Let’s make it clear before starting: hobbits were the central characters in every one of the films having to do with the two trilogies that eventually made up the phenomenon known as Lord of the Rings. From the first book to the last the hobbits were those that carried the main point of the story and were often kind of shoved to the side in the movie to make way for the action and the effects. This was considered okay by a lot of people as focusing solely on the hobbits the entire way through might have been kind of awkward since during their initial trek not a single one of the hobbits that were involved were worth all that much when it came to their own survival. In fact you could say that the only one that did and didn’t pull his weight throughout the movie was the one that carried the most importance throughout the original trilogy, Frodo.
Here are what I consider to be the best hobbit movies between the two trilogies.
5. The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey
It was uncertain just how anyone was going to make this one book into three movies but somehow Peter Jackson did it and he made them interesting as well. Considering how long it takes to read a book however and how much detail there is one can easily see that it’s not too hard to fit in as much detail as possible. While some fans did in fact think that some of the material wasn’t covered in the original Hobbit novel they had to allow themselves to be amazed as they went back and read the book again only to realize that Jackson had stayed true to at least a good amount of material while filling in the gaps with a few things here and there.
4. Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers
By this movie we’d established that Frodo was kind of useless apart from being the ringbearer. The guy couldn’t fight, and he didn’t even have the mindless zeal that came from Merry and Pippin, who also couldn’t fight all that well but were at least ready to throw down when they needed to. By this point Sam was becoming the apparent hobbit that really deserved a lot more credit since he’d traveled with Frodo and was the only real sensible-minded individual between them. But of course Frodo did serve a purpose as he was the only one that could withstand the ring, at least for a while.
3. Lord of the Rings: Return of the King
Anyone that had an issue with this movie had a hard time explaining it in common sense without nitpicking every little thing since this film was one of the most anticipated during its time and was, in a word, awesome. Sure there were some plot holes that didn’t seem like they got covered enough, but being that this is such a common thing among movies many fans are often willing to let them go so long as the story holds out and is entertaining enough to be worth their time and money. The battle scenes in this epic were done in such a way that you couldn’t help but feel your adrenaline rushing forth and the characters finally reached their desired peaks, creating something that wasn’t the typical happy ending but something close to it.
2. The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug
Anytime you bring a dragon into the mix of a fantasy movie you’ve got one of two expectations, that it’s going to tank horribly, or that it’s going to go off like a rocket in terms of popularity. Smaug from the old cartoons looked more like a reptile blended with a feline, but back then it was still kind of impressive as a cartoon and the sheer size of the dragon was intimidating. This time around it was no less intimidating, but watching Bilbo interact with the dragon was simply intense. The CGI that was used seemed flawless if you’re not the type to pick away at every little detail, and the arrogance of the dragon was just as legendary as it’s always been.
1. The Hobbit: Battle of the Five Armies
The culmination of the Hobbit movies was something fans were either salivating or groaning over since it brought together every last element of the movies finally into an epic clash that was meant to have only one real victor. Those that felt that this movie was just ‘meh’ are often those that will go through a film frame by frame trying to pick out errors and thus don’t get a lot of enjoyment out of the film. Those that simply want to watch an epic tale finally unfold its last chapter are those that were sitting on the edge of their seats as the story played out, only to of course be linked to the original trilogy.
Yes, the Hobbit movies and the Lord of the Rings were about hobbits primarily, honest.
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My warm thanks you to the author of this article about the Best 5 Hobbit Films! I am really happy to see that the Hobbit Trilogy s slowly starting to be rehabilitated, and to receive the praise they actually deserve. I am myself a fan of Tolkien’s Middle-earth since 1975, long before the Peter Jackson films. I loved the LOTR Trilogy, but the Hobbit Trilogy too, and find them all together a treat as a full set of six movies bringing Middle-earth so powerfully and beautifully to the big screen. I do prefer always the long, Extended Versions, though, as there Peter Jackson has been able to reinsert a lot of the beautiful or otherwise valuable scenes he had had to cut for the theatrical versions. I am sure as time passes the Hobbit trilogy will be recognized as just right for resetting the little original tale for kids into the real size and importance it had in its own chronological place within the vast Middle-earth Story as envisioned and so cherished by the dear Professor: he himself tried actually, in later years, to retell ‘The Hobbit’ in a more fitting manner, but quickly found out people had made of it such a sacro-sanct book they wouldn’t accept an iota to be changed in its telling, so he got discouraged and abandoned his project. I’m so glad PJ bravely took it up and made the necessary changes , based most of them on the other material also written by Tolkien himself on the same topic. By having so enlarged the scope of the story, he managed to make it as interesting for adults as for kids, and that was really a challenge!… I would say kudos to Peter Jackson for have gifted us with such a great and funny second trilogy, played once again by such wonderful actors !…
Thank you Bhaga, your comments are very much appreciated. One thing I found out about Tolkien during a Master’s course in writing is that a lot of Middle Earth was based off of his own experiences and places he’d been to, which was intriguing to say the least. As a fantasy lover and writer I do appreciate those that see the importance of such epic tales. Thanks once again. -Tom
Yes, Tom, you are quite right in underlining that fact: JRRT was indeed writing his stories a lot from direct personal experience, as when he climbed the Swiss Alps, or fought in the trenches of WWI in France… or created Luthien while watching his wife Edith sing and dance for him so wonderfully in that forest clearing in England during his recovery time there from ‘Trench fever’.
But I would go further, and say that for him those two realities were somehow both present and active in his inner life, to the point that when Edith died, he asked that on her tomb would be added the name ‘Luthien’, and on his own tomb would be written ‘Beren’ as well, so real it was all for him. Sometimes, mind you, it would be even moments of past existences that would re-surface in him in the form of languages somehow ‘recognized’; or the recurrent childhood nightmare which stopped only when , as an adult much later, he finally wrote down the description of that Atlantis-like traumatic memory, and made his character Faramir tell that description to Eowyn in Minas Tirith’s Houses of Healing… All this too is intriguing, isn’t it?!
Well, after waiting for some time, I reply to myself that such a topic, or rather question, is obviously too far-fetched to interest and elicit response from other people here..Too bad!. I would really have loved some conversation on this subject…
See you another time, then!
It is, it is indeed. It gives me hope that falling into my own books isn’t madness, it’s just crazed inspiration that’s quite normal.
Some technical error prevented me from seeing before your previous reply to my second comment, hence my additional comment in the form of that reply to myself, just a moment ago.
Now that I do see your reply to me written before, please receive my apologies… and also my congratulations and encouragements for your own books!!!
No worries Bhaga, I understand glitches happen now and again, and thank you very much, I do appreciate it.