I know I’ve said before that I wasn’t really looking forward to Peter Jackson’s theatrical take of The Hobbit, but after watching these video blogs that the crew has shared thus far, maybe it’s the legendary soundtrack and imagery and all of the quaint reminders of just how absolutely amazing the Lord of the Rings movies really were when they first debuted a decade ago … I think I’m finally back on the bandwagon…
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gc6TVoYeKJU
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3OjSQulGw7U
And for what it’s worth, my main point of contention the whole time wasn’t really that they were making the movie at all, but simply that they were breaking it into two parts because I feel like that’s just becoming way too popular of a trend now, between Harry Potter and Twilight, and for me the lines are starting to blur whether it’s a true artistic need to tell as much of the original story as possible or just a blatant Hollywood cash-grab because they know that the diehard fans will wait in line to watch both parts. Admittedly, a lot of my ire is towards the Harry Potter series because I am so sick of those movies at this point – as far as I’m concerned, the last decent one was Goblet of Fire and although I did enjoy the books right up until the end, the final book came out two years ago … I’m over it!
That said, I’m kind of glad that I stumbled across these videos purely by coincidence earlier this afternoon because it reminded me why these movies might very well be different. The Lord of the Rings trilogy is referred to as my generation’s Star Wars and even looking back, it’s just cool to see how powerful those movies were – the epic battles, the terrifying chase scenes, the times when hope seems all but lost – I get chills just remembering some of those, and maybe it’s because I first read those books in the 4th grade when I was 10 years old, but it’s just an incredible story – one that defines your childhood, I guess you could say.
Of course, The Hobbit did come even before that, so maybe I’ll be pleasantly surprised come next Christmas when I have a new Tolkien tale to go explore around the holidays – who knows? I’m still a little hung up about the breaking point because whereas the Lord of the Rings had very easy points defined by each of the three books, Jackson will be forced to manufacture one this time around, but then again, maybe like most of the Pixar films have been, this is one where I just have to take a leap of faith in hopes that I’ll be miraculously surprised by the time we get to the closing credits…