The Hobbit, Peter Jackson's eagerly anticipated followup/prequel to his towering Lord of the Rings pictures, doesn't come out for a year, but today we get a trailer for it anyway. Woohoo! More medieval-ish Middle Earth adventures! Except, wait a second, where's all the adventure?

What see mostly here is a lot of walking (Tolkien's books are largely about walking) and a lot of the Shire, Tolkien's tedious nod to pastoral English life. We briefly dwelled in that place in the first and last LOTR movies, but the rest of it was all gamboling excitement. So why don't we see here all the sword fighting and hordes of orcs streaming down hills, shrieking doom? Where's the truly cinematic stuff that made LOTR such sweeping amazements? Yes this is just a trailer, and a very early one at that, but to make a prequel work is a tricky thing -- we already know the ultimate outcome, after all -- and this short glimpse promises more boredom than grandeur. But, hey, we should probably trust in Peter Jackson, right? After all, this is territory he doesn't just cover well, he built it. We're wary, though.

Want to add to this story? Let us know in comments or send an email to the author at rlawson at theatlantic dot com. You can share ideas for stories on the Open Wire.
Richard Lawson