History YMMV / TheHobbitFilmTrilogy

** Reading about how thanks to Warner Bros. meddling the production went off the rails becomes even harder to stomach thanks to ''Film/JusticeLeague2017'' which had an even worse production under the same company. And unlike ''The Hobbit'', that film’s director and writer didn’t get to see the final product all the way to the end.

* CantUnHearIt: Creator/MartinFreeman as Bilbo Baggins, Creator/BenedictCumberbatch as Smaug and Creator/StephenFry as the Master of Laketown to name a few.

** Bolg. In the book, Bolg was the commander of the goblin army in the Battle of Five Armies, is the last antagonist that Thorin and Company have to deal with, and responsible for the deaths of Thorin, Fili, and Kili. Bolg could easily have been the tertiary antagonist of the film trilogy and taken the exact same role that his father Azog ended up playing with very little changes needed to be done to the script except making his vendetta against the line of Durin a matter of revenge for his father's death at the Battle of Moria. Instead, Azog is SparedByTheAdaptation and gets used as said tertiary antagonist, while Bolg is reduced to a henchman for Legolas to fight.

** Bifur, at least in the theatrical editions. He has only one line, which isn't even in English, and is almost never even mentioned or focused on. Somewhat remedied in the extended edition of ''Battle of the Five Armies'', where [[spoiler:the axe comes out of his head, enabling him to speak English.]]
** With the exceptions of Thorin, Kili, and to a certain extent Balin, Dwalin, Fili, and Bofur, the rest of the Dwarves in the company are given little to no focus throughout the series and are more or less extras. Doubly disappointing in that they all have unique personalities while sharing the goal of reclaiming their long-lost home.

** Meta example with the cast and crew, who had to deal with ExecutiveMeddling and a TroubledProduction. Yikes.

* CriticalDissonance:
** The first film received mixed to positive reviews, even without considering the debate over the High Frame Rate version (it helps that it's often considered to be overlong and was a ToughActToFollow to a [[Film/TheLordOfTheRings really acclaimed trilogy]]). Nonetheless, by the end of only its third weekend in release, it earned over half a ''billion'' dollars globally (and finished its BO run with over a billion, the second [[Creator/JRRTolkien Tolkien]] adaptation to do so). While barely registering as "Fresh" at 65% on Rotten Tomatoes among critics, audiences give it a much higher 83% Fresh.
** Averted with the second film, which got a very good reception from critics and audiences alike. On the other hand, fans of the book tend to be a lot colder to it, owing to its significantly greater liberties taken with the book's storyline.

** Creator/MartinFreeman's casting and performance. Some feel he's perfect for Bilbo and personifies the put-upon {{Everyman}} character Tolkien wrote. Others feel like he's just playing [[{{Series/Sherlock}} John Watson]] again. Or [[Film/TheHitchhikersGuideToTheGalaxy Arthur Dent]] for the third time.

* CreepyAwesome: Quite a few characters. Azog, Smaug, the Necromancer...

%%* CreepyAwesome: Quite a few characters. Azog, Smaug, the Necromancer...

* ToughActToFollow: This trilogy is nowhere as universally lauded as Jackson’s own ''Film/TheLordOfTheRings'' trilogy, largely due to the {{padding}} that resulted from Warner Bros.' heavy ExecutiveMeddling, a RomanticPlotTumor, PanderingToTheBase with as much LOTR trilogy characters that could be possibly crammed in it, and an overabundance of CGI, some of which didn't stand the test of time that well.

* AuthorsSavingThrow: The extended cuts of the films redeemed the trilogy in the eyes of many disappointed fans. Like with ''Film/TheLordOfTheRings'', they include more scenes from the book (the Goblin Town song, the first proper meeting of Beorn) and explain certain things (the fate of Thrain which according to the second film's extended commentary was filmed when it was meant to be two movies and Kili's crush on Tauriel is foreshadowed in the extended cut for the first film). The third film's extended cut especially has received acclaim from both fans and critics for fixing a lot of problems for what was considered the weakest of the three movies, including the effects and giving the dwarves a chance to shine.

** Creator/MartinFreeman's casting and performance. Some feel he's perfect for Bilbo and personifies the put-upon {{Everyman}} character Tolkien wrote. Others feel like he's just playing [[{{Series/Sherlock}} John Watson]] again.

* ToughActToFollow: That trilogy is nowhere as universally lauded as Jackson’s own ''Film/TheLordOfTheRings'' trilogy, largely due to the {{padding}} that resulted from Warner Bros.' heavy ExecutiveMeddling, a RomanticPlotTumor, PanderingToTheBase with as much LOTR trilogy characters that could be possibly crammed in it, and an overabundance of CGI, some of which didn't stand the test of time that well.

* ToughActToFollow: That trilogy is nowhere as universally lauded as Jackson’s own ''Film/TheLordOfTheRings'' trilogy, largely due to the {{padding}} that resulted from Warner Bros.' heavy ExecutiveMeddling, PanderingToTheBase, and an overabundance of CGI.

