Interestingly, the added characters and the barrel scene are exactly (some of) the reasons why I don’t like the movies and IMO symptoms for why they’re bad.
Unnecessary and don’t fit well into the story, they feel tacked on and seem to be there mostly to make the movies more appealing to an action audience.
I would say my only gripe with the barrel scene is that CGI characters don’t age well and the animation seems weird these days but even the LOTR trilogy has many scenes that look bad to my eyes (lighting is weird, characters look too “clean”…)
Can’t judge that assessment but often enough I feel that I dislike the hobbit movies even more than most, so maybe we’re both not quite the mainstream.
Interestingly, the added characters and the barrel scene are exactly (some of) the reasons why I don’t like the movies and IMO symptoms for why they’re bad.
Unnecessary and don’t fit well into the story, they feel tacked on and seem to be there mostly to make the movies more appealing to an action audience.
I’ve never met anyone IRL or even online who shared my opinion, so I’d say you’re very much in the majority with that opinion.
I would say my only gripe with the barrel scene is that CGI characters don’t age well and the animation seems weird these days but even the LOTR trilogy has many scenes that look bad to my eyes (lighting is weird, characters look too “clean”…)
Can’t judge that assessment but often enough I feel that I dislike the hobbit movies even more than most, so maybe we’re both not quite the mainstream.