It’s finally here, the last Hobbit film and (supposedly, unless they start doing stories from Silmarillion or something) the last of Peter Jackson’s Tolkien films. I’ve been disappointed in the Hobbit films almost from the beginning, and while this final one did tie it all together to a somewhat satisfying conclusion, as a series it never reached the heights that the Lord of the Rings movie trilogy did.
I should confess that these books are some of my absolute favorites of all time. They are a few of the books that I have read multiple times, pulling them out ever 5 or 7 years or so. The original movie trilogy did the books great justice. There were changes of course, but the theme and intent stayed true and it felt in character. The Hobbit movies have been different from the start. Not only were there sweeping changes to the plot and plenty of additions (taking a rather small book and expanding it to 3 long films), but the feel was far different. The Hobbit book was simply an adventure by Bilbo and the dwarves, with little real world ramifications outside of their group. The film series made it out that it had dire consequences for all of Middle Earth, in the vein of the LotR. A lot of the playfulness and light-hearted moments were missing or subdued.
The final film was also far too heavy, even for being “The Battle of Five Armies” (the final battle which went on and on and on…). Thorin’s character was reduced to a slow-motion grumbler. It almost seemed he was a caricature, his dialogue was long and low and dark, drawing out each word he said and in perpetual “sleepy eyes” mode, looking down his nose at any he spoke to. But unfortunately he was not the only one prone to long, thoughtful gazes off in to space, it seems every other scene featured someone deep in thought, even if no idea was put forward. It all felt very silly after awhile.
The film does show the final outcome, and even though again Jackson made a half a million changes to the final battle, at least it is over. The final Hobbit film will probably be popular among the average movie-goers, but for others like myself who cherished the books, you may be saddened by what was done to the series. It really should have ended after Return of the King.
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