Why I Hate Peter Jackson: A Third Movie

We’re listening to Balin tell the story of how Thorin became Thorin Oakinshield, and why he hates orcs so much. (Though I don’t understood why we need an explanation for hating orcs. Orcs are evil. Everyone hates them. It would have made a lot more sense to have a story about why he hates the elves so much, as I mentioned earlier.) I think now’s a good time to discuss the decision to make three movies, as this is the type of scene I expect would not have been included in just two movies.

We can debate back and forth about whether The Hobbit adaptation requires two movies, or three, or maybe just one. I’m sure we all have our opinions. But let’s be perfectly clear: the decision to make this a trilogy was purely a financial one. Of course they made three movies. The Middle Earth franchise has been a cash cow for the studio and everyone involved. They have every incentive to make as many movies as they can. So it’s pointless to debate what would have been best in terms of the story. It really doesn’t matter.

All that’s left is to discuss whether the trilogy works as is. Personally, I found all the added story lines extremely annoying. And here we got one of Peter Jackson’s patented battle scenes, where Thorin looks across the battlefield and watches while his father gets beheaded. Yet no one else seems to notice, because they were too busy, you know, fighting.

However, if Peter Jackson had just left this story line with the orcs alone after this flashback, I wouldn’t have minded. I did find it intrusive, but it could have served to establish Thorin as a bad ass warrior that all the other dwarves both respected and in a small way feared. And I quite liked the bit where he used the log as a shield. But as we all know, this will not be the only appearance of that orc.

Get ready, because this is where Peter Jackson’s new and improved version of the Hobbit begins.

Minutes Watched: 49:21

Number of Montages: 2

Number of Gratuitous References To The First Trilogy: 1

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