Nikki: A self-proclaimed Middle Earth enthusiast, one of her earliest memories is having the Hobbit read to her at around five years of age. She never looked back and would go on to see the Fellowship of the Ring a total of 13 times in theater with her best friend.

Monica: LOTR anthropologist steeped in Middle Earth lore who created a bard character in LOTR MMORPG to tell stories of Middle Earth to all who would listen. Her nights are consumed by feverish reading of fanfic that unites fragile human maidens with impossibly beautiful elven lords.

Joy: Inherited beautiful copies of The Hobbit and LOTR from her father and never looked back. Used to write nasty notes in Dwarvish to her high school teachers in the margins of her papers, and memorized poetry from the books, in Black Speech. Understood the whispers that were meant to be backdrop in the movies. Ash nazg durbatulûk…..

Jia Jia: Read The Hobbit followed by LOTR, the Appendices, and The Silmarillion that fateful winter holiday of her thirteenth year, and dreamt of filming LOTR. Thank goodness Peter Jackson got there first.

Overall impressions

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Nikki: I enjoyed the movie immensely. I particularly thought the tie-ins to the Lord of the Rings were well done, if a bit rushed.

Monica: As a film series I don’t think it is as epic, beautiful or as nuanced as the LOTR Trilogy but it definitely is a good build up to them by setting the scene for what happens next. What I really like about the Hobbit films (aside from beautiful Thranduil and all the elves) was that we got to spend more time with the Dwaves as a people and culture, as well as seeing the back story fleshed out on screen.

And as each Hobbit film continues the world of Middle Earth increases – so by the end of the third film you can feel the depth of the world and its history.

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Joy: Agreed. I put them in a different category in my head than the original three LOTR movies. Since The Hobbit as a book wasn’t suited for a movie of the grand, sweeping scale they wanted/needed, I made my peace with the fact that it was going to have to be severely adapted.

Nikki: I wonder how much was Hollywoodization and how much was just flat out necessary to make sense in the now-decade-old context of LOTR. Had it come before, maybe it would have been possible to make a true-to-the-book movie. But after? Not so much.

I think they did a good job keeping with the original feel of the book overall. To me, only the very first part of the book is particularly lighthearted, so the first movie being the only truly lighthearted of the three makes some sense. Because, then things get terrible.

The overwhelming feeling that I got from both the book and the movie is how much Bilbo just flat out doesn’t deserve any of it. And it kills me every, damn time.

Jia Jia: And I loved anything and everything to do with the backstory of the One Ring. It makes me lenient with The Hobbit films despite their unnecessary length or failed extra plot thread. The additions turn The Hobbit from a one-off adventure tale into the beginning of THE defining chapter of the Third Age.

I suppose that I like a sense of destiny in my imagined worlds.

How we feel about the changes; Legolas bullshit a la “I can snowboard”

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Joy: While I’m ok with a lot of the changes, what bugs me is when they add or change things in a way that doesn’t feel authentic to the universe. It made the story seem too much like fanfiction.

I loved the first movie when the dwarves break into song, because that was So Damn True to the feel of the books.

I hate it whenever they have Legolas do some bullshit “Hey, look at me, I can snowboard on roof shingles” stunt or something. That running-on-the-bridge-collapsing-under-him thing was stupid.

Jia Jia: Like how in the first movie they had that loooooong sequence with Azog chasing the dwarves to the edge of a cliff with flaming trees.

Joy: I hated that; it ruined one of my favorite scenes from the book.

Jia Jia: Exactly. And then in the second movie, they had that never-ending escape sequence in barrels down the river. In this movie, I kinda lost track. Somehow, in LOTR the action and battle sequences felt more focused and less showy and gratuitous. Those ridiculous Legolas stunts are special effects that will not age well; in three years time they’ll look gimmicky.

Monica: Though, of the additions, I liked Tauriel as an original character.

She feels like a Mirkwood warrior, and this is totally natural and in keeping with elven culture.

I also feel that she was in the story on her own merits.

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Jia Jia: I also liked Tauriel’s character. She was steely and honorable. Evangeline’s physicality also made her warrior antics look utterly believable.

Joy: While I’m ok with Tauriel as a character, but I didn’t like it the Tauriel/Kili thing. Seemed overwrought and out-of-place, and it was so obvious as a complete Hollywood add-in. I might have been ok if it had been more implied, but the self-sacrifice, the last kiss…

it seemed like such a typical, worn-out template that was just inserted for extra drama.

