It Felt Thin … Like Butter Scraped Over Too Much Bread

I am an avid reader of Tolkien’s work and his friend Clive Staple Lewis. Among Tolkien’s characters my favourites have been Hobbits or Halflings; Wizards or Istaris; Thorin and Company; and even the Ringwraiths, Balrogs, Orcs, Fire Drakes and even Sauron. I am also fond Farmer Giles,Caudimordax, Garm and Chrysophylax Dives. So despite faithfully watching the adaptations od Tolkien works and capping it off by watching the last firm The Battle of the Five Armies, I must say my favourite film adaptation is The Fellowship of the Rings and everything afterwards was a slow spiral with a Balrog in the darkness of Moria.

To borrow a phrase from Tolkien the films were like one of the side effects of wearing the eponymous ring. Bilbo said, “I felt thin … like butter scrapped over too much bread”.

While I understand why the Lord of the Rings was adapted into a film trilogy. The reason for scrapping the Hobbit into too much film was probably because of monetary considerations – the Gold from the box office receipts and hubris of creating a better story out of Tolkien’s work.

And this is ironic since the Lord of the Rings and the Hobbit happen to contain cautionary message against desire for power and greed for gold. This practice of course is not isolated to Jackson’s adaptation but seen also in similar stories – The Hunger Games: scrapping the stories and making it thin.

It seems that Dragon Sickness has won.

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