The Rise of the Hobbit Critic: From The Desolation of Smaug to The Battle of the Five Armies

Abstract

This chapter describes the major perspectives identified in post-viewing surveys relating to The Desolation of Smaug, conducted between January and July 2014, and The Battle of the Five Armies, conducted between January and May 2015. The chapter notes the emergence of increasingly critical and indeed polarised perspectives on the cinematic value, quality and impact of Jackson’s second and third Hobbit films. These critiques often expressed a more fundamental concern about the detrimental impact of key creative decisions that were seen to reflect underlying commercial imperatives. The chapter thus documents the crystallisation and intensification of audience ambivalence toward the processes and imperatives governing the cinematic adaptation, serialisation and blockbusterisation of Tolkien’s original novel.