My Thoughts on the 'Hobbit' Movies {2.0}

(I would have loved to get this post written and published in time for Tolkien Week, but Life™ Was A Thing™ that week, so here we are.)

Here's what happened.

When The Hobbit was coming out in its . . . three . . . installments (*cough*), I was approaching and entering my first years of high school.  I was in an interesting place in that I was trying to discover how to interact with people and express myself, but I was still learning what inhibitions I should have and what inhibitions I shouldn't have, if that makes any sense at all.  I've struggled with certain relational aspects since childhood, and one of the biggest is claiming my own opinions and beliefs without letting others' opposition or difference influence me unduly.  Still working on that, for sure.  I'm getting better, slowly ;) , but it's still a difficulty for me.

So, though this is kind of silly, when I first watched The Hobbit, I assumed my thoughts on the movies were the same as whoever I happened to be discussing them with at that particular moment.  As in, if I was talking often with people who had issues with them, I adopted that mindset.  They were ridiculously overdone and they had a few good points but mainly were pretty mediocre.

But then, later, when I was talking movies and books and things with some newer blogging friends around 2014/2015, those friends often really liked the movies and would point out all the good things about them.  So then I changed my mind again.  This time I really liked the Hobbit movies and they were Masterpieces of Feelsdom and everyone was brilliant.

Do you see my problem?

I never actually found out what I, personally, regardless of my friends'/family's opinions, thought. 

Obviously, this is not a big deal.  Knowing one's opinion on Peter Jackson's adaptation of Tolkien's Hobbit is not a vital element of life.  Clearly. :-P  But I'd like to know my opinion on it, you see. 

So, I embarked on a little unexpected journey of my own.  (Heh, heh.)  

Over the past . . . year, maybe? . . . I've re-watched all three films in order to better grasp my feelings on them.  And yes, it was fun; and yes, I'm here to share the results with you.  And yes, it's gonna be a long one.

Well, shoot.

*tries to gather thoughts*  Hmm, well . . . well.  Where to start?

I think . . . I think . . . that this is my opinion in a nutshell:  I like the Hobbit movies.  Love them, even.  I just don't love everything about them.

I suspect that the easiest way to do this would be to have a section of this post dedicated to the things I don't like about the movies and a section dedicated to the things I do like.  Sound like a plan?  Let's do it.  (I'll go over the cons first and end with the pros because #positivity.)

{What I Dislike}

+ The length.  This adaptation is too long.  A cinematic version of The Hobbit should only need one ⎼ maybe two ⎼ feature-length installments.  And if Jackson had just stuck a little more closely to the source material, a good two-thirds of his footage would be non-existent.

Which, in my personal opinion, could have greatly benefited the story.  I do appreciate the tie-ins to The Lord of the Rings at the very end ⎼ and I think it was a good way to open the first film, too ⎼ but I don't think that following Gandalf on his sabbaticals from the Company was a good decision.  The scenes when the four Maiar (are Galadriel and Elrond Maiar??  no, wait, they're Noldor . . . ?? idk #silmarillionstruggles) are battling the dark forces in Dol Goldur are cool, and I like seeing them.  Nonetheless, I think it would have been better to exclude them, since there was no plausible way to incorporate them into the storyline without the hours of lead-up and explanation that went before and clogged the trilogy as a whole.

And that's just one example.  We didn't need to see the "backstory" of Thorin's and Gandalf's first meeting at The Prancing Pony just to reference that previously known location.  We didn't need to spend so much screen time on Alfrid; there are other sources of comic relief.  We didn't need to see what was going on in Dol Goldur so many times simply to grasp the fact that Azog the Defiler™ is our villain.  You catch my drift?

Too much, my precious.  Too much.

+ The tone.  Jackson clearly endeavored to glean a heroic, epic quest from The Hobbit, as he gleaned a heroic, epic quest from The Lord of the Rings.  The problem is that The Hobbit is intrinsically and fundamentally different from The Lord of the Rings.

Tolkien wrote The Hobbit as a children's story.  For wee ones.  Munchkins.  And it's a fantastic story, and a fantastic book.  But, again, it's a children's story.  That doesn't mean it doesn't have value for adults; that doesn't mean its virtues are in any way restricted.  What it does mean is that the way it's structured and presented has some necessarily specific characteristics.  What it does mean is that however dark or weighty its themes are, they are always packaged in an age-appropriate way.

