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[Power Pro]

I was just thinking about these movies recently. I was never a big LOTR fan, I never read the book, and as far as the Peter Jackson films, I remember enjoying Fellowship, and Two Towers, but I just could not stand sitting through Return of the King. When The Hobbit movies came out, I was kind of in the same position. I actually liked the first two movies. Problem was, felt like the movie should have ended with part two, and there was a whole third movie still to come. I never ended up seeing The Battle of the Five Armies, because I was afraid it would be another RotK situation for me. 8 years later, I still haven't seen the third movie.

Been thinking about going back and revisiting the trilogy. I still remember just really liking moments from the first two movies, and finally giving the third movie a try.

As far as other people go though, I remember the consensus for these movies being very indifferent. Big complaint being that it shouldn't been three movies because the book it so short. I come at it from a unique perspective because I never read the book, so I never had any expectations about what the story SHOULD be, and just tried to enjoy it for what it was. With that said, I could see that with the second movie, it felt like they should be wrapping it up within that movie, yet there was still a whole third to go through.

Has anyone's opinion changed on these movies in the 7-8 years since the last one released? Did anyone else actually like these when they came out?

 

[BennyBlanco]

 

[Husky]

I liked being able to see them in 48fps in theaters, but otherwise I don't enjoy the movies. Sorta like with Star Wars, I think of it as a bad prequel trilogy, and today I only care about the original trilogy.

 

[Batiman]

I liked the first two. Third one had a chance to save the trilogy somewhat but was pretty shit.

Was great seeing Ian as Gandalf again and Martin Freeman was a great bilbo. Those two alone made the movies enjoyable for me. It was always nice to see more of middle earth too.

 

[Celcius]

It's amazing and just as good as LOTR

 

[StreetsofBeige]

I never read any books related to LOTR, and the only exposure I had to the series as a kid was that 1970s movie with crude but kinda cool effects. I liked LOTR movies, although looking back they could kind of cheesy (Legolas doing superhero elf moves and Gollum).

I only saw one Hobbit movie (the one where half the movie was in the gold pit and the movie ends with the dragon flying away). I saw 90% of the movie on one of the movie channels a few months ago as I missed the first bit. Wasnt sure what I was expecting except a dumbed down LOTR movie.

To put it bluntly, it was a shit movie. The trilogy LOTR movies are much better.

 

[Power Pro]

I liked being able to see them in 48fps in theaters, but otherwise I don't enjoy the movies. Sorta like with Star Wars, I think of it as a bad prequel trilogy, and today I only care about the original trilogy.

I remember seeing the first one in 48fps, and yeah, I didn't like that. It always made things seem sped up in weird spots. Had a similar reaction to the latest Avatar movie, which I guess also used a higher framerate. I just don't like how it looks for movies.

 

[gow3isben]

It's amazing and just as good as LOTR

This though I would say not quite as good as original having watched them all back to back recently without nostalgia goggles being an issue

Some of the scenes really dragged sure, my main complaint, but made up for by some really amazing ones. Original trilogy had that problem too they were just more epic.

 

[Sleepwalker]

I liked them but I haven't watched either trilogy in a long time.

 

[MrA]

Why watch it when Leonard nemoys got you covered in 2 minutes

 

[Slicker than your average]

 

[Kilau]

First and second are very good, suffer some from the bloat that really hits hard in the third. Never should have been 3 movies. In the end it’s more like The Hobbit: A Middle Earth Story. I like it for what it is though.

 

[nightmare-slain]

I was the same in that I only watched the first two but I did eventually watch them all. They aren't bad but it's definitely dragged out. Even if you only want a fantasy movie/story and not a faithful adaptation of the book then it just goes on and on.

The Hobbit is such a short book. It could have been a single movie. If they made it two parts then that'd be fine with me but they added too much filler like silly chase/fight scenes with that silly orc guy and too much focus on the dwarves.

