Thoughts occasioned by the watching of the trailer for the second The Hobbit film

You’d think I’d be happy that they aren’t trying to shoehorn a novel into a single feature film. The feature film is more akin to the novella than a novel. Typically, too much has to be cut from a novel in the adaption to film to do the novel justice.

But, I’m seeing so little of the book in this trailer. Shouldn’t three movies mean we get more of the book rather than less?

It does look like a fun film.

They do draw on Tolkien’s work beyond the novel, but there is still a lot that doesn’t seem to be from Tolkien at all.

In truth, I don’t think “intellectual property” should be considered so sacred. Anyone should be able to make their own adaption of The Hobbit, or even their own “loosely inspired by The Hobbit” film.

Look at The wizard of Oz. It is a great film despite departing so far from the book.

If we are going to have this “intellectual property” silliness, though, shouldn’t the people with exclusive rights actually honor the property?

What do you call the reverse of plagiarism? Claiming your own work as someone else’s.

Couldn’t this be done more honestly. Like how most films adapted from Philip K. Dick stories have different titles. Or how Oz the great and powerful didn’t borrow the name of any of the books.

I hope someone does a “phantom edit” of this once the trilogy is complete.

I also hope someone edits the remaining footage into a movie that isn’t pretending to be The Hobbit.