The Hobbit is not an epic.  The Hobbit is not a tale of heroism.  (At least, not in the same way as The Lord of the Rings.)  The Hobbit is a great and worthwhile story, but the quest at its center is not one that takes place on the world stage.  It's about a group of dwarves who want to reclaim a (non-vital) ancestral homeland and the ancestral treasure to be found therein.  Admirable?  Sure.  Heroic?  Nope.

+ Gandalf + Galadriel as . . . a thing?!?  Aw, heck no.

Look, maybe Peter Jackson didn't intend to insinuate any sort of "romantical flutterings" between these two.  Maybe he intended to express what a deep and special friendship they have and he just went a little wrong.

But he should have known better.  There are certain tacks that you do not try if your goal is to convey platonic love.

Lines were crossed, my friends.  They were crossed and they were Keenly Felt.

+ Certain characters. 

*takes deep breath*  *claps hands together*

The Erebor dwarves and the Mirkwood elves are the Downton Abbey of Middle-earth.

By that I mean that, while they have good (even great) points and can make me feel all sorts of things for them, they also drive me up the freaking wall with their relentless pettiness and narcissism.  

(And, look, I don't want to get into all my Thoughts & Opinions on Downton Abbey.   I ain't trying to make Statements over here.  I don't want to hate on that show or invalidate all the things I do like about it.  I'm just bringing it up because it's a useful parallel.)

I understand that there are historical reasons for the "concerns" of the characters in DA; and I understand that there are historical reasons for the animosity between dwarves and elves in TH.  But, for me, both shows strain credulity a bit and just go excessive on it all.

Thranduil, for example.  Thranduil is an Isolationist Jerk and I am Not About Him.  (Does he come around by the end?  Sure, sorta. So he's not the worst person in the world, but he's certainly not a great one, either.)  And, between him and Thorin, I'd pick Thorin.  But Thorin infuriates me too.  I understand that succumbing to the "gold sickness" was (more or less) involuntary, but the actions that led up to it were certainly not.  And even though that's kind of the point ⎼ Thorin is supposed to worry and anger you at times ⎼ I just . . . *sighs*  I don't know.  It's hard to express exactly how I feel about him.  I do really love him, but he also drives me nuts.

Additionally, there's the fact that Legolas is in the movies.  While I like some of his parts, I think it's odd that his inclusion in the trilogy seems even more forced than Tauriel's, especially given that he's actually a canonical character (albeit not in The Hobbit itself).

k but also for people who are All in a Dither about other folks not respecting their 

own home . . . the dwarves need a little dose of self-awareness, is all I'm sayin'.

+ Various little things.  Like the over-abundance of slow motion.  (Something that even the Lord of the Rings movies could have done with a tad less of.)  Like the u n e n d i n g battle sequences that got very stale very quickly.  Like, once again, the over-emphasis placed on the orcs/goblins/"villains".  Like the fact that CGI was so heavily relied upon that the "uncanny valley" is offensively obvious. 

{What I Like}

+ The cast.  This cast is perfect.  That is all.  Martin Freeman's performance, especially, is flawless.  Oscar-worthy, even, I'd contend.  He gave me a new, stronger, and much deeper appreciation for the character of Bilbo.  (More on him presently.)

Richard Armitage embodies Thorin and makes him mind-numbingly stoic and movingly vulnerable all at once.  Sir Ian McKellen really is like a very old friend.  The Company are all excellent.

I love them.  (And then I despise them sometimes, too.  But the love wins out overall.)  *huggles them*

+ Tauriel/Tauriel + Kili.  I actually do like Tauriel.  Her presence is totally apocryphal, and, I suspect, is due to some Very Shady Motives that will irritate me if I think about them for too long; but she herself, as a character, is pretty cool and certainly contributes her fair share to the films.

She's more than just a pretty face and more than just a "strong female character" cliché.  She's brave, competent, open-minded, compassionate, and true.  (Even if she was inserted just to give the story an extraneous spark of romance or conflict, as I'm half-afraid she may have been.)

And I actually also like her relationship with Kili.  Even though it was an unusual premise, it wasn't that far-fetched; and I was pleased to find, this time around, that it flowed fairly organically.  I think that's because I was expecting and prepared for it during the re-watch, whereas it was a little jarring the first time.  