There are fan edits out there that cut out a lot of content and improve pacing but I'm not sure how easy they are to get hold of.

After watching all 3 movies (extended versions) that was enough for me. I don't need to see them again. The only movies I watch are LOTR because they are classics.

I highly recommend you watch all 3 LOTR movies and make sure it's the extended edition. It's a big commitment to find the time to watch them but if you want to watch them then it's the only way to do it.

 

[Trunx81]

The Hobbit was one of my first fantasy books and I had a firm picture in my head how it should play out. I didn't expect CGI Orcs and The Wasp lusting after a Dwarf.

At least Amazon managed to make The Hobbit not the worst Tolkien adaption.

 

[FatallyYours]

Terrible films

Time traveling terminator "big bad" orc who is long dead in the timeline, turns up to lead the evil army for some reason, stupid, overly long made up romance story line with a character whos not even in the book/cannon, super older and fatter legolas time travels back from after LoTr, and turns up for no reason? Far too much padding. Could cut out 3+ hours and make into 2 films or 1 long one

Read the book or listen to it as an audiobook if you're not a fan of reading for a much better experience

 

[AJUMP23]

Bloated. Especially the last film. I like the first film. Lots of unnecessary plot. Trim all 3 films down to about 4 hours total and you probably have something good.

 

[SirKicksalot]

The extended editions of 2 and 3 are massive improvements. Can't go back to theatrical. 3 is basically a completely different movie.
Laketown is peak comfy. The combo of wooden buildings, frozen canals and pink/golden lighting is

The problems with adapting The Hobbit are its fast pace and the things that happen once Smaug dies. Tolkien pulls Bard out of his ass five lines before he kills Smaug. That doesn't work in a movie.

 

[Grildon Tundy]

There are fan edits out there that cut out a lot of content and improve pacing but I'm not sure how easy they are to get hold of.

This is interesting. I bet there's a good 3-hour movie to be made out of the overblown ~9 hours that New Line Cinema stretched out to save their company.

 

[Drake]

Watch one of the fan edits. There's a good 3.5-4 hour movie buried in that trash.

 

[mopspear]

I love LOTR but got dragged to the third one after not seeing the first two hobbits. That experience plus Jurassic World made me not go back to a movie theater in... 8 years.

 

[Futaleufu]

It's unrewatchable

 

[GloveSlap]

Rings of Power made them look a little better, but still no.

 

[TransTrender]

I never watched any of the Hobbit movies in their entirety, but whatever sections I manage to come across always leave me aghast at what I'm seeing on the screen. It always looks cheap and flat, terrible when comparing to the original three movies.

 

[Saber]

Mid-tier films, with the first one being ok while the rest is bellow avarage.
The scene with Golums plays a game is by far the worst of the first film...almost made me gave up watching.
The Bilbo actor was pretty nice. The romance there was terrible and the human hero and his family were garbage, look like a bunch of Disney comedy actors. His family was probably the worst thing of the trilogy. The "war" scene was trash too.

 

[Rockondevil]

Wasn't a fan then, not a fan now.
The LOTR is still amazing to this day and The Hobbit was average when it came out.

I really enjoy the book, but the movies should've just been a single movie.

 

[Darkmakaimura]

I liked the first two Hobbit movies. I did not like the third one.

For what it's worth, I thought the second Hobbit film was pretty fun.

 

[Pejo]

Should have been 1, maybe 2 movies. Other than that and the cheesy CG, it was fine. The dwarves weren't interesting/charming enough to carry a trilogy.

 

[NecrosaroIII]

Watch a fan edit. Maple Films. Cuts out a lot of the bullshit and extracts a good film instead of three shitty ones.

 

[M.W.]

Didn't like them, at all.

 

[Phobos Base]

Watched them once and never had a desire to revisit. Most of the characters were completely unmemorable and the action sequences were nothing but video game physics. The barrel ride sequence was the best/worst example, chracters pulling off ridiculous gravity-defying moves that completely removed any sense of tension or stakes.

