By Staff Writer: Julia Simmons
Growing up, I was a serious Harry Potter fangirl. I never had any interest in LOTR, despite my parents, siblings, friends, and teachers insisting I would enjoy the movies. I remember the media at the time pitted the two fantasy series against each other, and I had no desire to leave my Hogwarts fantasy for The Shire. Finally, at age 28, my partner convinced me to watch the original trilogy, and then the Hobbit series. These are the thoughts I had at the end of our marathon.
Following the main three LOTR movies was difficult. I found myself being annoying and asking questions, or having to stop myself from googling things as the movies progressed. They throw a lot of lore at the audience out of no where, and there are multiple storylines to follow. For someone who mainly consumes cartoons on a day-to-day basis, there was a lot going on. The Hobbit series did this better than LOTR, keeping the focus on one group with sprinkles of side quests. However, the Hobbit had the benefit of being a sequel, so the world had already been built.
One issue I had with the Hobbit was the excessive CGI. I found the movies beautiful one scene, and then awful to look at the next. I will give it the grace of the period, as many movies from the 2010’s suffered from the overuse of bad CGI. The LOTR movies are a little older, and therefore did not have this issue.
From a storytelling standpoint, I enjoyed the world and the characters were interesting. I was missing strong female characters and was disappointed that my favorite female character was not cannon- spoiler alert, Tauriel from the Hobbit was added to the movie to try and increase the number of female characters.
Both series needed a heavier editing hand in my opinion. I found myself thinking ‘why is this scene so long? Why are we still watching this fight?’ and I think that was a trend in fantasy movies in the early 2000’s. I wish this was something that had been improved on with the Hobbit, but still felt it was too long.
Overall, these are fine movies. I enjoyed them, and I am glad I can finally say I have seen them. I will not watch them again (eighteen hours? Eighteen HOURS?) but I understand the hype. Now, please excuse me while I start my yearly viewing of The Sorcerer’s Stone.