and arguably above all else, it gave us Smaug, who looks (or looked, at least) absolutely spectacular.

But that's just me.

 

[King Billi]

I often hear the point being made that Jackson being worn down and depressed from making these Hobbit films as irrefutable proof as to their being "terrible" films, and while that is certainly sad to hear all I can think is if 'this' is what Peter Jackson is capable of when he's worn down and just doesn't care any more then he's even more talented then I thought. He's just that good at his job.

OT An Unexpected Journey is best for much the same reasons that Fellowship is the best of LOTR.

The part when all the Dwarves come to Bag End and eat all of Bilbos food is just fun to watch and one of my favourite moments in any of the Tolkien films let alone just The Hobbit.

 

[Neverhoodian]

I'll second Desolation of Smaug. It has its share of stupid moments (Bombur's barrel scene springs to mind), but there were other parts that helped redeem it. The scene where Bilbo savagely kills that centipede-thing over the Ring is chilling. I also like the contrast between the reveal scenes for the main villains. Smaug elicits a primal fear that one might feel while being trapped with a tiger or other dangerous beast, while Sauron evokes a more metaphysical dread of spiritual or paranormal evil.

To be frank, I'm hard pressed to remember much about the other two films. I recall the fight scenes being too over-the-top, the third film dragging on waaaaaay too long (an epic five faction fantasy battle shouldn't be boring, but they managed to find a way), and I wasn't particularly fond of how Radagast the Brown was depicted. A bit eccentric? Sure. Jar-Jar Lite? Not in my Tolkien, please.

Am I being too harsh by comparing them to the masterpiece that was the LotR films instead of judging them on their own merits? Perhaps, but I still can't help it, particularly when they seemed so eager to remind us about their shared legacy with frequent references and cameos.

 

[bartholen_v1legacy]

Desolation. The first was clearly overstretched, dull and had some terrible CG. Desolation moved much faster, and had some downright fantastic fantastic moments, like the Smaug reveal scene.

I'm a bit confused as to why you think there were three films though. I mean, I thought so too when I went to see a movie called "Battle of the Five Armies", but turns out it was actually just a remake of Return of the King with more CGI. They made some weird changes too. Why was Theoden riding a boar all of a sudden? I swear Minas tirith looked a lot more grand and massive in the original. And they made the Mumakil some giant worms or something, and took their part out completely. It was weird.

 

[Samtemdo8_v1legacy]

I have read the Hobbit book recently, and it has the same exact tonal clashes.

Thorin at the end of the book became practically Thorgrim Grudgebearer. Only to mellow at his death.

 

[McElroy]

I have read the Hobbit book recently, and it has the same exact tonal clashes.

Thorin at the end of the book became practically Thorgrim Grudgebearer. Only to mellow at his death.

So it was a lost cause from the start?

OT: All three are thrash, but the second is the most entertaining and best-looking piece of thrash.

 

[Samtemdo8_v1legacy]

I have read the Hobbit book recently, and it has the same exact tonal clashes.

Thorin at the end of the book became practically Thorgrim Grudgebearer. Only to mellow at his death.

So it was a lost cause from the start?

OT: All three are thrash, but the second is the most entertaining and best-looking piece of thrash.

Lets just say people underestimate how faithful the movie was.

And come on man how can it trash? The acting is superb, the music is epic, Smaug is fuckin awesome.

I swear is Lord of the Rings the only thing to care about in Tolkiens massive legendarium? for you people?

 

[Samtemdo8_v1legacy]

I often hear the point being made that Jackson being worn down and depressed from making these Hobbit films as irrefutable proof as to their being "terrible" films, and while that is certainly sad to hear all I can think is if 'this' is what Peter Jackson is capable of when he's worn down and just doesn't care any more then he's even more talented then I thought. He's just that good at his job.

OT An Unexpected Journey is best for much the same reasons that Fellowship is the best of LOTR.

