Shortcomings of The Hobbit (Get it?! SHORTcomings?!)
So, I don’t know about you guys, but I’m feeling really underwhelmed about the third Hobbit movie, which I find strange. I mean, the two Hobbit films we’ve had may not have been perfect, but they were still good. I didn’t not enjoy them, and they certainly aren’t that much worse than the original Lord of the Rings Trilogy (which I loved and enjoyed endlessly). There’s just something missing. I’d like to analyze this. Feel free to join me. You don’t have to, though.
Okay, let's look at some release dates here:
The Fellowship of the Ring was released December 19th, 2001. Most people my age (and at least some younger than me) should recognize that the world was vastly different then. Facebook did not exist. MySpace did not exist. In fact, just about every website you visit on a daily basis now was probably not around in 2001, and if it was, it was nothing like it is today. Social interactions online were starting to be a thing though (through AOL Instant Messenger and social forums online), and the majority of pioneers in this area were nerds and geeks. Meanwhile, in the real world, the infamous 9/11 bombings had just taken place no more than a few months ago. The United States of America had been directly attacked, and our response was to declare war. Most Americans didn't even really know what we were at war with, but suddenly, we were at war. We needed some kind of fantastic, epic tale to get our minds off of the horrors of the world. Finally, we've got Harry Potter, which revitalized and somewhat popularized fantasy reading for all ages in 1997 (1998 if you're American). In comes Peter Jackson's live action, epic take on the first chapter of The Lord of the Rings books. It does it all right, enough passion and love to keep the fans happy with all the glamour and grandiosity that only Hollywood can bring. Even better, what is the overarching looming within this film? An unlikely hero must accomplish an impossible task to defeat an enemy that he does not understand and end a war that threatens to tear the world apart. Secretly, everyone wants to be this hero (even if not everyone wants to be “Frodo”, per say).
In comparison, The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey was released on November 28th, 2012. Nearly a decade had passed since The Return of the King. Social media had exploded, causing a fair amount of hype fatigue early on. The War on Terror (and the Iraq War, for that matter) was all but over. The Harry Potter franchise had run the fantasy genre through its paces, so nothing felt as new and exciting as it once did. And to put another nail in the coffin, “geek” culture was becoming “cool”. Suddenly, everyone’s doing it, which means the filmmakers have to “broaden the target audience”.
To top it all off, there’s the change in my perspective. Around 2001-2002, I was just starting to get into more complex stories than what children’s novels had to offer, and The Lord of the Rings welcomed me with open arms. It was this fantastic new world, filled with characters I loved to hear about and conflicts that stirred my imaginative mind in ways that had never occurred to me. So, of course, when the films came out, this was like perfection to me. My favorite stories were all popping up on my favorite medium. Let’s not forget that film adaptations of Harry Potter and Pirates of the Caribbean were also released around this time; high fantasy was doing pretty well for itself in Hollywood. Now, however, it’s been about a decade. I’ve matured as both a person and as an audience. I see what The Lord of the Rings means to the world, and I fear what muddling the franchise might do to that. I shudder when I think of people who have not seen Star Wars Episode Four because they feel like they’d have to watch Episodes One through Three first.
Now, that is not to say that The Hobbit is as bad as the Star Wars prequel trilogy. By all rights, The Hobbit has been good, but it has not been great. Case in point, we return to that speech from Sam in The Two Towers. Where is that anywhere in this new trilogy. Jackson has not once broken these new films’ breakneck pace for long enough to actually take a look at itself and say “what does this all mean?” Personally, I think you can throw out complaints about CGI and the fact that it’s a prequel. The fact of the matter is that the act of sending a message has changed. Back in 2001, even up through 2003, the media was largely responsible for creating meaningful content with ideas behind it. Now, with Facebook and Twitter enabling people to say what they want to whomever they want whenever they want (and with the birth of memes), “meaningful content” pops up about once every five seconds. There is no meaning in meaning anymore, and it has irreparably damaged what could have been a great trilogy.
Oh, and the fact that they saw fit to cut two movies into three probably didn’t help.
kianamaiart
prguitarman
baratheonpilled
discoholicmusic
gummygunk
titsay