My Issue With The Hobbit Trilogy's Lighting

Added: 2026-06-03

[00:00:00]I've also been watching The Hobbit recently for fun and I realized a big problem with The Hobbit. I actually quite like the Hobbit films. I want to clarify. I'm not a Hobbit hater, but I realized a big problem with the Hobbit films and I thought that might be quite interesting to talk about. In fact, let's talk about that. I'm going to show you what I mean by the issue I have with the Hobbit films, which has probably been talked about a thousand times, but I was realizing it when I was watching it, why it's different to the Lord of the Rings, and it's not just a CGI thing. I just want to show you. Right.

[00:00:28]Didn't Yeah. Higher frame rate is a big part, but also look at the lighting, right? If you compare the lighting, if you watch like Lord of the Rings, I'm just going to use like a shia comparison scene here, right? Yeah. Look at the kind of way it looks. That looks very real. The focus is great. It looks very realistic, right? When you watch this, the motion blur, the quality, I mean, this is slightly dipped. I think normally it's this is slightly lower than the quality we get if you actually watch it. It looks Look at that. Look at Gandalf there. Then compare it to this.

[00:00:57]It looks very bright, almost too vibrant, too sharp as well. Very sharp.

[00:01:04]Like everything looks kind of like it's got this sort of softness to it, right?

[00:01:09]If you compare them, right, the Shire has got this slight yellow hue to it, but look at that. It looks quite sort of realistic, the smoke and everything, the perspective, you know, and then you compare it with this, it looks very high fidelity, of course, but also I've noticed that the Hobbit has this constant backlight. It has this kind of backlight that comes in. So, you can see it there a bit. Looks Yeah, very filtered. Yeah, it's digital. It's digital. I think they maybe used film in the original. Um, so if you watch, you can kind of see it has like this. By the way, yet again clarifying, I really actually quite like the Hobbit films. I I know that they're not they've got loads of issues, but I I still like them. I really do. Um I just think if you compare look at it, it just looks so kind of like soft, right? And so kind of like [gasps] it's it just looks I don't know if you compare it directly, you can see immediately, right? Like just just the difference. I mean, this is a pretty terrible like video [music] I found to be completely honest. Even it still looks good, but it's not okay.

[00:02:12]Lord of the Rings best scenes. Maybe this will actually have some good scenes in here. So you can see where's a good example.

[00:02:22]I think this is a good example of like lighting 70%. Yeah, me too. Me too. I think most of it is pretty good. But look at this kind of like fidelity on the characters.

[00:02:33]If I go to like a darker scene in let's say The Hobbit. Let's go with the Battle of Moria. This is dark, right? It looks cool. still looks cool, don't get me wrong, but like granted that is literally nighttime.

[00:02:49]This is kind of daytime, I guess, but sort of slightly more I don't know, they use lighting really well. I feel like The Hobbit, the lighting looks very similar everywhere. Like you go from Rivendell to the Shire to like just going out on the road, it all looks like that kind of warm soft filter on everything. Whereas you have like this really kind of dark almost almost sort of grim scene with Frodo and Sam, right?

[00:03:12]But then you have this really clear shifting comparison. I don't think there's one of Riendell on here frustratingly, but you know, I mean, you could even look at like uh you know, this is a great scene, isn't it? You can see the kind of God, the quality is so bad on some of [music] these videos. Uh but okay, even with the quality, you can kind of see the uh the realness of it.

[00:03:36]Yeah, the color Exactly. The color tone is just perfect. It looks real. It looks like it looks like it's actually happening. Whereas if you then watch something like this, it just looks all sort of almost animated, you know? It's so soft. All the colors very very soft, very clean almost. It's not It's not bad by any means, but even here, right, the CGI Azok, right? It just yet again, it looks like a sound stage. It looks like very CGI.

