Why The Hobbit Trilogy Failed To Equal Lord Of The Rings

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The only movie adaptation, where it's quicker to just read the book.

Well, in Peter Jackson's defense, he didn't even want to direct those films, and fought for it to be one movie instead of a trilogy.

The only disagreement I have is that Bilbo DOES have an Arc, in the beginning he is terrified of everything, by the end he is getting down in the melee, putting himself in huge amounts of danger in an attempt to save his friends. The line where he ALMOST confesses to Gandalf that he found the one ring, but then says "I found my courage" isn't really a lie, he DID find that through the adventure. Its like... The point of The Hobbit.

You'll need to revisit this, as we now know the Hobbit trilogy is now a work of art compared to Rings of powet

“What inspired you to make the hobbit a trilogy instead of a stand alone film?” Warner brothers: “money.”

I remember chatting with my mate about this film and we were like "The Gollum scene was amazing" and "the scene with Bilbo and Smaug was great" and "the scene with the trolls was awesome" and then eventually we realized "so basically all the scenes that were actually IN the Fucking book were the best scenes???"

I think The Hobbit Trilogy had the same problem as the Narnia movies. They took a book that was meant to be simplistic and a bit silly (because its for children) and tried to pad it out into an epic fantasy story like LOTR which is a much deeper, darker and more complex story for adults. In other words, they tried to make it something it was not.

The things you hated about the dwarfs is actually how theyre described in the book. Bombur, for example, was described as ridiculously fat. Same with the dragon. His motivation IS just gold hoarding in the book. He is an architype of people in power. I agree with you on most of your rants, Drinker, but not on this one.

“I feel thin, sort of stretched, like butter scraped over too much bread.” - the Hobbit.

"I'm old, Gandalf... I feel stretched somehow.. like...like a single book stretched over 3 movies each with a 2 hour run time and random Dwarf x Elf fanfiction thrown in"

I actually really like the hobbit, especially as a kid. While lotr was darker, and raw, this feels more dreamy and light. It's a gateway for me to discover and love the whole lore

I think a better treatment for this movie would have been framing it as Bilbo telling the story to Frodo, so there are more fanciful elements; the singing, the talking spiders, the over-the-top action, and maybe even the ethereal nature of the glut of CGI would have all felt more organic--elements of a tale being spun by a storyteller. It's kind of inherent anyway in the fact that it was a children's book. I mean, the dwarves' names rhyme, for crying out loud. :) And of course also get rid of all the nonsense that tries super hard to make this an official prequel rather its own tale.

The Hobbit is not "basically" a children's book: it is explicitly a children's book.

To Smaug's defense dragons of Middle Earth are canonicaly opsessed with gold. He doesn't need another motivation.

One of my favorite moments in LOTR is when Gimli finds the tomb in Moria. Then the orcs start coming. Everyone else gets ready, but they're all clearly afraid. But not Gimli. "Let them come, and they shall see that there is yet one dwarf in Moria who still draws breath."

The eagles arent really a cab service. They help Gandalf out from time to time, but they dont serve him. Its like a friend doing you a favor and dropping you off along their route to work; you’ll get closer to your destination but you cant really expect him to inconvenience himself just to drive you all the way because its easier for you.

The Second Movie ending with Smaug flying out of the Lonely Mountain only to be killed in the first 5 minutes of the Third Movie was a complete waste.

As someone who really loves the book: The problem is not that Smaug is a bad main villain, the problem is that the movies focus too much on him and tries to make more out of him than there really is. The book is not really about Smaug, it's really about the journey and about Bilbo as a character being on his first adventure. Smaug doesn't need to have any big motives or plans, he just needs to be there as the final obstacle for Bilbo and the dwarves.

I think your strongest point was when you said it tried to be epic and lighthearted and fun at the same time. They needed to pick a direction, and I think they should have stayed true to the books and kept the hobbit more like a children's book. It would have been a great opportunity for a younger generation to get into this genre