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Jia Jia: The same goes for the love triangle with Legolas. I wish they’d given her a backstory in which she meant more than just the love interest of an eleven prince and princely dwarf. I thought it was touching at the end when she learned that to love was also to hurt when the love is lost.

Nikki:

Unpopular opinion – this didn’t bother me. Unlikely? Yes. A bit trite? Absolutely. But I kinda view Tauriel’s inclusion into the story as a way to neatly tie up loose ends that people who have not, and never will, read the books could appreciate.

Monica: And the trope of the romantic triangle did not feel cliched for me. I actually felt that their love story was genuine and will inspire some really good fanfic 🙂

Joy: So, how about Azog the Defiler? I’m a bit torn. He appears as a mention in the original book, so it’s not like they got him out of nowhere.

But the whole White Orc/Über-villain thing was annoying to me. Having this Great Nemesis, the Final Showdown….it wasn’t authentic to the feel of the books.

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Nikki: Well, a straight up killing of Thorin would have been much more shocking to those people who haven’t read the book. Also, Azog needed to exist in the movies if only to explain why these Orcs were after them, since it had already been established in the LOTR that Orcs are basically henchmen of some evil guy.

Jia Jia: Even though I’m impressed that Jackson and co. dug him up as the orc who killed Thror, his incarnation was cartoonish. Apparently Jackson originally shot him with a live actor but later decided to make him completely CGI. In The Hobbit Films, whenever Azog appears, I switch from “I’m watching human drama unfold through action” mode to “I’m watching flashy animated action for entertainment” mode. I wish he’d stayed with the live actor as he did with the orc captain who killed Boromir in Fellowship. That fight scene was super poignant because it looked like Boromir (Sean Bean) was in a real fight with real live adversaries. When he fell, you fell with him.

Joy:

Ok, so even though things could have been done differently, I loved some additions, like the ruins of Angmar.

It was great to connect the dots more strategically between the old, barely-mentioned storyline of the Witch-king of Angmar, the Necromancer, and the LOTR line of Sauron rising in the East.

Nikki: Agreed!

Monica: Agreed, Agreed, Agreed!

Jia Jia: Yes, and the tomb of the Witch Kings, Dol Guldur and Gundabad are SO atmospheric! Tolkien’s descriptions are such an integral part of the world, and it’s great to see a film-maker pick up on that and show us sweeping shots of ant-like people against giant landscapes at every opportunity.

Middle Earth itself is a character throughout the films in a way that I’ve never seen elsewhere.

And that shot of Lady Galadriel as a mirage of white floating through the desolation of Dol Guldur was beautiful.

Fave scene

Nikki: On that note, my favorite scene was where Galadriel, Saruman, and Elrond show up at Dol Guldur, rescue Gandalf, and fight the ghosts of the Nine and Sauron.

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Joy: I agree! It showed the power and vulnerability of these immense figures, and tied a lot of things together.

Jia Jia: Definitely my favorite part in the movie. Galadriel is badass and freaking scary. They made her look even more ghastly and demonic-looking when she unleashed her power; paired with the searing images of Sauron,

I really felt the terrifying nature of power, whether it’s wielded by good or evil.

Monica: Agreed. It’s so rare to see the power of these beings all together – and I think that weaving in the back story from the Appendix was really well done. I don’t think it’s out of character to show that Galadriel is someone who possesses a lot of power but is worried sometimes to use it – as it was the idea of ruling over wild unspoilt lands that brought her and the Noldor to Middle Earth from Aman in the First Age.

Joy: Exactly–it was a perfect way to make the story coherent with the longer history.

Jia Jia: And can we take a moment for our favorite casting–Thranduil is HOT! I love his elegance, coldness and opulence.

Monica: And riding an elk, OMG.

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Nikki: +1

Jia Jia: Yes! That gorgeous elk that he rides into battle with its huge antlers; the thick, long yet unencumbered robes that he swishes around in; his grey imperious gaze; and that immaculately smooth fighting style that’s perfectly symmetrical and graceful.

Monica:

It’s perfect; he feels like one of the First Age elves, beautiful, passionate, powerful, arrogant and strong.

There and back again…

Nikki: In any event, I’m already feeling some lack of future LOTR/The Hobbit movies emptiness. I’ve been in the revenge business for so long that now that it’s over, I don’t know what to do with my life.

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Joy: Have you considered piracy?