The Hobbit Movies were good because of the extra nonsense.

Last night, my wife and I saw the final installment of The Hobbit Trilogy by Peter Jackson.  This trilogy has been met with much ridicule from moviegoers. Mainly because Mr. Jackson continued his style of "EPIC" film making he got super famous for with the Lord of the Rings trilogy, and brought it to The Hobbit.  The problem is that the Lord of the Rings spanned 3 separate novels and warranted three 3 hour long movies.  The Hobbit is based on 1 book and yet still was made into three 3 hour long movies as well.

Jackson was able to accomplish this feat by including lots of extra scenes that were not included in the book.  This is essentially what the critics of the movies had the biggest problem with.  In my opinion, the extra "nonsense" scenes is what made the movies as fun and entertaining as my wife and I found them to be.

What was great about the Lord of the Rings movies, was how strong the story was.  The Hobbit started with a great story, but by the time we got to a 3rd film, the story had burned out and we're left with fight after fight after fight.  Now don't get me wrong, these were EPIC battles, truly worth the watch on the big screen.  That's where this film was entertaining.  The first Hobbit film was great!  The story was great and familiar (having read it in High School), everything looked great, the acting was spot on, the action sequences were fantastic, and the characters were fun to watch.  The 2nd one, The Desolation of Smaug, was just as good if not better than the first movie!  We started to see more of the story fall away and more "nonsense" come in, but it was wonderful "nonsense"!  For instance, the heroes escape from the Woodland Elves via empty barrels dumped into a river that happens to flow in the perfect direction that they're headed.  During that escape, they fight off the Orcs that are trying to kill them; all while still in the barrels!  It's ridiculous and fantastic, and just so much fun.

 That's basically all the 3rd movie is, really.  The cliffhanger with the dragon, Smaug, is wrapped up within the first 20 or so minutes, and the rest of the movie is repartee and action sequences.  I can understand why people have a problem with this, because this is what happens when you make a 2.5 hour movie based on 7 pages of a novel.  I really enjoyed it, though, and if you just let yourself just sink in and get taken away, it's an thoroughly enjoyable movie.  I recommend seeing it on the big screen if you have the chance.