WCU students and faculty excitedly awaits release of “The Hobbit”

Most of the world at one point or another has encountered the wonder that is The Lord of the Rings trilogy. If you have not seen the movies, or read the books, I would encourage you to stop reading this article this instant and invest in something so worthwhile that you will most likely be changed forever. For me, the LOTR (that’s what us nerds refer to it as) not only changed how I visualized literature and the world of storytelling, but it expanded my imagination tenfold. J.R.R. Tolkien is a mastermind of story, characterizations, and dialogue. Peter Jackson, simply as a visual translator, has made the world of Tolkien literally come alive.

If you don’t have any plans on December 14, which is approaching fast, I would persuade you to mark the release date of the new Peter Jackson flick, The Hobbit on your dwindling calendar (it’s dwindling you know, because of the end of the world and all that jazz).

The LOTR film franchise has accumulated a staggering seventeen Oscars® among the three films, and if that isn’t reason enough to see the new Hobbit movie then I not sure what else will persuade you. I just started reading The Hobbit again (for about the fifth time) just so I can pump myself up for the movie…and it’s definitely working. I so easily forget how quickly Tolkien literarily transports me to this world I suddenly care so deeply about.

I know for a fact that I’m not the only excited about the upcoming Peter Jackson release.

“I literally don’t think anyone is worried about this film,” said Ryan Grace, a senior at WCU. “Peter Jackson has proved himself three times and everyone knows how good he is with this stuff. What is there to be worried about?”

Dave Osborne, the RUF campus minister at WCU, who has read all of Tolkien’s works certainly has the movie on his ‘to do list’.

“I’ll definitely be seeing the midnight showing of The Hobbit,” said Osborne. “The Hobbit  was actually my favorite book that Tolkien wrote, and I pretty ecstatic about it.”

The only thing that Osborne said he was disappointed about was the fact the next Hobbit flick won’t be released until December 2013.

“I wish they would release them every six months,” Osborne said. “I’d even watch them if Jackson split the book up into eight movies, because I know they’d still be good.”

Kendall Edward, an English major at WCU said he is so excited about the movie release that he’s been reading everything he can about the movie online.

“I think it’s going to be completely epic,” Edwards said. “I’ve read the books more times than I can count. I don’t know anyone who isn’t excited about this movie. Even all my teachers won’t shut up about it. I actually had one teacher tell me she’s taking her young kids to the midnight showing.”

Just like the LOTR trilogy, The Hobbit trilogy will be released every December over the next two years. While that does give us something to look forward to every Christmas, I’m also very impatient. If the first movie is going to be as amazing as I anticipate I will definitely not want to wait another year to see the next one. Obviously they did it that way for a reason, so I won’t complain too much.

The bottom line is, go see the movie.