[00:04:02]Um I I'm not I'm not a great film critique, I'm going to be honest. But I'm just I was noticing it while I was watching. I was like cuz I'd watched a bit of Lord of the Rings and then watched The Hobbit and felt like I could that was what spoke to me. It's the stylistic sort of filming. It's the camera angles. It's the It's the That's It looks cool. It still looks cool. Yeah. It's saturated.

[00:04:22]Exactly. Saturated.

[00:04:24]It has a kind of soft sort of almost pudgy look to it.

[00:04:29]That that's what I find. It's still cool. Yet again, this is a great great scene right here. But you compare something like that to something like this, which is yet again a little bit low quality, annoyingly enough, but it just looks very grounded and real. It doesn't look soft on the edges. It looks like there's just guys actually on a rock going and doing some stuff, right?

[00:04:50]Um the original color grading. Oh, okay.

[00:04:53]So, they messed with the Oh, really? in the the new 4K release of it. That's slightly annoying cuz this is just great. All the the colors pop out in a good way. It still pops out, but it's not like this level of kind of this looks almost like It's cool. It's still cool. It's like It's like a legend, isn't it? As opposed to like a sort of this as well. It feels like I'm in some sort of story book as opposed to like in the world in the same way. That's what I've always felt when I was watching this. Um like look at this. I mean, this is slightly different, but with the red sky coming, you know, it's sort of reflecting off him.

[00:05:33]It just has a very partic and then look, the grading has changed slightly again as it's gotten earlier in the morning.

[00:05:39]Um, I believe earlier, isn't it? Just the the realistic look of it. It looks so dirty and you can see the hair and it it doesn't look like this sort of light source is coming out the back somewhere, which I've noticed so much in The Hobbit. I think the most like not egregious, but the one that I I really keep thinking of is the um it's the one where they go to Murkwood. Uh it's like it's meant to be this kind of dark dingy forest, but I find a lot of it has this lighting coming in and I it looks so soft and sort of um Yeah, the Exactly.

[00:06:11]Like look at this. It's not bad. Again, it's still it's not It looks objectively still pretty cool, but like look at it looks so soft, right? Everything looks so soft.

[00:06:23]Like look at like this is still cool but it looks like soft.

[00:06:28]That's what I felt. There's something about the way that it's shot. Yeah.

[00:06:31]Again, this is really cool. It's still cool, but that CGI, right? Obviously, which is fine. But um it just looks everything is soft. That's my main thing I was thinking. The Hobbit is very soft looking. But again, you could argue it kind of works for The Hobbit, right?

[00:06:47]Because it's meant to be this more fun, exciting book, whatever. compared to Lord of the Rings, but it it it doesn't necessarily, you know, if you're trying to make it seem as if it's part of the look at the kind of lighting coming in here as well, even like on his face there, that kind of lighting, it's not as scary or as like you look at Sheilob's lair. A great comparison for that scene would be Sheilob's lair, right? Um Oops. Lair.

[00:07:16]Sheilob's lair. Like if we find something in Sheilob's lair that hopefully is not incredibly low quality, Loth Lauren is maybe the most. Yeah, exactly. Exactly. And Riendell. Riendell has this kind of almost hobbity softness to it, but it works really well with the contrast, right? When they're out in the wilds to Riendell, it's like wo, you know, and then they go to Lur and it's like, wo, you know, it sort of has this impact with the way they do the lighting. Whereas I find that in The Hobbit, almost all of it seems to have this softness to [music] it throughout anywhere you go. Um, even Lake Town, it all looks like the, you know, it's like, it reminds me of, funnily enough, like the Unreal Engine 5 or something, you know, where it looks like, wow, this is really high fidelity, but it all looks kind of similar, you know, in some places. [music] Uh, at least I don't know, maybe I'm talking up my ass here, but I really feel that way. [music] Um, like all of it just has this kind of even in the woodland realm, right? Which I love the woodland realm. Yeah. Yeah. In the bridge. It's great. It's great. I mean, but just to look at the sheilob thing.

