# LOTR film trilogy vs. The Hobbit film trilogy: why did the latter suck? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [June 15, 2015, 5:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lotr-film-trilogy-vs-the-hobbit-film-trilogy-why-did-the-latter-suck/722589 "2015-06-15T17:40:48Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![John\_Mace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_mace/32/185_2.png) [@John\_Mace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Mace)\ **Post date:** [June 15, 2015, 7:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lotr-film-trilogy-vs-the-hobbit-film-trilogy-why-did-the-latter-suck/722589/21 "2015-06-15T19:43:36Z")
There is nothing wrong, per se, with taking a short book and making it into a long movie, or even making it into 3 long movies. But you need to make it interesting, not just fill it with interminable chase scenes. And yeah, it helps if there is some overriding them driving the story. But mainly, you have to be a good storyteller. Whoever wrote the movie stories of _The Hobbit_ wasn’t very good at it. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [June 15, 2015, 7:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lotr-film-trilogy-vs-the-hobbit-film-trilogy-why-did-the-latter-suck/722589/22 "2015-06-15T19:51:48Z")
Honestly, I think Rankin and Bass did a better job of _The Hobbit_ than Peter Jackson did. ---
**Author:** ![Boyo\_Jim](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/87869e/32.png) [@Boyo\_Jim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Boyo_Jim)\ **Post date:** [June 15, 2015, 8:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lotr-film-trilogy-vs-the-hobbit-film-trilogy-why-did-the-latter-suck/722589/23 "2015-06-15T20:17:36Z")
> [@DrDeth](#): > > That’s most of it, but there was also the expectation that PJ would turn in another stunning masterpiece. Dont get me wrong, I loved the Hobbit , all three, but honestly they only get a 8 compared to the 10 (dare I say 11?) of LotR. > > Now, I think adding in the backstory of what Gandalf did vs the Necromancer was a great idea. But they could have cut back some of the cray action sequences, and done it in two films. Are you confusing LOTR with all the Harry Potter movies? ---
**Author:** ![Inigo\_Montoya](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/inigo_montoya/32/124_2.png) [@Inigo\_Montoya](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Inigo_Montoya)\ **Post date:** [June 15, 2015, 8:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lotr-film-trilogy-vs-the-hobbit-film-trilogy-why-did-the-latter-suck/722589/24 "2015-06-15T20:29:55Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > Honestly, I think Rankin and Bass did a better job of _The Hobbit_ than Peter Jackson did. Dude, save that kind of talk for The Pit. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![kenobi\_65](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kenobi_65/32/13178_2.png) [@kenobi\_65](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kenobi_65)\ **Post date:** [June 15, 2015, 8:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lotr-film-trilogy-vs-the-hobbit-film-trilogy-why-did-the-latter-suck/722589/25 "2015-06-15T20:33:16Z")
> [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](#): > > I’d love to see a heavily-cut edit of the \*Hobbit \*movies that left out so much of the padding Peter Jackson added, and got closer to Tolkien’s original vision. Hell, I would have liked to have seen what those three films looked like as _two_ films, which was the original plan. Cut down from 9 hours to 6, maybe it wouldn’t have been quite so ridiculous. ---
**Author:** ![Trinopus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/2bfe46/32.png) [@Trinopus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Trinopus)\ **Post date:** [June 15, 2015, 8:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lotr-film-trilogy-vs-the-hobbit-film-trilogy-why-did-the-latter-suck/722589/26 "2015-06-15T20:44:32Z")
Why the HELL didn’t someone capitalize on these movies and make a “ **Bored** of the Rings” movie? You could turn one out for next to nothing, and it would have been grand! Talk about your lost opportunities! ---
**Author:** ![Boyo\_Jim](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/87869e/32.png) [@Boyo\_Jim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Boyo_Jim)\ **Post date:** [June 15, 2015, 8:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lotr-film-trilogy-vs-the-hobbit-film-trilogy-why-did-the-latter-suck/722589/27 "2015-06-15T20:47:48Z")
> [@Trinopus](#): > > Why the HELL didn’t someone capitalize on these movies and make a “ **Bored** of the Rings” movie? You could turn one out for next to nothing, and it would have been grand! > > Talk about your lost opportunities! I would have loved an MST3K approach – actual clips of the movie with an audience making snarky comments and adding additional dialog. ---
**Author:** ![Baron\_Greenback](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/baron_greenback/32/48_2.png) [@Baron\_Greenback](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Baron_Greenback)\ **Post date:** [June 15, 2015, 8:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lotr-film-trilogy-vs-the-hobbit-film-trilogy-why-did-the-latter-suck/722589/28 "2015-06-15T20:48:59Z")
> [@kenobi\_65](#): > > Hell, I would have liked to have seen what those three films looked like as _two_ films, which was the original plan. Cut down from 9 hours to 6, maybe it wouldn’t have been quite so ridiculous. I would have liked to see Guillermo del Toro’s version. ---