The part when all the Dwarves come to Bag End and eat all of Bilbos food is just fun to watch and one of my favourite moments in any of the Tolkien films let alone just The Hobbit.

I personally blame WB's mishandling of it, the movies went through development hell.

I mean it was Guillermo del Toro that wanted to work on it and made a script, but for some reason he pulled out so WB contacted Jackson, and rather then finsih Del Toro's script, Jackson completely scrapped it and re-wrote it because he did want a Script to be muddled with 2 different writers interpretations.

Like them movie would have been inconsistant as all hell.

 

[McElroy]

And come on man how can it trash? The acting is superb, the music is epic, Smaug is fuckin awesome.

They are dramatically desolate popcorn films with some extra elves. Points for Thorin kicking it, though. Howard Shore codified the epic fantasy score in LotR, then, uh, he tried again? "Epic" music feels kinda trashy nowadays. And as awesome as Smaug was, he couldn't BBQ a bunch of dwarves, so he got buttmad and burned a town instead.

I swear is Lord of the Rings the only thing to care about in Tolkien's massive legendarium? for you people?

Funny enough, the only Tolkien book I've read is Roverandom.

 

[Jute88]

I honestly have no idea. On one hand we have the great scene between Smaug and Bilbo, probably the best scene in the entire trilogy, on the other they butchered Beorn! What happened to this happy, somewhat dangerous guy who loves nature and hates orcs?

Also, I rather liked Radagast, even if he wasn't in the book.

 

[Evonisia]

The first one. A lot like the first third of the book, it's the best paced and is generally more consistently good than the other two. I have no interesting reason as to why, it's just a solid film.

"Desolation" drags obscenely. The only thing the film really has going for it was the handling of Smaug, and even then we're left on an unnecessary cliffhanger.

"Battle of the Five Armies" is a glorious mess. You can tell nobody was taking it seriously anymore, and as far as meaningless spectacle and dazzling sights goes it's more than serviceable.

 

[hermes]

The first one. Just because it was less evident that they were struggling to fill up time for a 9 hours story.
The other ones were just awful at it; they feel thin, sort of stretched, like butter scraped over too much bread..

 

[Mathak]

The one without the dragged-out chase scene finale or the 500 nonsensical Alfred scenes eating up all the time that could have been used on the actual plot, I guess.

 

[Samtemdo8_v1legacy]

The one without the dragged-out chase scene finale or the 500 nonsensical Alfred scenes eating up all the time that could have been used on the actual plot, I guess.

Alfred scenes? Who is Alfred?

 

[Faaip]

I think I'd have to go with Unexpected Journey. I like the second as well, but the third I just don't think is a good movie at all.

I don't have much of a desire to rewatch any of them like I do with LoTR though. It really should have been split into 2 parts of reasonable length. They stretched it out way too far

 

[MrCalavera_v1legacy]

First one, i still had hope that can be a good trilogy after it had ended.

 

[Johnny Novgorod]

The first one is the most tolerable. Did not like any of the movies though.

 

[Mathak]

The one without the dragged-out chase scene finale or the 500 nonsensical Alfred scenes eating up all the time that could have been used on the actual plot, I guess.

Alfred scenes? Who is Alfred?

Stephen Fry's little helper. Might've been Alfrid or something, I really don't remember. I only watched both Desolation and Battle once in theatres and haven't had any desire to rewatch them since.

Which is saying something since I rewatch the entire LotR extended trilogy every year.

 

[Samtemdo8_v1legacy]

The one without the dragged-out chase scene finale or the 500 nonsensical Alfred scenes eating up all the time that could have been used on the actual plot, I guess.

Alfred scenes? Who is Alfred?

Stephen Fry's little helper. Might've been Alfrid or something, I really don't remember. I only watched both Desolation and Battle once in theatres and haven't had any desire to rewatch them since.

Which is saying something since I rewatch the entire LotR extended trilogy every year.

You mean the guy in the Battle of Five Armies that dressed woman's clothing?