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What Can We Expect From the Upcoming Movies?

© Michael Martinez

Well, this is a topic that will come up again and again as P-day (Premier Day -- or maybe Peter Jackson Day) approaches. Let's put aside all the media hype right now and concentrate on the real hype: fannish expectations. There are three sets of fans involved in the process of hyping the movies and they are not always easy to distinguish from each other. There is so much agonizing going on, as well as celebration, that sometimes it's difficult to tell who is whom. First there are the Tolkien fans. They seem to group themselves into the Fundamentalists and the Radicals. The Fundamentalists cry "No movies!" and the Radicals yell back "Jackson forever!" Well, okay, there's a third camp between these two extremes: the Wait-an-seers. They were at one time the majority but I'm not so sure a majority exists any more. Secondly, we have the Peter Jackson fans. These folks have watched everything Jackson's made, many if not all of them know what The Lord of the Rings is and love it, and they have the same kind of undying faith in Jackson that Sam bestowed upon Frodo and Gandalf. Then there are the vast, silent masses whom the other fans all fear will somehow react in the wrong way. They won't like the movies, or they'll like them too much, or they'll miss the point completely. Personally, I think a lot of people miss the point of the story (it's about death and the search for deathlessnes, according to Tolkien), but does that diminish their enjoyment of it? I haven't seen so. Will the movies be about "death and the search for deathlessnes"? That's a pretty deep concept, but it's not necessarily a rare one in science fiction (fantasy seems to have overlooked the concept since Tolkien's day). The search for immortality, the quest to become godlike, is a theme SF writers have explored over and over again. And it is about becoming like a god. The Elves of Middle-earth (well, the Noldor of Eregion) became so arrogant and powerful they attempted to stop the flow of time so they could enjoy Middle-earth forever. And through that arrogance they unleashed a devastating series of wars which resulted in very nearly their own complete destruction and the enslavement of many tribes and nations of men. Tolkien's history reveals that three wars were fought over the Rings of Power. The first war was really inconclusive. Eregion was destroyed and the Rings of Power were lost (except for three). But the Numenoreans helped the surviving Elves destroy Sauron's armies, so he had to rebuild his empire. The second war was equally inconclusive. The Rings of Power were neither recovered nor destroyed, but Sauron was slain and his Ring was taken. Unfortunately, Isildur succumbed to the Ring's lure and deferred the final decision.

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