**Author:** ![kenobi\_65](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kenobi_65/32/13178_2.png) [@kenobi\_65](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kenobi_65)\ **Post date:** [June 15, 2015, 9:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lotr-film-trilogy-vs-the-hobbit-film-trilogy-why-did-the-latter-suck/722589/29 "2015-06-15T21:13:15Z")
> [@Baron\_Greenback](#): > > I would have liked to see Guillermo del Toro’s version. This, too. ---
**Author:** ![MrDibble](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mrdibble/32/114_2.png) [@MrDibble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrDibble)\ **Post date:** [June 15, 2015, 9:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lotr-film-trilogy-vs-the-hobbit-film-trilogy-why-did-the-latter-suck/722589/30 "2015-06-15T21:16:30Z")
> [@Steve\_MB](#): > > “I feel thin, sort of stretched, like one book made into three movies…” Bravo! Perfect. ---
**Author:** ![Drunky\_Smurf](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/drunky_smurf/32/449_2.png) [@Drunky\_Smurf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Drunky_Smurf)\ **Post date:** [June 15, 2015, 9:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lotr-film-trilogy-vs-the-hobbit-film-trilogy-why-did-the-latter-suck/722589/31 "2015-06-15T21:20:05Z")
> [@Boyo\_Jim](#): > > Are you confusing LOTR with all the Harry Potter movies? I cried when Snape killed Gandalf at the end of the series. ---
**Author:** ![Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ecccb3/32.png) [@Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skald_the_Rhymer)\ **Post date:** [June 15, 2015, 9:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lotr-film-trilogy-vs-the-hobbit-film-trilogy-why-did-the-latter-suck/722589/32 "2015-06-15T21:35:23Z")
I’d argue that 1/3 of the LotR trilogy sucks. But the Hobbit movies are so much worse because the story was expanded far, far beyond the source material. The worst parts of even _Fellowship of the Ring_ are those which Peter Jackson added in – like Gimli snoring during Sam’s lament for Gandalf. HOBBIT also suffers from some presentisn, a failing of the latter two LotR a well. The ridiculous notion that Faramir, in a pre-electronic culture, could be receiving nearly real-time intelligence about Mordor and Isengard’s military advances, was echoed in the bit about the White Council being able to assemble quickly enough to try to intervene in the early part of Thorin & Copmpany’s quest. Oh, and the rabbits. The story was practically unsalvageable after Radagast’s ridiculous rabbits. It signaled that Jackson was not taking his story serious, but was simply making mock. Lastly there were no Eowyn. I’ll forgive anything if Miranda Otto’s on the screen. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ecccb3/32.png) [@Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skald_the_Rhymer)\ **Post date:** [June 15, 2015, 9:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lotr-film-trilogy-vs-the-hobbit-film-trilogy-why-did-the-latter-suck/722589/33 "2015-06-15T21:56:03Z")
> [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](#): > > I loved the LOTR movie trilogy (despite some nitpicks). Far too often, though, the \*Hobbit \*movies were more like a videogame than a Middle-earth adventure: loud, frantic, pointless and empty. The combat scenes went on and on and on. The Elf/Dwarf romance was laughable, and Thorin running across the teeth of Smaug was unforgiveable. > > I’d love to see a heavily-cut edit of the \*Hobbit \*movies that left out so much of the padding Peter Jackson added, and got closer to Tolkien’s original vision. I wouldn’t. The dark and terrible lesson that Peter Jackson taught me (with _The Lovely Bones_, though RotK didn’t help) was not to see movies based on books that I love, because the things I love about books don’t translate into movies. ---
**Author:** ![Tim\_R.Mortiss](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tim_r.mortiss/32/142_2.png) [@Tim\_R.Mortiss](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tim_R.Mortiss)\ **Post date:** [June 15, 2015, 10:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lotr-film-trilogy-vs-the-hobbit-film-trilogy-why-did-the-latter-suck/722589/34 "2015-06-15T22:16:27Z")
> [@Trinopus](#): > > Why the HELL didn’t someone capitalize on these movies and make a “ **Bored** of the Rings” movie? You could turn one out for next to nothing, and it would have been grand! > > Talk about your lost opportunities! We had a thread here maybe ten years ago trying to cast “Bored of the Rings.” Might be interesting to try to resurrect that. Although we’d probably have to re-cast with today’s crop of actors. ---
**Author:** ![bucketybuck](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/898d66/32.png) [@bucketybuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bucketybuck)\ **Post date:** [June 15, 2015, 10:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lotr-film-trilogy-vs-the-hobbit-film-trilogy-why-did-the-latter-suck/722589/35 "2015-06-15T22:19:27Z")
> [@Machine\_Elf](#): > > My subject line exaggerates. The Hobbit trilogy didn’t suck Yes it did. It sucked big time. ---
