Out of any franchise out there, The Lord of the Rings is nearest and dearest to my heart. I will never forget the first time I saw The Fellowship of the Ring on opening night. I hadn’t the faintest clue what The Lord of the Rings was, but my dad, aunts, and uncles were all so excited to see it. Having just turned nine years old, the effect that it had on me completely changed the course of my life. The movie kick-started my love for the fantasy genre across books, video games, and movies. And more importantly, it ignited my passion for writing and my desire to eventually publish my own fantasy novel. My dad turned to ask me why I had tears in my eyes part of the way through the movie, and at the time, I truthfully did not know that I was just so overwhelmed in awe and admiration.
However, as we all know, the Lord of the Rings trilogy was followed by The Hobbit trilogy. The fact that they made The Hobbit into three movies was immediately concerning, and my worst fears were confirmed when I went to the theaters. To this day, I still have not seen the third Hobbit movie because of how absolutely devastated I was to witness my most beloved franchise regress into this money-hungry, drawn-out mess. Yes, The Hobbit was supposed to have a different feel from The Lord of the Rings; while The Lord of the Rings was dark and serious, The Hobbit was supposed to be whimsical and wondrous in a lighter flavor. Instead, we just got hours of unnecessary CGI and almost no focus on deeper concepts and character building.
To start, it already seems like it’s been influenced by Game of Thrones with the fact that nudity is going to be brought into the scene. Let me be clear—I have zero issue with nudity, and less issues with Game of Thrones as other people seem to have. However, the Tolkien universe has a certain feel to it, and I’m afraid that feel is going to get lost if they overdo it with too many explicit scenes.
