6 years later, they’re rarely talked about, even among Tolkien fans. Not even close to as much as the Lord of the Rings trilogy, which is still just as beloved today as it was 18 years ago, triple the time, and probably always will be.
To clarify: Personally, at least at the time, I thought the 1st one = great, the 2nd one = also great (Up until that bullshit cliffhanger ending), and the 3rd one...was mainly where things fell apart for me.
Like I said, haven't seen any of them since they first came out (I saw all 3 of them premier night, and I'm not even a Tolkien fanboy or anything lol), nor have I watched the later Extended versions, so who knows? I may very well hate them more than I remember, or perhaps even like them more in the case of 3, since I've heard supposedly the Extended version addresses certain things left out of the Theatrical cut (Odds are it doesn't fix the flow/rhythm of the entire movie tho... Srsly, who thought it was a good idea to start the movie with what should have been the climax of the last one?!).
There's a universe out there where the series is a duology directed by Guillermo Del Toro and held in just as high of a regard as the lotr trilogy...sad we don't live there.
Obligatory link to Lindsay Ellis' 3 part "autopsy" of the trilogy , which mainly deals with the milieu of production problems it had...like Jackson and co. being given literally no preparation time as opposed to the lotr trilogy where they were given years to prepare and lovingly create it.
Not that I watch a ton of movies, but the VFX seemed so bad when I saw these in theaters. That fucking gopro shot in the barrels in the river still gives me nightmares. It's wild how quickly the studios went from "sure we will let you be in pre-production for like a decade and do tons of practical effects" with LOTR to the just "fuck it, give it to me now and we'll fix it in post" that was The Hobbit.
It was even worse in 60fps. That shit is fine for video games, but has no place in film. That was an awful gimmick.
God that barrel scene was awful. In the books it's this great little trick that Bilbo orchestrates, not this giant garbage action sequence.
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I think it was Peter Jackson as well as the studios. The LOTR trilogy was fucking WORK and it's hard to remember now that Jackson was a fairly untested director and didn't have the biggest budget for them either, he probably didn't want to do all of that again and frankly I wouldn't either. You only need one opus. I don't think he really even wanted to make it. The other Jackson thing is that the success of the LOTR movies along with their length and people living the even longer special editions (which is fair, they rule) helped justify his own indulgences to himself. Dude was a very self indulgent director which is probably both his biggest strength and weakness, when I works it works, when it doesn't it's King Kong or 3 Hobbit movies where he has the gall to add his own crap to the Tolkien mythology
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Guillermo del Toro was supposed to direct, but schedule conflict or something led to Jackson taking over, and allegedly Jackson himself wasn't happy with how hurried it was or how it turned out.