 

[GeekyDad]

I just only watched the first one a few months ago, and it was quite good. The beginning was a little over the top, but it fit the vibe of the original animated movie -- in fact, the whole movie did. I haven't had the motivation yet to continue with the other two. Just not in the mood yet.

But you couldn't sit through Return of the King? I mean, sure the Legolas/Gimli stuff became unbearable, but for the most part, the rest of the movie was pretty damned aligned with the books. And that final battle scene where Aragorn turns to his group with defeat in his eyes before leading the charge...I'm welling up with tears just thinking of it.

 

[Go_Ly_Dow]

I'll never watch them again.

The 1st kinda okay from memory.

The 2nd forgetful.

The 3rd real junk.

I'm very doubtful modern cinema will ever interpret Tolkein's work to the same standard Jackson did with the trilogy of LOTR movies. The Amazon show was laughable and I have no faith in any remakes despite what they promise whenever they're announced.

 

[NotMyProblemAnymoreCunt]

Boring pretentious crap like everything that Jackson does

 

[IlGialloMondadori]

Boring piles of shit, shoddily made, poorly paced, no consistent tone, with a lot of shockingly dumb stuff. They miss the mark as Hobbit adaptations and as Lord of the Rings prequels. They get worse as they go.

 

[Spaceman292]

Still shit

 

[BlackTron]

I was mad that they didn't use the misty mountains cold music during the dwarves heroic push at the final big battle. Would have saved the whole trilogy for me. Ruined. Play LEGO The Hobbit instead

 

[Fbh]

Rewatched them a couple of years ago and still think they are pretty bad.

Mainly due to the slow, uneven pacing and bad filler resulting from trying to adapt a 300 pages novel into 9+ hours of movies.
And also the overuse of ugly CGI and green screen.


The LOTR trilogy really did release at the perfect point in time

 

[midnightAI]

Long

 

[analog_future]

The first ones pretty fun.

The second one is a step down but is saved by the Smaug scenes.

The third one is complete garbage.

 

[CrankyJay™]

I honestly haven’t revisited it since the extended directors cut DVDs.

 

[Sub_Level]

1 is good
2 is mediocre
3 is flat out bad

Heard the extended version of 2 is legitimately good. No idea if true.

 

[winjer]

I only managed to watch it once. I can't bear the thought of watching it again, because it has way too much filler.
Peter Jackson really needs to make a Directors Cut with just one movie of about 3 hours.

 

[Spyxos]

I like the first part a lot. I can't remember the other 2.

 

[Synless]

They were good, not great. I would have rather had Peter’s original vision of two films.

 

[Stitch]

It's Lord of the Rings - The Fast & Furious Edition, but they're fun to watch and still not as terrible as the Amazon crap

 

[JimmyRustler]

Bloated mess. Should have never been 3 movies. Wonder if Jackson will ever go back to making movies again after this desaster.

 

[TheMan]

never watched the second or third now that I think about it. Simply have no interest. And this is coming from someone who loved the first trilogy back in the day

 

[VulcanRaven]

I have seen them only once and have no desire to watch them again. Maybe I will at some point but not in near future.

 

[NeoIkaruGAF]

The first one is not bad, thanks mainly to it being mostly about Bilbo and Martin Freeman being a perfect Bilbo. Cutting a few scenes out would make it very good.
After the first one everything gets diluted with nods to nerds on one side and rule of cool bs for the masses on the other side, with some absolutely offensive CGI. Resulting in a boring, bloated mess that nobody could ever want to watch twice out of pure self respect. The problem isn’t even the three movies, it’s they could have made them 2 hours each, cutting out all the ridiculous crap that’s clearly hastily scripted filler anyway, and it could have been great.

 

[FunkMiller]

One great movie stretched into three shit ones because of naked greed.