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* CompleteMonster: [[GeniusBruiser Azog the Defiler]], [[TheHeavy leader]] of the [[OurOrcsAreDifferent orcs]], pledged to wipe out the line of Durin even though they had done nothing to him. In the ensuing battle, Azog murdered King Thror and [[OffWithHisHead beheaded]] him, and then [[{{Fingore}} severed Thrain's finger]] and took him to Dol Guldur to torture. When Thorin Oakenshield [[AnArmAndALeg cut off his arm]], Azog vowed to gain revenge on the Dwarf by any means necessary, putting a bounty on his head, and when Azog finally corners him, he lies about killing his father to goad Thorin into attacking him. Upon taking command of Sauron's armies, Azog decides to target innocent civilians in order to distract his enemies and gain the advantage. When Thorin rides to his command center to kill him, Azog has [[spoiler:Thorin's nephew Fili brought to him and then kills him in front of Thorin]], taking sadistic glee in the moment.

* CompleteMonster: [[GeniusBruiser Azog]] the [[NamesToRunAwayFrom Defiler]] is the [[OurOrcsAreDifferent Orc leader]] and [[TheHeavy the chief antagonist]] for much of the trilogy. A {{sadist}} even by the standards of the Orcs, Azog pledged to wipe out the line of Durin even though they had done nothing to him. In the battle, Azog murdered King Thror and [[OffWithHisHead beheaded him]], and then [[{{Fingore}} severed Thrain's finger]] and took him to Dol Guldur to torture him. When Thorin Oakenshield [[AnArmAndALeg cut off his arm]], Azog vowed to gain revenge on the Dwarf by any means necessary, putting a bounty on his head. When one of his lieutenants fails to kill the Dwarves, Azog angrily [[YouHaveFailedMe murders him in a rage]]. After cornering Thorin, he gloats to Thorin that he killed his father, which Azog knew was false, to goad him into attacking him. Upon taking command of the Necromancer's armies, Azog decides to use a sadistic version of divide and conquer and sends his soldiers into the ruined city of Dale, knowing that the Allies will split their forces to protect the women and children, choosing to order the deaths of helpless civilians to gain the advantage. When Thorin rides to his command center to kill him, Azog has [[spoiler:Thorin's nephew Fili brought to him and then kills him in front of Thorin]], taking sadistic glee in the moment. Upon [[spoiler:mortally wounding Thorin, Azog took immense glee in his rival's immediate death]]. A sadistic BloodKnight who will happily kill anyone for his own amusement, and very willing to resort to RevengeByProxy, Azog is an Orc who acts mostly independently and therefore shows that an Orc can be evil on their own decision with no goading from a superior.

* MisBlamed: A lot of people, especially on Website/YouTube, think all the changes or problems with the movie were all Jackson's fault. While the decision to shoot it on 48 frames per second and the over-reliance on CGI ''were'' Jackson, as noted in the TroubledProduction section, most of the problems were the studios.

* MisBlamed: A lot of people, especially on Website/YouTube, think all the changes or problems with the movie were all Jackson's fault. While the decision to shoot it on 48 frames per second and the over-reliance on CGI ''were'' Jackson, as noted in the ExecutiveMeddling section, most of the problems were the studios.

* ArcFatigue: One of the biggest complaints about these movies is that they're a trilogy instead of a duology as Jackson originally intended, as a collaboration with Creator/GuillermoDelToro (or even just a single film like [[WesternAnimation/TheHobbit the cartoon]]), and that ''eight whole hours'' are dedicated to adapting Tolkien's shortest story. The big issues are the claims that several scenes go on for too long, that several subplots could be cut without causing the film itself to suffer from a narrative standpoint, and that Peter Jackson needed a better editor for the films. Unfortunately, this can be traced back to ExecutiveMeddling, as evidenced in the trivia section. However, many fans have also embraced the trilogy format, enjoying the expansions to the original tale and feeling it allows the rather fast-paced story in the book to breathe a lot more.

** Smaug, courtesy of Creator/BenedictCumberbatch. Also, the fact that he's a [[IncrediblyLamePun dragon with leather-like skin]].

* BetterOnDVD: Just like ''Film/TheLordOfTheRings'' and even ''Film/HarryPotter'', the films make more sense and flow better when viewed in marathon form, especially with the extended cuts, which have been acclaimed by both and critics and are considered a great improvement over the theatrical cuts.

* AuthorsSavingThrow: The extended cuts of the films, like with ''Film/TheLordOfTheRings'', are this as they include more scenes from the book (the Goblin Town song, the first proper meeting of Beorn) and explain certain things (the fate of Thrain which according to the second film's extended commentary was filmed when it was meant to be two movies and Kili's crush on Tauriel is foreshadowed in the extended cut for the first film). The third film's extended cut has received acclaim from both fans and critics for fixing a lot of the film's problems, including the effects, and giving the dwarves a chance to shine.

* BetterOnDVD: Just like ''Film/TheLordOfTheRings'' and even ''Film/HarryPotter'', the films make more sense and flow better when viewed in marathon form, especially with the extended cuts, which have been acclaimed by fans and critics and are considered a great improvement over the theatrical cuts.

* VindicatedByHistory: While the films are still rather divisive, general fan opinion of them has improved quite a bit overtime. [[BetterOnDVD Especially after the extended editions got released.]]

* BrokenBase: The trilogy is considered to be the ''Franchise/StarWars'' prequels of the new decade (that was, at least, until the ''Star Wars'' sequel came along). Much like those films, there is a split fanbase:

* BrokenBase: The trilogy is considered to be the ''Film/StarWars'' prequels of the new decade (that was, at least, until the ''Star Wars'' sequel came along). Much like those films, there is a split fanbase: