8 Fan Theories That Totally Change Your Favourite Movies

8. It's All Told By An Unreliable Narrator - The Hobbit Trilogy

Warner Bros. Pictures

Even The Hobbit's staunchest defenders wouldn't hazard that the new prequel trilogy in any way comes close to The Lord Of The Rings. Hampered by a myriad of problems, all stemming from a ridiculous decision to make the slight tome into an epic trilogy, there just isn't the same passion lurking behind these corporate exercises. Although if you really want to redeem the unnecessary journey slightly, here's a fan theory that (almost) gives it an air of inspired creativity.

Unlike The Lord Of The Rings, which is presented as a series of real events only retroactively written down by Frodo, The Hobbit is told by an old Bilbo looking back on events. And, when you consider that heis a hobbit who's recounting events from sixty years ago, many of which he was only passively involved in, all the while under the corruption of the One Ring, it'sclear he's a pretty unreliable narrator.

Suddenly the over-the-top action sequences, plot-hole heavy narrative divergences (why is Gandalf surprised Sauron is around in Fellowship when he met him in The Desolation Of Smaug) and unrealistic sheen to the whole thing are less Peter Jackson going so far up his own Hobbit hole that it's as dark as Moriaand more Bilbo embellishing events from an incredibly skewed viewpoint. It doesn't make the films objectively better, but it allows some of their more egregious moments to be a little more excusable.

Contributor
Contributor

Film Editor (2014-2016). Loves The Usual Suspects. Hates Transformers 2. Everything else lies somewhere in the middle. Once met the Chuckle Brothers.