the trilogy and I have to say, as a much bigger fan of The Hobbit than LOTR as books (I tried and stopped with Fellowship about 10 times as a kid before it hooked me and I plowed through the whole thing), this trilogy wasn't a disappointment but it wasn't nearly as enjoyable as the first trilogy was.

Since the book is so much thinner they had to add so much fluff to these movies it's kind if impossible to believe the liberties they take.

That said, they're also all pretty fun taken as a solid binge watch, and I don't think the HBO versions of the first two movies (or the version of the third I watched) were in HFR so I didn't have that to think about. It was dumb that Legolas was in there but it was nice to relive his heroics from the first movies, even it ultimately gave Jackson the excuse he needed to tie in a love story and completely remix how the final battle played out.

One thing I really want to give this movie credit for as a fan of then look though is fleshing out Thorin's madness. In the books it's never made entirely clear why he goes mad, there are allusions to a thing or two but it mostly amounts to his going back on his word and being a stubborn little dwarf king. This movie makes it clear the gold had been cursed by resting under and around Smaug for so long (something that I guess goes back to Beowulf, a major inspiration for Tolkein's work?) anyone who laid claim to it couldn't stay sane around it. Compared to almost every other change from the books, that was a super smart adjustment on Jackson's part.


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