[00:08:18]Like look at this. Look at the kind of It just looks very realistic. There is a light. Of course, there's light here, but it's so it's kind of very spotlighty. It's not just hitting every single person like lighting up their faces, etc. in such a clear in such a clear way. It looks dirty. It looks kind of like grainy slightly, which I think adds a lot to it. I mean, this is a quite grainy footage as well, I should clarify. But, um, look at that in the back. Look at the reveal of Sheila.

[00:08:49]That's his light source that he's using to keep himself in the light. And look at the way it hits. And it just it has such a cool look to it. Whereas this is cool, but it's so kind of clean and poofy, right? But it's still really cool. It's just a different style. And that's why I think it can feel like when you go from this to Lord of the Rings, it feels very very different. Um, just very clean. It could be the fact it's far more HD as well. I mean, I am looking at quite HD clips, but it's still cool. It's still cool. It just feels more like a story book. Yeah, Aragon on the bridge. Um, like that's a great example. Apparently, I saw recently an interview there was meant to be a scene. Yeah, look at this.

[00:09:33]Even look at the blues. Look at how well this is done. The nighttime in Rivendell. Isn't it just sort of like it looks slight this is this looks more like sort of Elvisy. And you know, you compare this to like scenes in the Shire or scenes in the um in the the wilds, I should say. And it just looks more elfy, more sort of like ethereal, right?

[00:09:54]They've done it so well with the lighting. These are things I don't think I fully appreciated till I I was watching The Hobbit and I felt like there's these contrasts and I think the contrasts are what really create the feeling. Like I want to sort of almost open a couple scenes at once and compare it. So if see the lighting here, they kind of messed it up a bit. It looks a bit weird.

[00:10:16]It's not bad, but it seems very different. But even then, even with the lighting being made slightly weirder in the 4K version, it still looks good. I'd say it's it's not purely yellow. I guess it's kind of greeny now. It's a bit darker. Yeah, it's it's slightly weirder than it was in the original, but it's still not bad. [music] It looks good. I'd say it still looks good. It still looks It's the filming.

[00:10:40]It's something about Look at the hat with the fuzzy little bits on it and stuff. Like I'm I'm sure that would be slightly different in this one. Look.

[00:10:47]Yeah. It just looks so clean.

[00:10:50]Everything looks so clean, you know? You can sort of see, right?

[00:10:56]Oh, look. It's all right, dude. Look away. Look away. Hey, Vera as well. The lighting is so pale when you're in Gondor. Yeah, exactly. They play with it so well, you know, and yet again, Hobbit's still good. Hobbit's great. I'm not against it. I just think that you can see those differences. I want to find Yeah, look, when they go home or concerning hobbits. Okay, this is probably a great one to use.

[00:11:21]So, yeah, look at that. Look at the Shire there. Look at that kind of lighting. And if you compare, do they go into Bilbo's house here? I believe he does.

[00:11:30]Look. So, this looks kind of like clean.

[00:11:32]It still looks cool, but it's very clean, right? You compare that to something like this, right? It's it's the homeliness of it.

[00:11:44]It's the smoke coming up there, you know? It's it's got something about it.

[00:11:49]It's just cleaner. Everything about it is a little bit cleaner, a little bit more poofy.

[00:11:54]It's It's less sort of like real. I mean, this is cool. The lighting [music] here is cool, don't get me wrong. It's just cleaner, isn't it? Everything is cleaner. Whereas here, it's sort of like it feels so sort of gritty.

[00:12:09]I don't know. And that's what maybe adds to the realism of Lord of the Rings. I also think, of course, the CGI. I also think the way that The Hobbit used CGI compared [music] to Lord of the Rings.