I do think that certain things could have been done differently/better ⎼ the whole "Because it was real" exchange at the end feels pretty contrived and cheesy to me ⎼ but taken on its own, the romance actually has a lot of potential.  Granted, they really don't get the chance to have much meaningful exposition, so it's a bit of a stretch to say that they're really, truly in love by the end; but, again, the potential is there and reasonably believable.  In my opinion.  And I like them, at any rate.

+ Certain other characters.  Like Bard.  Bard is fantastic.  Just leaving that here.  (Who didn't Feel Things at the "You look at me" line??  Much emotion.)

*cries*

And Galadriel, and Elrond, and Gandalf, and Balin, and Gollum.  

Smaug was excellently adapted, too.  I am actually impressed by the fact that Jackson didn't oversell either Smaug's or Gollum's parts.  (Now, if he was going to oversell anything, I'd rather it'd have been one of those two than Azog or Thorin or Thranduil, as was actually done; but we can't have everything.)  Their amount of screen time seems right, if a little on the brief side.  Smaug was especially impressive, I think.

He's well-animated, and Benedict Cumberbatch's vocal performance combined with those special effects makes him easy and entertaining to watch.  And I like that any "scariness" is pretty well-concealed, only revealing itself very subtly and very suddenly at certain choice moments. 

And then, of course, there's Bilbo.  Dear, precious, wonderful Bilbo.  I love Bilbo in this iteration.  He's hilarious, of course; but Freeman also managed to bring out such quiet strength and depth and steadfastness.  He's innocent, as a hobbit; but there's experience and almost an undercurrent of sadness there, too.  As a resourceful burglar, as a loyal and forgiving friend, and as a cranky homebody, I love Bilbo Baggins.  He, at the very least, is a hero without question, whatever the other characters may be. 

+ The music.  I like that this saga was given its own score.  Mimicking The Lord of the Rings note for note wouldn't have felt right, and neither would never acknowledging it at all.  So I think it's great that the same general feel was conveyed in The Hobbit's soundtrack, while still creating an entirely new model.  And in utilizing some of the original music's most well-known and well-beloved motifs when and how he did, Jackson really delivered for the fans.  I will never not be emotional when that one particular melody plays, and I appreciate that it was honored in these films.

(Plus, the dwarves singing "Misty Mountains".  Ahem.)

And Ed Sheeran's "I See Fire" was a perfect credit song for The Desolation of Smaug.  AND BILLY BOYD'S "THE LAST GOODBYE" IS A CLASSIC IN THE MAKING AND WILL GO DOWN IN MIDDLE-EARTH HISTORY WITH GREAT AFFECTION UNTIL THE END OF TIME.  Amen.

+ The feels.  Because feels there are, in abundance.  I don't actually want to talk about all of them because #Emotions (plus I really want to finish this post already), but I just have to say: Thorin's death scene is a cinematic masterpiece.  Freeman and Armitage really bring it in that sequence and it Evokes Feelings.  (Although, was it really necessary to change the wording of that "If more of us valued food and cheer above hoarded gold, it would be a merrier world" line?  I feel like that's a pretty easy line to deliver just as it is, and it would have been better that way.  Sigh.)

Really, though.  That scene.  You can really see Thorin's remorse for his misconduct, and you can really see that Bilbo doesn't give a rip about any of it.  Many feelsy lines.  Much emotion, yet again. :-P

*cries louder*

Oh, and then afterwards, when Gandalf comes to find Bilbo and they just sit wordlessly together with the sun rising at their backs and Gandalf snuffling busily and tamping down his pipe tobacco . . . genius.  Beautiful. 

+ The aesthetic.  When it comes down to it, whatever I don't like about the movies, in the end they deliver on the things that are most important to me.  They still take me back to Middle-earth, which is something for which I'll always be thankful.  They still give me punishingly flawed but ultimately lovable characters.  They still give me greeny-gold Shire dells and craggy blue mountains and healing sunrises and friendship forged in difficulty and out of animosity.  They still give me spent warriors rallying to give their all.  They still give me crochety wizard smiles.  They still give me the dignity of quiet country hobbits.  They still give me music that shifts my soul. 

For that, however many face-palms or groans or gripes they elicit in the process, I love them. ♥

What do you think of the Hobbit movies?