JoBlo Originals's video: The Good And Bad Of The Lord Of The Rings Franchise

Flashback to the holiday season of 2001. After years of filming, the first film in Peter Jackson’s The Lord of the Rings trilogy, The Fellowship of the Ring, is due to hit theaters, and expectations are sky high. With all three films already shot and in the process of being completed, everything is riding on the first movie being a success because if it flops, New Line has got two more pricey movies they still have to finish (they were in a similar position to Disney with the Avatar films). But not only is The Fellowship of the Rings a smash hit but critics and audiences alike hail the film as a new classic. Overnight, Peter Jackson becomes one of the biggest directors in the business, and the Fellowship’s cast, which includes Viggo Mortensen, Elijah Wood, and a then-unknown Orlando Bloom, become icons overnight. Peter Jackson's The Hobbit trilogy divides fans. While many were thrilled that Jackson and collaborators Fran Walsh and Philippa Boyens returned to Middle Earth to film this adaptation of J.R.R Tolkien's book, more than a few fans felt the movies didn't live up to what had come before. Indeed, following up the Lord of the Rings trilogy would never be easy. Those films are regarded as modern classics, with the third movie, The Return of the King, even winning Best Picture and Director Academy Awards. How do you follow up a classic? Indeed, there was never really supposed to be a Hobbit trilogy, with Guillermo del Toro initially attached to turn Tolkien's tome into a 2-movie tale. Eventually, del Toro had to depart the project due to ongoing delays and Jackson, to the delight of fans, stepped in as a director, expanding the project's scope to three films. While many wondered how Tolkien's slim novel would provide enough material for three movies, Jackson said they would be taking material from the appendices Tolkien published with Return of the King. Jackson also would be shooting the films in 3D using the then-novel HFR (High Frame Rate) technical, which meant the first film, An Unexpected Journey, would be the first feature to be shown in 48 FPS. In the end, the films were all successful, but they played to diminishing returns. The film movie made over a billion dollars worldwide, and the follow-ups, The Desolation of Smaug and The Battle of the Five Armies, would gross almost as much - but not more. While some fans loved the movies, others found them padded out, with each movie running close to three hours (the extended editions are even longer) and the 48fps technique getting very mixed reviews. Wanna support us? Get your JoBlo Merch right here! https://joblo-merch.creator-spring.com/ For more MOVIE NEWS, visit: http://www.joblo.com SUBSCRIBE for more of all the LATEST JoBlo Videos here: https://goo.gl/R9U81J