The Hobbitis Peter Jackson’s secondLord of the Ringstrilogy and the second best as well - some elements of it aged better than others.Jackson’sLord of the Ringsmoviesare widely lauded as some of the best fantasy movies ever made, but their follow-up baffled many fans. While Warner Bros. changed the fantasy landscape forever with its 2000sLotRmovies,The Hobbitwas received with acrimony by some due to its many changes to the source material, written by legendary British author J.R.R. Tolkien. As such, rewatching it comes with some harsh realities.
That said,The Hobbitis a solid set of fantasy movies in its own right. This trilogy was always going to face a hard time being compared toThe Lord of the Ringsmovies, which each rank over 90% on Rotten Tomatoes. Landing 60 years before Frodo’s adventures inThe Lord of the Ringstimeline,The Hobbitcovered the journey of Frodo’s uncle, Bilbo Baggins, as he reluctantly set off to reclaim Erebor with Thorin and his company. But the movie trio didn’t always hit the nail on the head, as a rewatching makes evident.
10Legolas In LotR Looks Totally Different To Legolas In The Hobbit
Legolas' Appearance In The Warner Bros. Movies Is Inconsistent
Legolas looks like a totally different Elf inThe Hobbitafter watchingThe Lord of the Rings10 years previous. Legolas is one of thestrongest members of the Fellowship of the Ring, so his contribution to both of Peter Jackson’s movie trilogies can’t be understated.Orlando Bloom excelled in the role in Jackson’s original trilogy, and while he didn’t underperform inThe Hobbit, his presence was jarring.
Warner Bros. is bringing out its next live-actionLotRmovie in 2026 -The Lord of the Rings: The Hunt for Gollum.
Bloom was 22 when he started filmingLotRand 36 when he finished filmingThe Hobbit,and the 15 years or so difference was evident. WhileLegolas must appear with AI in the new Gollum movie, it was digital technology that was used to de-age Bloom forThe Hobbit. It probably had some effect, but still resulted in an uncanny valley situation. What’s more,Legolas' eye color kept changing. Peter Jackson advised that his contact lenses had indeed been forgotten in a few scenes in the director’s commentary of the movies.
9Martin Freeman Was An Amazing Bilbo That Won’t Resurface
Martin Freeman Is One Of The Warner Bros. LotR Movies' Best Actors
It is a blessing and a curse that Martin Freeman will probably never resurface as Bilbo Baggins. Freeman was flawlessly cast as Bilbo, taking the role of a grumpy, aging Hobbit in a children’s book and making him into a self-contented, middle-class, British everyman with an Estuary English accent.Freeman perfectly captured the endlessly relatable, settled adultwith too much to lose to drop it all and go traveling.
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Undoubtedly one of the most distinguished treasures in the cast of Warner Bros.' entireLord of the Ringsfranchise,Freeman was a highlight ofThe Hobbitmovies. But his Third Age role is unlikely to be repeated in any other movies sinceThe Hobbitis a standalone story. Tolkien seldom touched on the younger Bilbo inthe widerLord of the Ringsworld of Middle-earthlaid out across time in the legendarium, while futureLotRmovies have more material to adapt from other stories inLotR’sappendices.
8Lee Pace Was Underappreciated As Thranduil In The Hobbit
Thranduil Was A Highlight Of The Hobbit
Lee Pace’s Thranduil didn’t get enough credit forThe Hobbit, despite dominating the screen entirely whenever he appeared.Pace was the perfect Thranduil, icy and haughty without slipping into villain territory. He was the ideal actor to portray the Sindarin Elf, and his work in the trilogy was lauded by fans and viewers. However, his great work got lost inThe Hobbittrilogy’s somewhat mixed reception.
Can Elves Use Magic In Lord Of The Rings: Misconception Explained
The Lord of the Rings is a magical world, but the use of magic itself has been a source of confusion, especially when it comes to the Elves.
