Fan Website Communizine has published an article comparing “The Hobbit” to “The Lord of the Rings”. The article is not matching book against book but rather movie against movie. The movie franchise Peter Jackson started in 1998-2003 is about to double in size and a lot of people are sure to ask if he has made substantial changes or improvements to his idea of Middle-earth.
Middle-earth inspires many fan questions and discussions but Peter Jackson’s Middle-earth looks very different from J.R.R. Tolkien’s Middle-earth. Hence, people wonder if he is making changes to try to please the Tolkien Estate (whom rumor has it just absolutely hates the film franchise). Some critics who have seen a preview of the first “Hobbit” movie complain that Jackson is struggling with the story.
Changing a beloved story to make a good movie is always bound to incite some protest and complaint — but the complaints this time around are that Peter didn’t make the movie interesting enough. People are complaining that he may have dragged it out with too many details.
Curiously, where “The Lord of the Rings” was concerned many critics complained that the films were too fast-paced and left out or blurred too many details. So maybe there is a Goldilocks zone somewhere in-between Peter’s accomplishments with “The Hobbit” and “The Lord of the Rings”.
All that aside, I am really looking forward to seeing “The Hobbit”. I just won’t expect it to be perfect. That would be unfair to everyone.