Here's the thing: if you're expecting these films to be an adaptation of The Hobbit, you're probably going to be disappointed. What they more properly - and, I'd argue, successfully - are, is a prequel to The Lord of the Rings that is *based* on The Hobbit, among other things.
-
Show this thread
-
This is less evident if you just watch the first one, or if you watch all three with big gaps in between, but when you sit down like a trash goblin and mainline the trilogy (or, I guess, watch them close together but in a more normal way) they fit together really well.
1 reply 0 retweets 16 likesShow this thread -
Out of all three films, I think Desolation of Smaug is the strongest: it has the best characterisation, the clearest narrative arc, and ends on a proper cliffhanger. I was initially puzzled about this latter part - why not just do the whole dragon bit in one film? - but:
1 reply 0 retweets 10 likesShow this thread -
I think this was a deliberate choice, and one I think makes perfect sense if you look at the trilogy as a whole. Because Smaug isn't killed until the start of Five Armies, you can't come away from Desolation with a false, "happy" catharsis: you have to ride it out to the tragedy.
1 reply 0 retweets 13 likesShow this thread -
And the tragedy is *important* because it highlights the futility of war, the loss and the pointlessness. Unlike LOTR, Five Armies doesn't end on a triumphant note. There's no big sappy climax that goes on and on while people congratulate each other. It's deaths & an empty house.
1 reply 0 retweets 16 likesShow this thread -
Most of the fighting didn't need to happen at all, or happen that exact same way. I imagine plenty of people were upset to see heroic Thorin come down with dragon sickness and start acting like Denethor, but that's the *point*: that greed corrupts even good people -
1 reply 0 retweets 17 likesShow this thread -
- and that, even if the subsequently lapse in humanity & judgement is only temporary, it can still have catastrophic consequences. The real evils of Five Armies are pride, selfishness, greed and hubris. Maybe it's just that I'm watching this during a pandemic, but that hits hard.
1 reply 1 retweet 20 likesShow this thread -
The tragedy of Thorin isn't that he dies; it's that he becomes like his grandfather for just long enough, at just the wrong moment, to nearly undo everything he'd worked for, and to see innocents killed ahead of a bigger battle that he would always have needed to fight.
1 reply 0 retweets 18 likesShow this thread -
Thorin's final lines to Bilbo - that the world would be a better place if more people valued gold above home - are the central thesis of the trilogy. Yet even when Bilbo, who personifies this, goes back to the Shire, he finds he's been presumed dead, his possessions being sold.
3 replies 0 retweets 16 likesShow this thread -
-
-
Replying to @fozmeadows
Dragon sickness manifests in all sorts of ways...

0 replies 0 retweets 1 likeThanks. Twitter will use this to make your timeline better. UndoUndo
-
Loading seems to be taking a while.
Twitter may be over capacity or experiencing a momentary hiccup. Try again or visit Twitter Status for more information.