The Hobbit movies make significant changes to J.R.R. Tolkien’s source material, and they miss a major element of the book — though that’s probably to be expected for the adaptations. Following Peter Jackson’s Lord of the Rings movies with a screen adaptation of The Hobbit felt like a natural decision for Warner Bros., but the studio’s approach to the latter was questionable. Although the films were commercially successful, a lot went wrong with The Hobbit trilogy.
This was partially due to production issues, which caused the series to feel more rushed than The Lord of the Rings. However, the choice to split The Hobbit into three movies — despite Tolkien only writing one average-length book — was also a dubious one. It certainly made Warner Bros. more money, but it also necessitated more subplots and action sequences than the source material demanded. And that gave The Hobbit trilogy a very different vibe than its book counterpart, missing one point of Tolkien’s original story.
The Hobbit Movies Miss A Major Point Of J.R.R. Tolkien’s Book By Focusing On The Action
The Exaggerated Action Distracts From Bilbo’s Evolution
The Hobbit movies focus heavily on the types of action sequences the Lord of the Rings trilogy is praised for, but those aren’t nearly as prominent in Tolkien’s book. While the original story does end with a major confrontation, Tolkien only describes it briefly — and the battles and action aren’t centered before that. By contrast, the films add several fights to Bilbo’s journey, and they play them up significantly. It turns a lighter adventure story with a few dark spots into a more epic, high-stakes tale.
This distracts from Bilbo’s evolution as he embarks on this adventure, which is the central focus of The Hobbit.
And this distracts from Bilbo’s evolution as he embarks on this adventure, which is the central focus of The Hobbit. This isn’t as true of An Unexpected Journey, but The Desolation of Smaug and The Battle of the Five Armies lose sight of the book’s main story. They favor the action, which isn’t all that surprising given the change in medium. However, it could have been balanced a bit better.
The Hobbit’s Increased Action Was Inevitable For Its Movie Adaptation
The Story Needed Expanding & Action Is A Crowd-Pleaser
It was probably inevitable that The Hobbit movies would exaggerate the book’s action, as such sequences feel very cinematic and tend to please crowds. The battles in The Lord of the Rings films are still highly praised more than two decades later, and Warner Bros. likely hoped to repeat that success with The Hobbit. And financially, the studio did, though The Hobbit films received a mixed reception when it came to their approach to the source material.
Additionally, splitting The Hobbit into three films meant dragging out Tolkien’s original story somehow. Since the action in the book is less detailed, it was an obvious thing to expand on — even if it resulted in the story having a very different feel. The Rings of Power proves that too many new additions to a text can be controversial, but battles are bound to be fleshed out further on-screen. And The Hobbit‘s final fight makes for a compelling climax, even if the film leans a bit too far on the action.