[00:12:20]Yeah. Outside of Fangon. Yeah. Mary and Pippen. Outside of Fanggon and then within it's just very blue. Yeah. It changes and you're like, "Wo, look at the difference." You know? I think that of course they changed the lighting in The Hobbit. I think it's also the type of cameras they used. [music] And I I think it's the use of CGI has seemingly a different philosophy. Like the Lord of the Rings actually did use a lot of CGI, but it was always sort of built around very real things, right? Like when you have the kind of big battles and that they've sort of enhanced the armies a bit with CGI, the front lines are generally still real people and that's what your eye is drawn to. Whereas I think in The Hobbit, you're it's just CGI. So you're just drawn to the CGI and you're like, "Oh, that's CGI." You know, if you surround them with a couple other things, it's it's different, right? And I think that's a that's a big part of it. That's a big part of it that I've been feeling when I was re-watching it recently. Still good, don't get me wrong. Wanted to ride that 3D train.

[00:13:14]Yeah, the bizarre the frame rate thing.

[00:13:17]Yeah, it was all filmed with 3D cameras, wasn't it? Which has this like extra layer of removal and very big, heavy cameras. So, it would be like glass and then another layer, right? And it has this kind of odd also the the GoPro footage with the barrel that that also it feels like a video game. That barrel scene. I was watching that today and it does feel like a video game when the the barrel rolls across all the bridge. It hits all the orcs, legal is jumping on their heads, firing arrows, you know, it's it's not yet again, it's still good. It's just when you compare it with the Lord of the Rings, it feels a little bit more like childish is not the word, but whimsical, which is still it's still good though. It's just very different.

[00:13:55]That's the only thing. I I like The Hobbit generally. I really do. I just think it's Yeah. I I one thing I always disagreed with that was that they ended the second Hobbit film with Smal going to Lake Town and then they begin the third one with him basically dying in about 20 like 10 minutes 20 minutes, right? And I feel like it just ruins the the buildup of the second one. I think it should have ended when Bard hits Smal and he goes down. Imagine if that's where it ends and then it starts with, you know, the reconstruction, all that.

[00:14:28]I think I get why they did it because they wanted to build it up for the next one. But I think having it end when Smal is down and then you know Bilbo on the uh mountain in Arabore, you know, looking out and saying they've taken down Smal, you know, and then he running back and as he's going back it sort of pans up or something. I think that would have made far more sense like than just having it cut as Smog's going to town and then having to wait years. It It's okay now because we can watch them like one after another, right? But I feel like that was like a slight miscalculation with the buildup. I feel like because you already have the buildup later on with the battle of the five [music] armies right at the end. Um the only action stuff that I really like the hobbit Oh, smal is great. Yeah, smog is perfect. Almost everything about smog [music] to be honest. I really love the scenes with Bayon. Like Bayon, if I'm spelling it right, The Hobbit Bayon has I watched that today and I was just loving [music] it. Uh it's when they're Do when do they go into that? It's when they're eating in his house.

[00:15:31]Do they eat in his house? Where is the one where they eating in his house?

[00:15:35]This one. This one kind of. This is close enough. Sure. Look at that. I loved it. I love it when he's pouring the milk for them. It made me want to go and get a big glass of milk. [music] Um where's the bit where he pours the milk for them? And he also looks awesome. Bon [music] is awesome. And I was reading the Lord of the Rings, well rereading the Lord of the Rings recently [music] and they talk about Bayon in the council Elron which I completely forgot. talk about the fact that Bayon that so on the way to Dale there's like a pass that would have been completely overtaken but Bon and the other skin changers are guarding it and they charge tolls to go through and then there's discussions about why they wanted to go and take back Moria and then Barin went and it was like 30 years before and they haven't heard from him and they're trying to work out what's going so all of them had different reasons and then it's it's actually quite interesting in the book how they describe a lot of it this scene is great too it's so sort of Homely. The feeling is so homely.

[00:16:33]I I I think this is possibly not in the original film. This might be an extended edition, I believe. Possibly. I could be wrong, but I feel like it might not have been sending all the dwarves out. I think they're great. I like that they use prosthetics for all the dwarves. I think the council is so Oh, it's pretty long. I I'm actually enjoying it, though. It's one of my favorite chapters so far. like when when I've been I kind of I like the Tom Bombadil stuff, but I find that that does slightly drag in some areas.

