10 Biggest Mistakes That Completely Ruined The Hobbit Trilogy

2. Heavy Handed The Lord Of The Rings References

Did you know The Hobbit is a prequel to The Lord Of The Rings? Well don't worry if you didn't - it's going to go out of its way to remind you. Oh look, it's Frodo in the opening. And he's going to go to go meet Gandalf - geddit, it's the start of The Fellowship Of The Ring? And here's Saruman acting all grumpy and evil despite not being evil yet. Oh, and here's Gollum being bi-poplar. And look, a cameo from Legolas that for some reason goes on for two movies - was everyone too awkward to tell Orlando Bloom he could go home? It's any wonder there's any time for Bilbo Baggins' adventures with all the shoe-horned nudging Jackson's forced into the movies. The Battle Of The Five Armies looked like it was going to avoid most of this, but come the final minutes it goes for broke. Thranduil basically looks at the camera and winks when telling Legolas to go find a ranger named Strider (duh, wonder who that could be), while ending the whole trilogy on a call-back to first film highlights just how much The Hobbit exists in The Lord Of The Rings' shadow. Putting the continuity breaking issues aside (why does Gandalf have to run off to research Sauron after seeing the One Ring in Fellowship when he's come face-to-face with him earlier?), it's just all so heavy handed - what should be geektastic moments become insufferable, eye-rolling scenes. References to the modern classics is fine, particularly given the attempts to greater tie what is traditionally a stand-alone novel into a wider plot, but done in such obvious ways reveals there's little on offer in the new trilogy beyond nostalgia.