In anticipation of the movie opening on December 14 (at midnight, so really, for those of us crazy to attend, that would be the night of December 13 … anyway), I decided to re-read The Hobbit this weekend. And sadly, I have to say, I didn’t enjoy it as much as I did the first time, some 30 years ago. Not that it was horrible or anything just that it wasn’t the be-all-end-all. Maybe three or four stars top. It’s so much shorter than Lord of the Rings (LOTR) and filled with much more narrative than I remember, that it was really like listening to a kindly old man tell a story than reading a fast-paced adventure. Plus, I was a bit disappointed in the lack of Appendix. I guess I had really hoped that there would be some narrative as to what was added after the original publication to sync it up with LOTR but nothing was offered.
All that said, if you’re a fan, of course you should read it. Now, I’m really curious as to how they will extend this to three movies. The breakpoints are there but I have to imagine they will need to add a lot of material. We will see.