[00:17:03]Um I Yeah, it's good. I love the Balon stuff. Bon's great. You know, my take it should have been two movies. The first arriving in Lake Town is the ending or arriving at the Yeah, that could have been good. Arriving there about to try and get maybe Lake Town and then right, we're going to head to the mountain.

[00:17:20]Then you have the mountain. I think that would have been far better. I mean, I think Peter Jackson was slightly pressured, but also he could have [music] probably put his foot down and said no. At the end of the day though, I think all three films are pretty good.

[00:17:31]You know, they're not they don't do anything like horribly egregious, right?

[00:17:34]My opinion at least. Um, [clears throat] yeah, you get so much exposition at the council. They explain everything, right?

[00:17:42]I like Gloin being Gimly's dad. He's also in the book, right, at the council and he [music] talks to Frodo and I love I love that. I really love that. And I love that actually if you think about in the Hobbit it's all about how dwarves kind of not all about but a lot of it is dwarves kind of have massive distrust of elves and working with them and they slightly resolve toward the end. [music] Um no I was talking about this today. So I was chatting to my brother and I said exactly the same thing. I said I think legal actually makes sense being in the woodland realm. The debate comes in him you know fighting with all the orcs and stuff. You could you could debate and also the fact that he's clearly older than he was in Lord of the Rings. um that there's some little things, but still it's not a major thing. Toriel, yeah, Toriel could work. I think the love triangle, yeah, I agree. I think having a dwarf and an elf like falling in love and stuff is just slightly odd in in the context of it all um and what's going on. I also feel like Azok was unnecessary. I feel like they should have stuck with Bulg and just just gone with that. I feel like it's it seems like an unnecess I get that they wanted to build up this enemy that's been going on and killed his grandfather and everything, but I I feel like it just is unnecessary. Yeah, just use bog.

[00:18:55]Exactly. And also, they should have used the um prosthetics, especially for the main characters. I think my philosophy as I if I'm making a film with CGI is if you can avoid using it for main characters too much or if you're going to use it for main characters, it's got to be pretty godamn perfect, which is what they did with Gollum and, you know, characters like Davy Jones. Um otherwise, you're going to have to put an awful lot of work into making it look like crisp, you know? Yeah. And there are some and the problem with a lot of the practical orcs in the Hobbit is they're sort of they got they're so they're near CGI things too much that it kind of takes you out of it. Right.

[00:19:35]Yeah. Practical effects as much as possible does it is good. And I think the way the Lord of the Rings used it was very clever. [music] It just didn't it didn't overdo it. I've got to admit Gollum looks better in The Hobbit. It definitely definitely looks better. And I feel like the CGI on Gollum was excellent. Um, [music] the guy that thunder kills has those weird CG eyes. Oh, um, is that you mean the the orc they capture in Desolation of Smog and they cut off his head? It is a bit odd.

[00:20:05]Um, it is a little bit odd. I mean, I think Yeah, Gollum looks amazing in The Hobbit. Like, absolutely amazing.

[00:20:11]Like, this is realistic to me. When I was watching it, I was like, "Oh, Gollum looks real." Like really real.

[00:20:18]like it doesn't look jarring to me in the same way as like Azok looks a little bit jarring and the uh Goblin King and stuff like that. He looks like he could really fit. And I think it's because they said they based he is he is amazing how he looks. Like they said Peter Jackson said relatively recently in this interview um I mean a few years ago, but Andy Circus was looking at the Gollum sculpture he has. And he said something like, "Well, we actually had to change the original Golem design to match your face for the animators because then we could make the uh we we could match the animations more closely of the amazing performance you're doing." And I was like, I bet they didn't do that with Bulg. And I bet they didn't do not Bulg well I guess Bulg as well, but um with Azok or the Goblin King and stuff. I feel like that was just animators, right? I feel like if you have and I think the same with Davy Jones, right?

[00:21:10]They used I've forgotten his name.

[00:21:11]Really good actor, the guy that plays David Jones. They used his kind of face like his eyes. The eyes I think they say it's the gateway to the soul, right?

