I'm a big fan of both the LOTR and Hobbit books. I also love the LOTR-movies, they're among my favourites. So I thought hard why it's impossible for me to also love the Hobbit movies. I really tried to! All the right ingredients are there. But I can't. And here's why.
I don't have a problem with the inaccuracy and all the additional stuff that Jackson and his team put in the movie. I know that movies are always different from the books. If you want the book, read it and don't watch the movie.
If we're fair, the LOTR movies also took certain liberties, one of the most obvious being Frodo's age when he leaves the Shire. Tom Bombadil's part of the story was cut completely. You can't even find him in the Extended Cuts (which I generally recommend, even for the Hobbit movies).
My problem is the inconsistency of the storytelling in the Hobbit movies.
It was Peter Jackson's goal to link all six movies closely together. So he chose to transform the children's book into movies that should feel kind of similar in tone. And I think that is where he failed. Let me give some examples.
1.) Comedy I think this is due to make the movie kid-friendly. There are scenes in this movie that are supposed to make you laugh But it feels forced. In the LOTR the humour felt more heartfelt and therefore more real (Gimli, Merry and Pippin). Here, the humour is sometimes painfully silly (Alfrid, some actions of the dwarves during battle...)
2.) Serious stuff On the other hand this movie wants to be quite dark and grisly. There is a lot at stake here. I mean, look at the title of the movie! Thorin fights for his soul. We deal with heavy loss for everybody. And that's great! But it doesn't work tonally! Think of the biggest battles of LOTR (Helm's Klamm and Pelennor fields). Those battles were bad-ass! We were invested with the characters because we feared that everybody could die. It was just a terrible battle.
In this movie, the battle sometimes feels serious, then we get some "funny" deaths and decapitations, creative ways to kill orcs, the more serious stuff, sometimes more brutal than LOTR, more funny stuff... As I said: Inconsistent!
3.) Characters vs. Super heroes
I can't get invested in the characters here, because they don't feel real. They feel like super heroes!
In the LOTR, Legolas and the whole fellowship had to work together to kill ONE cave troll in the mines of Moria. Here, Legolas single-handedly kills about 400 orcs sometimes in gravity defying manner. Did he lose these moves after this movie before meeting again at Elrond's council in LOTR? Maybe he got old?
Somewhere between Hobbiton and Erebor also the dwarfves have developed super powers. When about 12(!) dwarves finally join, they turn the battle of 10000s of warriors around. Come on!
In the LOTR, Aragorn needed an army of THE DEAD to defeat the orcs. Here, some motivated dwarves are enough to turn the tide.
I mean, these are some dwarves and not the Avengers! So this makes it hard for me to root for them because they don't seem real. I was surprised that some of them actually COULD die.
4. Over the top
Last point. In LOTR, there were awesome set pieces and action scenes. Why were they great? Because they held the balance between being outrageous and realistic.
In this movie, everything is over the top. Bigger is better, right? No, it's not. We're invested in action that at least FEALS realistic in the context of the movie. The set design, the costumes, the details, everything feels real, everything draws you in. But the action doesn't. The action screams 'Hey, look at this! Can you believe that? Look what cool stuff BArd/Legolas/Tauriel/the dwarves are doing!' The setting is absolutely realistic, the action isn't for the most part.
So, there are some awesome scenes in this movie, as in the other Hobbit movies. I especially liked some smaller, emotional scenes like Thorin fighting with dragon sickness or Gandalf and Bilbo silently smoking a pipe in the aftermath of the battle. But as I tried to explain, the movie is so unbalanced and inconsistent in its story-telling, too much like the Avengers and too over the top to make me love it. Although I really tried and watched it several times now.
I don't have a problem with the inaccuracy and all the additional stuff that Jackson and his team put in the movie. I know that movies are always different from the books. If you want the book, read it and don't watch the movie.
If we're fair, the LOTR movies also took certain liberties, one of the most obvious being Frodo's age when he leaves the Shire. Tom Bombadil's part of the story was cut completely. You can't even find him in the Extended Cuts (which I generally recommend, even for the Hobbit movies).
My problem is the inconsistency of the storytelling in the Hobbit movies.
It was Peter Jackson's goal to link all six movies closely together. So he chose to transform the children's book into movies that should feel kind of similar in tone. And I think that is where he failed. Let me give some examples.
1.) Comedy I think this is due to make the movie kid-friendly. There are scenes in this movie that are supposed to make you laugh But it feels forced. In the LOTR the humour felt more heartfelt and therefore more real (Gimli, Merry and Pippin). Here, the humour is sometimes painfully silly (Alfrid, some actions of the dwarves during battle...)
2.) Serious stuff On the other hand this movie wants to be quite dark and grisly. There is a lot at stake here. I mean, look at the title of the movie! Thorin fights for his soul. We deal with heavy loss for everybody. And that's great! But it doesn't work tonally! Think of the biggest battles of LOTR (Helm's Klamm and Pelennor fields). Those battles were bad-ass! We were invested with the characters because we feared that everybody could die. It was just a terrible battle.
In this movie, the battle sometimes feels serious, then we get some "funny" deaths and decapitations, creative ways to kill orcs, the more serious stuff, sometimes more brutal than LOTR, more funny stuff... As I said: Inconsistent!
3.) Characters vs. Super heroes
I can't get invested in the characters here, because they don't feel real. They feel like super heroes!
In the LOTR, Legolas and the whole fellowship had to work together to kill ONE cave troll in the mines of Moria. Here, Legolas single-handedly kills about 400 orcs sometimes in gravity defying manner. Did he lose these moves after this movie before meeting again at Elrond's council in LOTR? Maybe he got old?
Somewhere between Hobbiton and Erebor also the dwarfves have developed super powers. When about 12(!) dwarves finally join, they turn the battle of 10000s of warriors around. Come on!
In the LOTR, Aragorn needed an army of THE DEAD to defeat the orcs. Here, some motivated dwarves are enough to turn the tide.
I mean, these are some dwarves and not the Avengers! So this makes it hard for me to root for them because they don't seem real. I was surprised that some of them actually COULD die.
4. Over the top
Last point. In LOTR, there were awesome set pieces and action scenes. Why were they great? Because they held the balance between being outrageous and realistic.
In this movie, everything is over the top. Bigger is better, right? No, it's not. We're invested in action that at least FEALS realistic in the context of the movie. The set design, the costumes, the details, everything feels real, everything draws you in. But the action doesn't. The action screams 'Hey, look at this! Can you believe that? Look what cool stuff BArd/Legolas/Tauriel/the dwarves are doing!' The setting is absolutely realistic, the action isn't for the most part.
So, there are some awesome scenes in this movie, as in the other Hobbit movies. I especially liked some smaller, emotional scenes like Thorin fighting with dragon sickness or Gandalf and Bilbo silently smoking a pipe in the aftermath of the battle. But as I tried to explain, the movie is so unbalanced and inconsistent in its story-telling, too much like the Avengers and too over the top to make me love it. Although I really tried and watched it several times now.