Fan article on The Hobbit movie

The following article was written by a fan of the books:

Three years ago I was ecstatic when I learned that someone had finally endeavored to bring Tolkiens vision to the screen in a live action film. I was a little learry at first, in learning who was responsible for the task. All due respect to Mr. Jackson, but he had never even read the books! I was willing to see how he was going to go about it. I was somewhat impressed by the first installment. Even though he made some ommissions from the narrative, and tightened up the story on whole he did very well in translating Tolkien's vision to the screen. The Two Towers was another matter. The script writers, and Mr Jackson departed horribly from the narrative, more so than in the first film, and had characters saying and doing things that they never did in the books, and would be out of character for them to do. There were no Elves at Helm's deep, the Ents were absent from that particular battle, in which they, not Gandalf and the Rohirrim prove decisive in the battle. Faramir had no designs on the ring in the book, and Frodo, and Sam went willingly with him, they were never forced. I could go on and on, but my point is that Jackson and company have missed the mark on this. If what I'm hearing about the last installment is true, it's not getting much better. Saruman is ommitted, as is the scouring of the shire, and again he has characters doing things wretchedly uncharacter like! There are some things they have done well. The visuals are stunning. The casting was perfect. I think Ian McKellen as Gandalf is brillant. Gollum is dead on. Simply for those reasons I will go and see the last installment, and watch the cinematic dismemberment of a true twentieth classic continue.

I'm not the only one who feels this way about Mr. Jackson's effort. I don't know if you've been able to discern anything from all the buzz about a Hobbit movie, but I think if you read between the lines you can see that not to many people are happy with Jackson's interpretation of Tolkien's vision, and I'm not just talking about the fans. Look at Christopher Lee's reaction. He won't come out and say he isn't content, but you get the vibe. I was Christmas shopping the other day and took a look at the Hobbit video game, and it isn't part of the EA line of games, connected with the movies. It even makes the point that it is based on the literary works of J.R.R. Tolkien, and has an endorsement from the family right on the packaging! Jackson has stated publically that getting the film rights to The Hobbit has been "tricky", but he would want to do a film version of it as well for continuity purposes. Since when does that matter to him! Could it be that the powers regret hitching their wagon to him, and are reluctant to let him tamper with any more of Tolkien's vision? If he got the rights for the "trilogy", erroneously called that by Mr. Jackson, why is he having such a hard time getting the rights to The Hobbit? Note also that the family also stated support for Mr. Jackson film interpretation following only the first film, one that was fairly close to the tale, and were deafeningly silent after the release of The Two Towers.

I hope that the Hobbit is brought to the large screen. I hope for continuity purposes it does include some of the actors from the first, e.g. Elrond, Gandalf, etc. But I would not want to see Mr. Jackson helming the project. Apparently so would a lot of others.

by Tim