[00:21:19]They used his eyes and the way he's looking and doing things as a as a map for the CGI. And I feel like with humanoid characters especially, it it's a really good thing to do because you get the the details that I imagine animators would just struggle to get that level of fidelity, which is what's really good about Gollum because you can see Andy Circus' face basically if it come there.

[00:21:46]And I think that that's a big part of it.

[00:21:49]It almost like even if the CGI on the body wasn't that great, if the face is so good, I think your that's where your eyes are drawn to, you know, more than anything else. Like maybe if I just watch Gollum's body, which I rarely do compared to his face, right? He Where's the scene where you can see him walking around with his body? If I'm just watching here and his legs, it might seem a little bit weird. I mean, the hand looks great, too, to be fair. I love that scene of him looking at this poor head creature's eyes and being Yeah, exactly. When when he doesn't cut him, he doesn't kill him. And I always think of that line as well when he says um um it's something about courage maybe courage courage is not knowing when to take a life but knowing when to spare one something like that.

[00:22:37]And maybe the mercy of Bilbo will rule us all and it ultimately does right.

[00:22:41]Gandalf's arrival at the battle. This is a great example of like look at that. It just you can see the kind of realism of it. I don't know what it is. It's the way it was filmed. It's the quality of it all. This is a great one cuz this is actually like high quality.

[00:22:57]This the light coming in. The the rock even it doesn't look like it's hard to explain how why it looks so it just has the the visual style of it.

[00:23:09]The colors are kind of muted a little bit now, but they're getting lighter and lighter, right?

[00:23:16]You can tell that's real, that it's not CG.

[00:23:20]The way they're moving all of this, that's CG. Obviously, that's CG. You can tell that's CG here.

[00:23:29]But again, it's it's not bad because you have the mix of the practical, right? So even here, practical, practical. This is practical. This is all practical, practical, practical.

[00:23:42]Right? This is a little bit CG. This is I don't know if the horse going up is actually CG or not. It's very hard to tell, but practical. All this is practical. That's CG, but it's far away.

[00:23:54]It's really far away. It's not in your face, right? That's real. The horses coming up is real. Real again. Shots.

[00:24:01]Real shots. Real people. Well, that's possibly CG there in the back. I can feel that. But it's because of what the main focus is, right? This is CG a bit, but again, it's not it's not bad cuz of they're mixing it with so much practical. This is practical practical.

[00:24:18]This is probably more CG, but it's far away. It's really far away as well. And when you're going close up a lot of the time, proper closeup, it's uh yeah, this this is likely real. This spears, this is real. that shot, I imagine. So, you mix it. You mix it. He is probably real, maybe, but the sunlight is doing a lot though. Um, oh, there you go. A bit of an ad there.

[00:24:44]Anyway, that's the point. I love Dana's character, but it's uncanny. Yeah. Yeah.

[00:24:48]Exactly. Exactly. Yeah. The uncanny Billy Connelly face is um is is weird.

[00:24:54]You can tell it's not real when you look at Yeah, there he is. And that yet again that kind of soft lighting. All of it is so soft. Soft. It all the lighting is like the same to me.

[00:25:08]Very soft looking.

[00:25:11]Um but yet again, it's not bad. I still like The Hobbit.

[00:25:14]Look. There you go. This is the best.

[00:25:16]Yeah. Cuz he's not put on prosthetics, right? Yeah.

[00:25:21]Airbrushed and just Yeah.

[00:25:24][cough] [clears throat] The elves are also all CGI. You can just tell they all have the identical face.

[00:25:33]You can just feel compared to Lord of the Rings. Look at that when they're charging down as well. It's again I'm I feel like I'm just criticizing the Hobbit. I still love the Hobbit, but you can tell it's CG and this thing as well, which I didn't have a big problem with this, but I would just say just keep firing them. Just Just don't even bring people fire those. I mean, they're crazy.

[00:25:55]That's CG2.

[00:25:57]It's just different. It's different in that level. And I I still really like um The Hobbit.