It happened … again.
It’s been ages since I’ve seen any films from both Middle-earth trilogies and I’m starting to experience some side-effects from it.
Today I happened to come across the ‘Ironfoot’ track from The Battle of the Five Armies soundtrack. It brought back some strong feelings of nostalgia for The Hobbit.
Perhaps the younger, more recent, of the two trilogies was not as extraordinary as the original. I give you that.
But hey! there are still some fantastic scenes and, one has to admit, it nonetheless expands on the already vast world of Middle-earth we had already witnessed on film.
This ‘Ironfoot’ track just made me feel great and sad at the same time. It felt like the loss of something dear, not just viewing the films themselves, but experiencing the whole build-up to each release.
I missed those four years of expectation and anticipation, waiting for the vlogs to appear online or hunting down the new trailer.
I missed the rumours, speculations, discussions and opinions of other like-minded people.
Don’t get me wrong, nostalgia for The Lord of the Rings is strong and occurs to me … on a daily basis, since December 2003. But today, my mind was pretty much all over The Hobbit.
I really need to go back and watch these films – all 6 of them. I think it’s been over 8 months since my last viewing … a lifetime, basically.
*Sigh*
A Tolkienist's Perspective 
TNT has been showing all six recently. I have seen the Hobbit films many times but hadn’t seen the LOTR films since they were in the theater, so this is really the first time I’d had any opportunity to make direct comparisons. I liked the LOTR films just fine and enjoyed the cinematic experience of seeing them but that was the end of it, whereas I’d been a huge fan of the Hobbit films due to Armitage’s presence in them and have seen them dozens of times in the theater and on my computer.
Last weekend, while watching ROK right before BOTFA on TV, I found myself think that a lot of the things people say about the Hobbit films are also true of the LOTR films (long-winded, Jackson’s over-obsession with his own creations, too much detail, etc., etc.). Armitage said at some point that he thought maybe someday people would get over their annoyance with Jackson (he didn’t put it that way quite) and look at the films in a body from a different perspective. I don’t know when that will be possible, but this last few weeks I’ve been struck at really how similar they are and how well they fit together. I think the major difference for me is that BOTFA is so heavily CGI. It could really be a video game in places.
Totally agree with you on the overuse of CGI techniques in BOTFA. It was almost hard to watch sometimes. P.S. How did you come up with the name Servetus?
I named myself after the historical heretic.
Great post Servetus! I’m not sure I agree about the “too much detail” comment though. To me it’s what makes these films so believable and enjoyable, even though watching some behind the scenes features I’ve commented what a headache it much have been to go into so much detail! 😀
Oh, I totally agree. (I think I told you I would never have read the LOTR books had I not seen the films.) But I think (since it’s a common reaction to Jackson) it does really say something about the audience for the films. Right now we are still really mired in these discussions about Jackson and the merit of the adaptations, so even Tolkien fans are very split, not to mention the general moviewatchers. It may indeed be the case that more distance will do the reputation of these films some good.
Oh, and like you, I miss the atmosphere of expectation.
Hate to pimp my own blog but it’s the quickest way for me to find the link, https://kibbinscodex.wordpress.com/2015/12/30/what-is-the-hobbit-an-expected-edit/ . Last time I tried a tolkien rewatch I went with this guys version of the movie, bare in mind it’s my post but not my movie I have no connection to the guy who made this copy. It’s a trimmed down version that cuts, in my mind, a lot of the fat of the movie leaving you with a little over three hour run time. It fit in nicely between Born of Hop and Hunt for Gollum on our marathon before hitting the directors cut of LotR.
Would love to see this trimmed down version. Strangely, didn’t care for the entirety of The Hobbit films, until I started to watch the extended versions ( on Android TV box). It seemed to somehow make the entire series feel less like it had filler (even though there is still what I feel is a bit of filler–especially in BOTFA). Can’t explain it better than that. Incidentally, I am old enough to remember only having the books (Hobbit and LOTR) for several years–and find that I want to read FOTR again-always was my favourite part of LOTR books–especially where they went through the Barrow Downs and the Old Forest–feel twinges of nostalgia for it right now.
Just in case you didn’t know, Middle Earth News has been doing a 6 Week Movie Marathon. The past 3 weeks have been The Hobbit movies and this weekend starts The Lord of the Rings: http://middleearthnews.com/2017/04/12/6-week-middle-earth-movie-marathon-continues-with-the-lord-of-the-rings/
Thanks Rachelle!
Go rewatch! That’s what the weekend is for. 🙂
Massive thumbs up!
I totally understand what you mean, because it’s the same for me. After LOTR, I decided to “move on”, find other fandoms, because it was all over for me and it made me feel too bad thinking about the good old days waiting for The Return of the King…and internet wasn’t even a thing yet!
I promised to myself to not let go Tolkien again once the Hobbit movies would be over, but I did it once again. As you said, I terribly miss the expectation, the vlogs, the actors’ tweets and Facebook updates. I watched BOTFA for our movie marathon after a whole year.
Sure, I still play LOTRO on a pretty regular basis and I’m currently rereading LOTR, but it’s not the same. And, even if it’s a sad feeling, I’m happy to know there is someone else experiencing the same thing.
OMG, this comment. Perfect!
That’s what I thought about your post 🙂
I especially miss waiting for those vlogs to come out! I was so disappointed when Peter Jackson stopped releasing them midway through the trilogy – it was so fun getting glimpses of what was to come.
Agreed … and let’s not forget those still unanswered 20 questions!
i was just talking with some friends about this the other day. granted i don’t want a forced continuation or prequels to prequels (there’s enough of that out there already), but hey – sometimes we just have to love what we love and let them become immortal classics. cheers