WhileThe Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaugearned a healthy 74% on Rotten Tomatoes, its predecessor,The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journeygot 64%. Meanwhile, the finalHobbitmovie achieved just 59%. These are decent scores for fantasy movies, but the inevitable comparison to theLotRtrilogy left a bad taste in critics' mouths when it came to reviewingThe Hobbit. Readers questioned the trilogy’s faithfulness to the book. Overall,Pace’s outstanding performance wasn’t really recognizedin the response to the trilogy.
7Romance Felt Like An Unneeded Addition To The Hobbit
The Hobbit Invented A Romance With Questionable Value
The Hobbitmovies invented a romance to center around, and it didn’t always seem valuable. The movies used a lot of original material, which definitely seemed superfluous to the plot.Tolkien’s children’s book was about the spirit of adventure and teamwork, but making the movies more suited to adults didn’t require the typical Hollywood formula of a quest and a romance for the sake of it. This took away from the morals of the story.
The firstLotRmovie sinceThe HobbitwasThe Lord of the Rings: The War of the Rohirrim.
MakingThe Hobbitmovies romantic made them more formulaic and closer to genre fiction than the groundbreaking story they came from. Tolkien practically invented fantasy, so there was no need to update the story for a modern audience by adding in a love interest.The Hobbitcould have conveyed a real sense of history and importance, teaching viewers about the origins of fantasy by expressing the book’s real themes.
6The Hobbit Felt More Like A Prequel Than Its Own Story
The Hobbit Didn’t Feel Like A Standalone Trilogy
The Hobbitwas a beautiful story in and of itself, and the movie trilogy failed to communicate this.The Hobbitwas the first work Tolkien published about Middle-earth, and it stood perfectly on its ownand did very well. The story had a circularity all its own and resolved its adventure with the kind of happy ending that is rare in the contemporary landscape of fantasy, so prone to dark stories. It should have made for a bright, cheery standalone trilogy.
However, Peter Jackson wanted to tieThe Hobbitin with his previousLotRtrilogy. In many ways, this made total sense. Tolkien himself retconned continuity into hisHobbitstory during rewrites. Jackson faced a bigger challenge than Tolkien, making this continuity present itself on-screen. Overall, it was wise to make the two trilogies fit together so well. However,the finalHobbitmovie’s parting message about Bilbo keeping the ring diminished the power and potential of the whole trilogysomewhat, as if its heroes' actions weren’t enough somehow.
5It Was A Total Mystery How Tauriel & Kili Fell In Love So Fast
Tauriel & Kili’s Relationship Seemed Very Rushed
Peter Jackson added in a lot of content about Kili the Dwarf and his love for Tauriel, but it seemed rushed. Kili was a character fromThe Hobbitbook, but Tauriel was a Warner Bros. invention.This Elf was created to provide a romantic subplot, which was enlivened by roping Legolas in to create a love triangle with even bigger stakes in Middle-earth. Although dubious due to its commercial origins alone, this subplot wasn’t done very well.
Tauriel and Kili appeared to fall in love after just a few conversations, amounting to a simplistic, superficial Hollywood fling.
Kili and Tauriel were an intriguing match in Middle-earth.It was highly Tolkienian to fall in love across species, but it was so special and sacred that it would have been completely earth-shattering had Tolkien written it. Tauriel and Kili appeared to fall in love after just a few conversations, amounting to a simplistic, superficial Hollywood fling. Their union already risked devaluing the phenomenon that wasAragorn and Arwen’s relationship inLord of the Rings, but its poor execution made the whole trilogy look worse.
4The Hobbit Spent Too Long On Grand-Scale Battle Scenes
The Hobbit Felt Different In Tone From The Book
Peter Jackson had a very hard task adapting a children’s book released in 1937, butThe Hobbit’sprotracted fight scenes may have been where it stumbledthe most. The movie struck a strange chord with many critics and fans who felt insulted by the trilogy’s many diversions from its source material. As such, it received vastly differing critiques from different angles. Some felt that the movie’s childlike dialogue downplayed the characters' intelligence.
