Bryn Pennetti
Arts, Entertainment & Technology Editor
Everybody knows the popular J.R.R. Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings trilogy, but fans of the author have recently been excited about a separate book which tells the story of how the famous trilogy came to be.
In The Hobbit, also by Tolkien, a young Bilbo Baggins (who is indeed a Hobbit) travels with a large group of dwarves to retrieve stolen treasure by the dragon Smaug. The tale is a prequel to the trilogy and features many new characters with the exception of Bilbo and Gandalf the Grey, who began and carried out the journey during The Lord of the Rings.
Senior Johnston Tucker, who is a fan of The Hobbit and other Tolkien works, commented on how The Hobbit compares to The Lord of the Rings. “You need to read The Hobbit in order to get the fullest grasp of Lord of the Rings,” he said. “I liked [The Hobbit] better, though, because it felt more classic and had a complex plot line.”
Junior Olivia Healy, however, disagreed, “I’m more interested in the darker LOTR books because the experience the characters are going through has much higher stakes and it creates a more exciting and interesting story.”
Despite contrasting opinions, all types of Tolkien fans have been eagerly waiting for the arrival of the movie. “I’ve been excited since they revealed the press release five years ago,” Johnston said.
The movie premiered on Dec. 13 at 12:01 and theaters have been filled to maximum capacity over opening weekend. After the showing, junior Natalie Borsy immediately noticed the differences between the book and movie. “The book was thrilling and a really nice fantasy, and it’s supposed to be kind of scary,” she said. “But the movie was mainly comical.”
Olivia saw a different angle and commented on the design flaws between The Hobbit and Lord of the Rings movies. “I think that the new digital designs on the orcs were kind of discontinuous from Lord of the Rings so it made it almost too unrealistic and more far fetched,” she said. “However, a lot of the scenes were really true to the book and were perfect representations.”
Overall, it seems the movie stuck to the original Tolkien story with several additions that Johnston believed benefited the plot line, “The movie was awesome and the beginning was very similar to the book, but the parts [director Peter Jackson]added in made it even better.”
