Lord Of The Rings' 2024 Release Will Expose 1 Way Hollywood Has Declined Since Peter Jackson's Trilogy

Summary The Lord of the Rings' 2024 rerelease highlights the timeless visuals that still hold up 23 years later.

Modern VFX has not progressed much since LOTR, showcasing ongoing industry challenges and limitations.

Revisiting LOTR in theaters underscores the need for lasting changes in the VFX industry's work practices.

Peter Jackson's acclaimed high fantasy film trilogy The Lord of the Rings is receiving a theatrical rerelease in 2024 – a move that, while exciting, risks highlighting one of the major ongoing problems with modern Hollywood. 23 years after the first film's debut, The Lord of the Rings remains one of the most beloved and successful movie franchise's of all time. However, while its legacy is undoubtedly worth celebrating, aspects of all three films raise uncomfortable questions for contemporary filmmakers.

Although the three Lord of the Rings films were originally released at one-year intervals, the 2024 rerelease is taking a different approach. Over a three-day period in June 2024, select theaters will be showing the 4K remastered extended editions of the films on consecutive evenings, starting on June 8. With multiple extra scenes and over two-and-a-half hours of additional footage, the films are regarded by many as the definitive versions of Jackson's masterwork. However, while seeing the movies in the cinema is an exciting prospect for many fans, the rerelease will also lay bare an uncomfortable home truth for Hollywood.

Related How To Watch The Lord Of The Rings Movies In Order (Chronologically & By Release Date) The Hobbit explores a time period before the Lord of the Rings, meaning Peter Jackson’s movies can be watched in more than one viewing order.

Lord Of The Rings' 2024 Re-Release Will Prove How Well The Trilogy's Visuals Have Aged

Close

The Lord of the Rings has had an enduring impact on popular culture, extending long after the films originally left cinemas. All three films have now been enjoyed by viewers who were either not old enough or not even born when they were first released, with many experiencing them for the first time at home, away from the movie theater. While this is a great way to experience The Lord of the Rings' story's epic scope, it's only in the cinema that it's possible to get a true sense of how impressive the trilogy's visual achievements really are. To this end, the 2024 rerelease will be a completely new experience for many viewers.

...even after 23 years, The Lord of the Rings visuals still look as believable and cutting edge as they did two decades ago

All three Lord of the Rings movies were widely acclaimed for their incredible visuals. Each film won the Academy Award for Best Visual Effects, and the movies were lauded for their innovative blend of practical prop work and computer-generated imagery. What makes them even more remarkable, however, is that even after 23 years, The Lord of the Rings visuals still look as believable and cutting edge as they did two decades ago. Watching the films at home conveys some sense of this achievement. Seeing them in theaters, however, will make the trilogy's special effects seem even more remarkable.

Lord Of The Rings Still Looks Better Than A Lot Of Modern Movies

Close

The visual splendor of The Lord of the Rings has helped the trilogy stand the test of time and instantly marked it out as an astonishing movie-making achievement. However, what's slightly alarming from an industry perspective is that the films' effects still look just as impressive as many contemporary blockbusters – in some cases, even more so. Where some early 2000s films are starting to show their age, many of the Lord of the Rings' most effects-heavy scenes still hold up just as well as they did on release. By contrast, the quality of effects in the industry more generally is coming under increasing scrutiny.

Related Lord Of The Rings Complete Timeline Explained (Including Rings Of Power & New Movie) Rings of Power and War of the Rohirrim explore different points in the Lord of the Rings timeline, which spans thousands of years in Middle-earth.

Advances in VFX have meant that more mid-to-low budget movies can create believable artificially-rendered scenes than ever. However, while the ubiquity of computer-generated imagery has increased exponentially, there seems to be little clear progress between where the industry was when The Lord of the Rings came out and where it has progressed. Comparing, for instance, the climactic battle sequence at the end of Marvel's Avengers: Endgame and The Two Towers' Battle of Helm's Deep, it's impossible to say that the two films represent 17 years of steady industry progress.

Why Modern VFX Hasn't Improved Much Since Lord Of The Rings

There are several reasons why VFX doesn't seem to have markedly progressed since The Lord of the Rings first hit theaters. One reason is that, despite being over two decades old, the trilogy is a genuine milestone in special effects work, pioneering some genuinely ground-breaking techniques that put it way ahead of its time. Compared to most other films released from 2001-2003, The Lord of The Rings is clearly streets ahead of where many movies were. As a result, it is perhaps not the best indicator of where VFX was more generally 23 years ago.

Nevertheless, for all The Lord of the Rings' strengths, there are clear external factors that have held the VFX industry back. A key issue is that VFX artists are often overworked, with multiple competing deadlines ramping up the pressure. According to a 2022 Guardian article, "it often falls on VFX workers to resolve goofs and mistakes in post-production while working for vendors operating under contracts with studios where the vendors pay as little as possible." This combination not only leads to a toxic environment, it also means that it's often impossible to finish work to the highest possible standard.

A further issue is that VFX is both required to do more than ever and is often deployed poorly. In many major blockbusters, entire sequences are often rendered digitally. This is in sharp contrast to movies like Lord of the Rings, which blend practical sets, props, and real people with computer imagery to enhance the action. A 2023 Guardian article cites Jurassic Park as "an example of CGI done smartly, with lots of scenes set in darkness, which is often easier to create and render digital effects for". The Lord of the Rings takes a similar approach, with the Fellowship of the Ring's Balrog sequence a prime example.

Related 10 Biggest Lord Of The Rings Book Moments Peter Jackson's Movies Cut Peter Jackson did a great job of bringing the Lord of the Rings books to the screen, but there were still several missed moments from Tolkien's works.

Rewatching LOTR In Theaters Will Highlight Modern Problems With CGI

As exciting as seeing restored versions of The Lord of the Rings' extended editions on the big screen, the experience will only underscore many of the current problems in the VFX industry. Considering The Lord of the Rings' status as a defining blockbuster from yesteryear, it will be impossible to avoid comparing the films to the major motion pictures of today. Since the quality of CGI remains an important yardstick for projects that rely on visual impact, the fact that many of them will seem to fall short of The Lord of the Rings' standard is a damning indictment on the state of the industry.

Because The Lord of the Rings is regarded as one of the greatest achievements in movie history, it's perhaps unfair that it is compared to more traditional blockbusters. However, considering how far other areas of technology have advanced in the years since the movies' release, the lack of progression that the films lay bare is an unfortunate indictment of the state of the industry. It may be that the best result following The Lord of the Rings rerelease is that it helps inspire the VFX industry to make the lasting changes that are sorely needed.

Source: The Guardian