But the dialogue that was whimsical and fun was actually far closer, in tone, to the source material than the more serious lines. Gandalf and Bilbo’s funny exchange about a good morning could have been pulled straight from the pages of an early Tolkien creation, capturing the light-hearted joy of the book. ButThe Battle of the Five Armies’battle scenes were incredibly drawn out, making a fantasy heist story into an action war flick.
3The Hobbit Confuses People About J.R.R. Tolkien’s Original Story
The Trilogy Dilutes The Power Of Tolkien’s Work
The Hobbittrilogy is made up of three good fantasy movies, but they do occasionally risk confusing Tolkien’s message. Unquestionably,the movies do dilute the power of Tolkien’s 1937 book. But they also bring their own flair to proceedings, offering unique and engaging additions to the cinematic world of Middle-earth. They certainly have value as movies in their own right, but they do confuse the key themes of the legendarium slightly.
The Rings Of Power Isn’t The Only Lord Of The Rings TV Show Worth Watching
Amazon Prime Video’s The Lord of the Rings: the Rings of Power isn’t the world’s first Lord of the Rings TV show, contrary to popular belief.
The movies are to be enjoyed as the movies, separate from the world-changing literature they spring from. The literature is to be judged on its own merit as well. But many people have seen the movies and not read the books, creating preconceptions about the books that may put them off reading. It is easy for casual fans to get Tolkien’s brilliant overall story, including that ofLotR, confused, when watchingThe Hobbit.The Hobbittrilogy distorts the roles of Galadriel, Gandalf, and Radagast, as well as those of its canonical characters.
2Peter Jackson Came On Board To The Hobbit Too Late
The Hobbit’s Confused Development Inhibited Final Results
Guillermo del Toro was going to directThe Hobbitfor a long time, butthe switch to Peter Jackson hindered the trilogy. Del Toro and Jackson are both fantastic directors and either would have worked, although Jackson was probably the wiser selection, given the success of his firstLotRtrilogy. However, the disorganized and complicated development process that saw the direction of the movies change left Jackson with little time to plan his trilogy.
From the sounds of it, Warner Bros. put Peter Jackson under huge contractual pressure to start shooting the movies by a certain time and stick to a certain timeline. Jackson said, “I spent most of The Hobbit feeling like I was not on top of it,” and said thatthe scripts weren’t finalized to his team’s satisfaction before shooting(The Guardian). Jackson was also shooting without storyboards and was “winging it” a lot of the time to stick to the deal’s timing. This resulted inThe Hobbithaving less thematic resonance thanLotR.
1The Hobbit Didn’t Need Three Whole Movies To Tell Its Story
The Hobbit Needed Just One Or Two Movies
The Hobbitprobably needed just one or two movies to tell its story, but it ended up dragged out into three movies due to its rushed process. Peter Jackson nailedThe Lord of the Ringstrilogy and probably would have made aHobbitproduction of a far higher quality if he had been given the time. With more time to perfect his script and the story he wanted to tell, Jackson probably could have avoided filler material like Tauriel.
It was understandable for the trilogy to connect to the previousLotRmovies, and adding in more scenes was needed for this. Focusing on the Necromancer was a fair choice, to a certain extent, and helped bridgeThe HobbittoLotR. However, this material had to be bulked out with other material to make three feature-length movies worthwhile. Naturally, this material was guided by what was popular at the box office at the time and didn’t always add to the story. The harsh reality is thatThe Hobbitneeded just one or two movies to lay out its plot, with proper planning.
The Hobbit
The Hobbitfilm series is a fantasy adventure trilogy directed by Peter Jackson, based on J.R.R. Tolkien’s novelThe Hobbit. Set 60 years beforeThe Lord of the Rings, the films follow Bilbo Baggins' quest to reclaim the Lonely Mountain from the dragon Smaug. The series grossed nearly $3 billion worldwide and is known for its elaborate visuals and epic storytelling.