**Author:** ![Chefguy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chefguy/32/138_2.png) [@Chefguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chefguy)\ **Post date:** [June 15, 2015, 11:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lotr-film-trilogy-vs-the-hobbit-film-trilogy-why-did-the-latter-suck/722589/36 "2015-06-15T23:06:24Z")
No comparison between the two other than some of the same people were involved. LOTR had a certain _earnestness_ about it, and tension throughout, with a good sense of foreboding and danger. The cast seemed to click with each other (perhaps just good acting, but still). I really looked forward to each one of them, from the first time I saw the previews prior to the first movie. Just those short clips made me realize that something special was on the way. Not so with _The Hobbit_. As mentioned, much of it was cartoonish and boring, more a video game than anything else. I watched all three, but only after they were available for rental, as even the previews of the first film showed me that this was not going to measure up. Just too long and too cute, with the result being tedium and boredom. Jackson should have stood his ground and not done it. ---
**Author:** ![salinqmind](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/3ec8ea/32.png) [@salinqmind](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/salinqmind)\ **Post date:** [June 15, 2015, 11:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lotr-film-trilogy-vs-the-hobbit-film-trilogy-why-did-the-latter-suck/722589/37 "2015-06-15T23:07:50Z")
> [@Biffy\_the\_Elephant\_Shrew](#): > > I haven;t even seen the third of the trilogy yet. But besides the bloat, besides the cartoonish, overblown, and physically impossible action sequences, the number one reason the Hobbit sucked was that we had to look at Radagast always running around with birdshit crusted on his face. THERE IT IS! For me, anyways. Utterly repellant and ridiculous. Another thing which I don’t think I’ve ever seen addressed: Why do the dwarves, the majority, look like they’re wearing big rubber Halloween masks, or big papier mache fake heads. Yet there are two or three that look more like humans, in fact are not too bad looking (I suppose for purposes of Romance With Elves). It’s like once dwarves reach a certain age, they turn into ludicrous comical/ugly charicatures of ‘dwarves’. A stupid, stupid movie. I love LotR trilogy beyond reason, I love fantasy of any kind, and this is the kind of movie I would have on in the background while doing something tedious. But I didn’t like it at all. Though I thought Martin Freeman as Bilbo was EXCELLENT! ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [June 15, 2015, 11:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lotr-film-trilogy-vs-the-hobbit-film-trilogy-why-did-the-latter-suck/722589/38 "2015-06-15T23:16:06Z")
Freeman did do a good Bilbo, I’ll give him that. In fact, I think most of the acting was decent, for what they had to work with. The really terrible parts were all things that can be laid at the feet of the director and the writers. ---
**Author:** ![dracoi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/90db22/32.png) [@dracoi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dracoi)\ **Post date:** [June 15, 2015, 11:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lotr-film-trilogy-vs-the-hobbit-film-trilogy-why-did-the-latter-suck/722589/39 "2015-06-15T23:27:34Z")
I think The Hobbit is just an inferior story compared to LOTR. Don’t get me wrong, it’s good reading. But fundamentally, The Hobbit is the sire of D&D dungeon crawls. Characters meet at a pub. They kill stuff. They take the loot. Jackson can put all the birdshit he wants on Radagast and all the gold he wants on Smaug, but he can’t cover up the simple truth: The Hobbit not the same kind of story that LOTR is. ---
**Author:** ![Roderick\_Femm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/roderick_femm/32/14875_2.png) [@Roderick\_Femm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Roderick_Femm)\ **Post date:** [June 15, 2015, 11:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lotr-film-trilogy-vs-the-hobbit-film-trilogy-why-did-the-latter-suck/722589/40 "2015-06-15T23:58:54Z")
The Hobbit is not only shorter and more light-hearted, it is also somewhat more of a picaresque novel than LotR (think Pickwick Papers vs. A Tale of Two Cities, if you like Dickens). In LotR there is a very strong story arc (or two or three arcs at different times, weaving around each other). The civilized world is at stake. In The Hobbit, the story arc is much less strong and compelling, and it only serves to loosely hold together an otherwise very episodic narrative. All we really care about is Bilbo’s survival. So in the movies, the episodic nature of The Hobbit is emphasized several-fold by adding in more episodes and padding the length of each episode. Even the Necromancer additions, which one might think would add to the gravitas and importance of the plot, manages not to do that. Instead it’s a distraction. The focus on the relationship between Bilbo and Thorin that is so important to the central theme of the book is overshadowed by the Necromancer and other things. I haven’t seen any of the second movie, but I have seen large parts of the other two, and for my money the acting seems kind of thrown away, except for Bilbo. He was just right. eta: or what **Dracoi** more-or-less said, except that I think The Hobbit is a perfectly good story for what it is. It just isn’t LotR. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lotr-film-trilogy-vs-the-hobbit-film-trilogy-why-did-the-latter-suck/722589.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lotr-film-trilogy-vs-the-hobbit-film-trilogy-why-did-the-latter-suck/722589.md?page=3)