Thursday, December 22, 2011
The Hobbit - like you haven't seen this already
So here we go. The trailer looks so much better than my expectations for the movie allow me to believe it to be. That's based entirely on Peter Jackson's track record of pretty much botching the LOTR movies. How so you ask? By making Gandalf look like a high strung fool, Aragorn like a reluctant king, making Elrond runaway, etc. And there's more but why bother?
Like the LOTR movies, this will look gorgeous and mostly spot on. It's a less complex book than the LOTR so maybe he won't be tempted to "improve" on Tolkien's characters. He clearly felt the need to up the action and fanboy quotient by portraying all sorts of stuff from the Unfinished Tales and LOTR appendices. Whatever.
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Actually, I think one of the key weaknesses in Tolkein's stories is the lack of character development. In that way, Jackson's movies ameliorated this issue. The movie version of Aragorn is a much more complex character than the book version, and that actually makes him more likable/approachable.
ReplyDeleteWith that said, maybe once Hollywood has exhausted the movie making potential of Tolkein, it can move on to some other fantasy authors. The market would certainly be there for an 'Elfstones' movie or perhaps for a live-action 'Dragonlance' trilogy.
Let's agree to disagree about Tolkien especially about Aragorn.
ReplyDeleteThat being said, I'd love to see PC Hodgell, Frtiz Leiber or Michael Moorcock's stuff filmed. I'd say REH's as well but the track record on that is so poor it's best it just be left alone.