REVIEW #45 The Hobbit Trilogy (2012-2014)

The Hobbit trilogy consists of three films directed by Peter Jackson; The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey, The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug, The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies. This is a prequel trilogy set before the events of The Lord of The Rings, following the adventure of Bilbo Baggins as he helps a group of Dwarves reclaim their homeland.

CAST & THE ACTING (9.5/10)

I really liked the castings in this film, Martin Freeman plays Bilbo Baggins and does a tremendous job at injecting charisma and comedy into the character. Richard Armitage plays Thorin Oakenshield the rightful King under the mountain and he also does well at portraying a tough and brave leader who is later poisoned by the curses of the treasure in the mountain, which requires a real range of acting ability. Some familiar faces return to reprise their roles like Orlando Bloom as Legolas, Ian McKellen as Gandolf the Grey, Cate Blanchett as Galadriel and even Christopher Lee as Saruman. There are even more actors who you will certainly recognise, which I haven’t listed above. It really is a great cast and they all deliver, there wasn’t one performance where I felt as though they let the film down! That is why I have given a strong 9.5 here.

PLOT & THE STORYLINE (9.5/10)

It was really nice to finally get to see Bilbo’s journey because we hear about it ever so slightly in the Lord of the Rings so it was only a matter of time before these films were made. What I liked about this trilogy was that there weren’t any exhausting characters who I disliked the more I watched, that means they’re just as enjoyable every time I watch them. In contrast to The Lord of the rings where I dislike Frodo even more every time I watch it. The Hobbit films are heavily linked to The Lord of the Rings, we even get a little mention of Gimley as a child which was a nice touch. I also appreciated how even though we got to see the start of Sauron and his return, it wasn’t the main arc of the films. The storyline of the dwarves and their journey to reclaim their homeland was entertaining to watch and introduced some great characters into the franchise. 

CINEMATOGRAPHY AND SPECIAL EFFECTS (8.5/10)

The cinematography was great in this trilogy, there were some scenes which I absolutely loved. For example when Galadriel, Saruman and Elrond save Gandolf, the combat sequences and the visuals for that scene are fantastic and captured so well! It really emphasised the power of Saruman. What I will say is they rely on CGI a lot more than the Lord of The Rings trilogy which I didn’t like. I appreciated the prosthetics used to create the orcs in the Lord of the Rings and that is what they won awards for but they switched to using CGI for these three films and that just took the realism away in my opinion. Some of the scenes I think were let down by the CGI as well, where if they just filmed on location it would have looked more impressive. That is why I have only given an 8.5 here.

OVERALL (9.2/10)

I really enjoyed The Hobbit and I think they really tried to bring a lot more comedy into these three films in comparison to the Lord of the Rings. I think it had a really entertaining storyline, introducing some great new characters but also cleverly linking familiar characters into the plot. I do think that due to the heavy reliance on CGI in these three films that the realism was lost slightly, because I really appreciated the prosthetics used to create the orcs and the really shots on location in the Lord of the Rings and by replacing that with CGI in The Hobbit took a little something away from the film. Nonetheless, I still loved these films, hence why I have given a strong 9.2 out of 10! So give them a go, you’ll love them.

Thanks for reading.

Callan