In the wake of the release of the latest installment of Peter Jackson’s ridiculous version of The Hobbit I gave this video interview to the Catholic news agency, Aleteia. Is Peter Jackson the reincarnation of Smaug? All will be revealed:
Is Peter Jackson Suffering from the Dragon Sickness?
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About the Author: Joseph Pearce
Joseph Pearce is a Catholic author and biographer who has written about subjects as various as GK Chesterton, economics, and Shakespeare.
According to Joseph Pearce, Peter Jackson’s Hobbit trilogy would be more aptly named: “The Desolation of Tolkien”!
Ouch, what stinger! Yet totally true and vindicated. I applaud you for you honesty!
I admit that I was put off by the first film, but after subsequent viewings I enjoyed it more, and still had some hope left that the trilogy would turn around. That is, until I saw the second film, “The Desolation of Smaug”. My goodness, that was so far off from Tolkien’s story I don’t know where to begin. It’s like Jackson is not even bothering about adapting Tolkien’s tale anymore, but rather about making HIS prequels to HIS Lord of the Rings trilogy. And that’s what the Hobbit films are, fanfiction. Your right in what you say Mr. Pearce, the success of the LOTR films got to Jackson’s head and he seems to think he was given a blank check. And he has been taking that to the bank for sure.
And that’s another problem. Jackson still no doubt thinks he is in the right, look at the fan reaction to the films….why critics didn’t think they were all that special, “Ringers” (Tolkien fans) in general, loved them. Oh sure you will still find people here and there that speak ill of the Hobbit trilogy, but in general still go gaga over them, just check around online.
Take TheOneRing.net for instance, the biggest Tolkien fan site around, most of the people there seem to love Jackson’s “adaptations” and will here nothing negative about them. I can say that, having read sites like that for years, Jackson has converted many Tolkien fans to his own cause, a lot of people seem willing to allow Jackson to butcher Middle-Earth because they prefer Jackson’s vision to that of Tolkien’s. I know how heretical this may sound, but it’s true. Tolkien is very loved, but many would delete the essence in those tales if they could, the deep magic in them, to use one of C.S. Lewis’s terms.
Tolkien was a Traditionalist to his very core. This is what Jackson is not. This is why many side with Jackson on his changes.
I’d be interested to see what Joseph Pearce thinks of my comments here, if anyone can get him a memo.
Another thing, have you seen the second film yet? Think it’s worse than the first?