Where Did The Hobbit Fall Flat When Compared To It’s LOTR Predecessor?
Despite our hope, The Hobbit failed to wow us in the same way.
The Hobbit films were very good films as far as I’m concerned, but relative to the Lord of the Rings Trilogy, there is simply no time nor breadth of vocabulary sufficient in identifying that gulf in quality.
Most criticisms of The Hobbit seem to come from the same area, whether it’s on a forum, a review, or a comment section on YouTube, and that is CGI. The usage of CGI and utilization of better technology actually hindered more than it helped when going by the reception from fans. The poignant thing about it all is, the excessive use of CGI wasn’t an endeavor to save money, The Hobbit in its entirety cost around 745 million, whereas The Lord of the Rings totaled 280 million in budget.
Part of this could be due to the 3 Lord of the Rings films being shot simultaneously, and CGI being minimized on top of it. Based on what you read about, there seemed to be a common theme of effort over effects in the earlier films.
The key differences I would choose to identify, should I have to say briefly, are authenticity and commitment. Much of what you see goes from reality to camera to screen, with little interference on the way when it came to the original films. John Rhys-Davis (Gimli) was in the make-up chair for no less than 3 hours every time, with days in between because of an allergic reaction he suffered to the prosthetics. The same could be said for the orcs, goblins etc. who for the most part, were real extras in costumes and make-up.
Even the more far-fetched effects such as the sizes of the hobbits compared to Gandalf were done with camera angles and perspective. In fact, John Rhys-Davis, who stood at 6 foot 1, appeared only in close-ups by himself. The Hobbit decided to shoot scenes with Gandalf (played by Ian McKellen) isolated from the other actors, connected only through an earpiece, leading to the actor breaking down and having a terrible time on set. This surely would have affected the quality of performances above everything else.
Something that was pointed out to me which I found I agreed with, is that even the CGI tends to look worse in The Hobbit films. The Goblin King and the White Orc genuinely looked like cartoons, as harsh as it sounds. Meanwhile, the Balrog and the trolls in The Lord of the Rings not only look much more real, they felt like creatures rather than just depicted imaginations. A giant orc with loads of scars and a weapon for an arm just feels far too much like a sketch, the Balrog looked terrifying and came across as an extremely formidable thing.
Comparing the trolls in the two films gives a good insight into what defined the trilogies as a whole.
In The Hobbit, the trolls represented scruffy people, they spoke in a funny way and had horrible mannerisms, in LOTR, they behaved like animals, sniffed at the air, and had visible, hot breath. Unfortunately, this seemed to translate to the rest of the films, while it was colorful, entertaining, and funny, The Hobbit struggled to claim the same masterpiece accolade when comedy occurred so frequently, something that I feel failed Marvel films late on as well.
The final aspect of The Lord of the Rings that deserved praise, which is not necessarily to the detriment of The Hobbit necessarily was the huge attention to detail and commitment from characters. To outline this, here is some of the extra trivia pulled from the IMBD site:
- Orlando bloom spent 2 months learning to use a bow and arrow
- Two crew members made armor by linking over 12 million plastic rings by hand, by the end, they wore their fingerprints off.
- Half a dozen crew members collected and individually painted leaves to be poured from above during scenes at the council of Elrond to create the impression that it was set outside
- In a close up where the ring is dropped by Frodo, the floor is magnetic so that it wouldn’t bounce on impact, in order to convey the metaphorical weight of it.
- Viggo Mortensen did his own stunts and only used real swords.
- He also asked for the script to be adapted so that he could speak Elvish on occasions.
The Hobbit took CGI too far, bordering on cartoonish. This film showed us that sometimes it’s best to stick to the basics.
