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Sunday, January 26, 2014

The Hobbit - The Movie

I didn't race out to the cinema when The Hobbit was first released.  In fact, I waited a full year, and watched it on DVD.  This was not because I'd read bad reviews, in fact I don't think I read any.  Nor was it lack of interest.  I loved the book when I was a child, and enjoyed all of the Lord of the Rings films as well. I'm not normally one of those people who wants to book to make an exact picture image in my head either.

However, there was something suspicious about them splitting what was a rollicking tale of some 95,000 words into more than one movie. It didn't feel like a decisions born of a desire to do the book justice (as would have been the case with the TV series they should have made out of the recently released Ender's Game), but felt as if the project had been taken over by either accountants wanting to squeeze every last cent out of the franchise, or nerdy Tolkien types who weren't ready to let go of Middle Earth yet and who knew they would never get the opportunity to make anything from the Simarillion. Or perhaps both.