I was watching The Desolation of Smaug (arguably the best of the Hobbit trilogy) the other day and thought to myself, “y’know, this is actually pretty darn good.”
I know the first and third entries in the series are not as strong as the second but if you divorce this trilogy from your attachment to the LOTR trilogy (a big ask; I know) what you’re left with is a film franchise that is at least on par with, if not even a little better than most other film franchises from the 2000’s & 2010’s.
I think they get so much hate because they live in their sibling trilogy’s shadow but Bilbo is an undeniably great character & comes with a great performance from Martin Freeman. He’s certainly a more dynamic actor & character than Elijah Wood’s Frodo (though, in fairness to Wood, Frodo is inherently kind of a wooden character).
I’m not trying to incur the wrath of the Tolkien hive but I feel like this is like a B+ franchise that has been unfairly tagged as an F because of its proximity to LOTR.
The dragon banter, the fight on the frozen lake, the looooong breakfast scene… there’s a lot of good stuff in this trilogy.