“The Defining Chapter”
This was in the official teaser trailer for The Hobbit: The Battle of Five Armies.
I can’t remember the last time I took issue with a subtitle (although I’m sure it’s happened), but I’ve decided not to accept this last chapter in the current Middle-Earth film saga as defining the whole of it.
Why? Here’s a quick chronological breakdown of what got me to this place:
- Enjoyed the first movie; I would have made several different choices but good start
- Desolation of Smaug was crazy, but I worked on it and was eager for Five Armies. I’m sure everything would pay off in the end as far as choices made
- After seeing Five Armies I can look at the Hobbit trilogy as a whole – indeed the subtitle invites me to do this will all six of Peter Jackson’s films
- Looking at the Hobbit films I find the concluding chapter does not justify the direction these three films have gone – at least not for me
- They are good movies, just not how I would have done it. Shocking since I wasn’t consulted on the films 🙂
The result of the Hobbit films was I enjoyed the universe they were in but not the story they told (in comparison with what I would have liked to see). To define the entire film saga by that would be a disservice to the other films that occupy it.
So take that, subtitle! I’ll be doing the defining around here, not you.
Knightlys Nexus 
I have only watched the first “Hobbit” movie. It didn’t bother me too much because I don’t know the story that well. I have only read it a couple of times.
The LOTR movies enraged me. I have read LOTR many times and I love it.
The movies looked amazing. All the places looked almost exactly how I had pictured them in my mind over the years. But Jackson changed so many key points in the movie, changing what characters do certain things and sometimes making a character do the exact opposite of what they did in the book, Faramir is the prime example, that I was really put off by the movies.
Before we went to see The Return of the King, my wife made me promise not to complain as loudly as I had done when we saw the first two. My nerd rage had embarrassed her.
I will see the rest of the Hobbit films eventually but I’m not in a hurry to see what Jackson has done in Middle Earth.
I agree Knightly, you can’t judge any of Tolkien’s works by one chapter. The LOTR and the Hobbit must looked at as a whole to see the intended picture.
Have you read the novelization of The Children of Hurin? If not, read it! It is very good. As soon as I finish The Cole Protocol, I am going to read it again.
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I can’t get on the Lord of the Rings movies too much as they’re the main reason I started reading Tolkien in the first place! I agree Jack & Co. made character changes I not have (#1 being Faramir as you mention), but for the most part I can understand why.
On the Hobbit films there wasn’t that reasoning – I felt like when I got to the end there wasn’t a payoff that made you feel the changes were justified.
Peter Jackson can (and did) make them however he wants, and I’m so grateful that they’ve been made, but feel like the liberties taken were too much. Again, anyone can do what they want, but I wish there was a word to describe the feeling you have of missing out on something that you knew could have impacted you in a much better and more meaningful way.
The”nerd rage” line and your story about the movie theater made me laugh out loud. Well done.
I have read “The Children of Hurin” and really enjoyed it; have you read Unfinished Tales? Some great stuff in there as well.
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I have read some of the unfinished tales. The Mariner’s wife is my favorite. I would love to see that one get made into a full novel. It is a heartbreaking story but beautiful at the same time.
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