The Hobbit

The Hobbit is a popular book by J.R.R.Tolkien, although it perhaps better now known in the mainstream thanks to the trilogy of movies based on the book by Peter Jackson (which seems strange since the Hobbit has been around for DECADES [since 1937 to be precise] as a book, even predating the Lord of the Rings books, while the movies are recent; the reason is that in today's culture and the current generation anything besides people and buildings that's more than twenty years old is considered historical and largely irrelevant).

A little known fact is that this is the book that started it all; 20th Century Western High Fantasy, Dungeons and Dragons, Warhammer, the works...

Tolkien originally wrote this book as a bedtime story for his children. One day, Tolkien's buddy CS Lewis (yes, THAT CS Lewis) found out about, read it and said that he should publish it. Tolkien did so and the book's growing success was part of the reason he expanded on this setting and wrote 'The Lord of the Rings' books, the codifier for every high fantasy setting that has come after.

The Plot

The story follows the tale of Bilbo Baggins (the hobbit of the title) as he joins a band of dwarves in their quest to find a legendary treasure in their ancient lost city, which their forefathers were driven out of by Smaug, a great and terrible dragon who is the terror of the lands. This journey sets off a train of events which would eventually lead to Tolkien's most famous work, the Lord of the Rings trilogy, with Bilbo finding the One Ring and returning with it to the Shire, Sauron in his guise of the Necromancer being driven out of the Mirkwood and left for his true lair in Mordor, and many of the characters in the Hobbit that would go on to be in LotR undergoing significant personal growth and changes.

The films

It was not surprising considering how popular the Lord of the Rings trilogy was that at some point the Hobbit would be made into a film. As the work on it commenced it was announced that the Hobbit would be split into a two part movie, which surprised many but they went with it. It was when it was revealed it would be a trilogy itself that cries of the fanbase rang through the air. Across the community, people complained about the film execs ignoring the book's anti-greed moral, along with jokes about the producers and the film studio execs outdoing the dwarves in terms of gold hoarding and even comparing them to the dragon.

The first movie featured an awful amount of walking and future plot building. It had a few redeemable features, such as the spot-on portrayal of Bilbo and kickass glimpses of Smaug in the prologue and epilogue.

The second movie ramped things up although it had frankly hilarious and/or stupid scenes. For the former was Orlando Bloom (Legolas) doing his best Eldar Harlequin impressions through long scenes of acrobatic juggles and jumps that just made the orcs seem utterly pathetic. There were rounds of applause for his displays in the cinemas for Emperor's sake. Later, Smaug the dragon was awesome, despite being a wyvern unlike in the book or the original release of the first movie, until the stupid kicked in when the Dwarves and Bilbo ran rings around him without dying in the process (In the book all the Dwarves were terrified of Smaug and never even entered his line of sight because "Nothing can escape Smaug once he sees it." The filmmakers also forgot/ignored how heat works).

Like with the LoR trilogy, the first two movies are building up for a nice big epic battle in the third installment.

Sadly it was shit as the third movie stank monkey balls featuring more Legolas bullshit, random giant earth worms, protagonist plot armor so thick a black arrow couldn't pierce it, even more CGI and the dwarf elf (so-called) romance going nowhere with Kili's death (which is obvious in hindsight since he dies in the book which, remember, has been out for decades before most of us were born).

However: there was another Hobbit movie made in 1977, an animated one by Rankin/Bass, and while they may have dropped the ball on return of the king, the Hobbit movie is pretty good. More faithful in a lot of ways to the original book in structure and perhaps tone. Like the original book the Rankin/Bass version is aimed more toward children and you could almost call it a musical with songs adapted from the poems within the book. Smaug is also a better in this adaption, being a lot more smug and witty then the Jackson version, even if his cat like face is a bit derpy. If you feel the more recent hobbit movies where disappointing then look into this one if you can.

Games Workshop wargame adaptation

Games Workshop has produced a new version of their Lord of the Rings miniature game, titled, to no-one's surprise, The Hobbit (Strategy Battle Game). The game however has failed to shake the very foundations of creation as was intended and for the most part is a cash-in with the very excitable teen boys who are over-bowed by the abilities of acrobatic elves (Thranduil model is faboulous) and wisecracking dwarves from the movie settings. Smaug also got an awesome model but he came with three problems; game-breakingly OP rules (a knock-down rule that works on everything except a Mumak, he can't be knocked down or moved against his will by anything and no courage tests every time he takes a wound... of which he has 20!), the model was too big for any carry case and came at a price that would make even Forgeworld blush.

Use your old models. New "evil" guys are pushovers. Game uses models from Lotr SBG but has changed rules. Monsters were buffed and can now hurl models with low strength value across enemy ranks knock them to the ground and suffer STR 5 hits. Elves seem OP but every elf fgt will cry if you take the Shadow Lord Nazgûl into your army (6's to hit, come at me bro).