With the pending release of second film In of Peter Jackson’s Hobbit Trilogy; fans are set to be divided over his latest cinematic offering. While many are happy to have more films based upon the popular book, many were put off by his use of filming in 3D at 72 frames per second and with Jackson’s padding of the film with scenes and characters not included in the book.
The reason for such padding is greed plain and simple. If the original three books were adapted in a trilogy it seems odd that it requires three films to adapt The Hobbit. Knowing that this is likely the last outing for the denizens of Middle Earth on the big screen for the near future, the studio wants to maximize their profits and have gone from a planned two films to a trilogy.
The second film will be loaded with characters and scenes that had no basis in the book and are included to flesh out and extend the story in order to justify a third film. While I enjoyed much of the original trilogy I found that many of the films were to long and were filled with unnecessary moments that caused the films to run longer than they needed to.
While many fans are intrigued by the inclusion of such scenes and characters, others compare the changes to desecration of a story they hold sacred and are outraged over the changes. Many believe that if Jackson wanted to do more films with the added characters then there may have been ways to do original films not based on the books as stand-alone adventures or side-quels.
While I understand the desire to put their own unique stamp on a creation creative talents behind a film should be more respectful to the source material and look beyond the dollar signs and their own egos. I know Hollywood is filled with tales of writers, directors, producers and others who claim that their visions were changed or taken away from them by a studio in the form of edits and re-writes, it is vital that changes not be made just for the sake of change and to pad the coffers of a studio.
“Twilight” “Harry Potter” and “The Hunger Games” all had their final book stretched into two films to increase the revenue of a studio but for the most part, the studios opted to film the majority of the stories and did not make gigantic changes to the story and introduce large numbers of characters the way that Jackson did.
One has to wonder if Guiellermo del Toro had remained the director if we would be seeing changes that many attribute to Jackson’s ego run amuck.
