Oh dear. Maybe he's a big fan of huge burrowing worms...

BH

I was rather astonished upon seeing the movie, I have to be honest and say that I have not paid any attention to him since. Which could be harsh as he was seeing it at the premier iirc with all the glitz and glamour so maybe that comment was a reaction to the situation rather than the movie.

The last H movie is more offensive than any game could ever be. If anything is "an appalling load of nonsense" it's The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies. They could have piled up first editions and set fire to them & I would have been less disturbed.

BH

While I am able to enjoy The Lord of the Rings and the first half of The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey I do not regard them in any way part of Middle-earth, I enjoy them as movies and I am able to let go. My vision of Middle-earth is very different to the movies with the exception of the Shire (I have happily let that update my own images as they were so close to each other)

But the 3rd Hobbit movie offends me so deeply, I was told that I lacked perspective and was being too critical when I said it is the worst movie I have ever seen but I still stand firm with that opinion. It was and is a disgusting insult to the books and Tolkien not only as the author but also as a linguist. To put a swear word in the movie was for me the ultimate example that the film makers actually knew less than they pretended.

Oh, I almost have to watch "The Battle of the Five Armies" again to catch the swear word. Almost.

I did enjoy the LOTR trilogy of movies, especially the Fellowship of the Ring. I agree that they do not do the books justice, but they were definitely enjoyable as movies for me. Can't say the same for the Hobbit movies. At some point I will watch the fan edit that took all three and pared them down to something approaching what was in the book. From what I have read, they didn't make all the same choices I would have, and of course they are missing any material that wasn't filmed, but I think it could be more interesting than the source movies.

Just watch that bit for it. No need to spoil your day completely :)

It also has the well known weapon the Twirly Whirly.... the shame of it.

Disgraceful

It is utterly disgraceful, and even worse is the defense of it by some supposed Tolkien scholars and fans. In the making of material for the Hobbit (I enjoy making of material and in the case of The Hobbit, far more than the actual feature) Philippa Boyens described the reasoning for such changes as 'staying true to Tolkien's larger vision of this story by using his notes'. I missed Tauriel and the love triangle of elf/dwarf/elf in his notes!

Yeah, the Hobbit movies were absolute stinkers. I can't get too stressed about them, but at the same time I am completely unable to derive any sense of pleasure from them.

The problem is not that were bad Tolkien (they were), but they were bad storytelling, bad cinematography, etc. They had no redeeming features at all.

The LOTR movies, whilst deeply flawed, were - to my mind - enjoyable in parts. Interestingly, all the bad bits of LOTR (out of place dialogue, superhuman feats, anachronistic behaviour, etc) which spolied those movies were magnified 1000 times in The Hobbit.

I'm not losing any sleep over it, mind. At the end of the day, it is all just fiction, so we need to keep perspective.

I think the main reason I was offended by the 3rd movie was the tone in the language. It felt so off, but ultimately you are correct. These are after all just fiction.