I’ve always had something akin to youthful love for the Hobbit ever since I read the novel in my fifth year of schooling. This same love was also anchored into the old Star Wars trilogy, the likes of which heavily influenced my young and powerful imagination.

For most of my young adult life I’ve wanted to see the cinematographic magician Peter Jackson spin the Hobbit to life on the big screen, and when my dream came true I was surprisingly disappointed.

The signature passion of Jackson, present in the Lord of the Rings trilogy, was nowhere to be found in the unrecognizable world of cartoon physics, underdeveloped characters, and forgettable “battle” sequences masquerading as the Hobbit.

The experience of watching my favorite childhood novel be obliterated in front of millions of popcorn gobblers recalled long buried memories of watching another loved franchise be buried under mountains of undeserved box office cash; Star Wars.

With the American Film Institute listing Episode 4 as one of the best science fiction movies ever made, it’s a wonder that thirty years later the same producer/director would go on to make three absolutely atrocious prequels to the original Star Wars.

These prequels were abject nightmares that, while they raked in box office profits, failed to qualify as lasting legacies of art. They had sterile environments, boasted boring action scenes, and lacked the intense focus on character development that made the original Star Wars so successful.

While children still dress up as Darth Vader for Halloween, not many youth are still trying to impersonate Qui-Gon Jinn.

The Lord of the Rings, like Star Wars, was put together by visionary director Peter Jackson and achieved the kind of cultural influence that transcended the boundaries of American social cliques.

From the nerdy bookworm in elementary school to the popular TV personality of Stephen Colbert, Tolkien’s Middle Earth universe has dominated the minds and hearts of many Americans young and old.

To reveal the influence it’s had on its genre, almost every fantasy movie since the Return of the King, from Alice in Wonderland (with Johnny Depp) to Robin Hood (with Russell Crowe), has attempted to emulate this legendary trilogy without much success.

Like George Lucas, Jackson waited for nine years before making a prequel trilogy based on the events of the Hobbit.

And just like the poorly conceived Star Wars prequels, the Hobbit trilogy was a cinematic flop. While it did make loads of cash, it failed to live up to the standard that Jackson had long ago set for Tolkien’s universe.

To demonstrate this fact, Return of the King won eleven Academy Awards alone, while the entire Hobbit trilogy only received one.

Just like the Star Wars prequels, the Hobbit was rife with over-the-top CGI “battles”, sterile environments (with a few noteworthy exceptions), and underdeveloped characters.

While people will still be quoting famous lines from the Lord of the Rings for decades to come, the dialogues of the Hobbit will soon be entirely forgotten.

Both Star Wars and The Lord of the Rings have many uncanny similarities that, I feel, explain what our culture does to anything that has any perceived monetary value; we milk it.

Both Star Wars and the Lord of the Rings were incredibly influential trilogies in each of their respective genres.

Both scaled the heights of artistic accomplishment in the world of film, and both were driven by very talented directors. Both had prequel trilogies made after the fact under the same directors, with very poor results.

The reason my beloved Hobbit fell victim to this rabid commercialization is clear; the motivation behind making the trilogy was not artistic or intrinsic.

The spoiling of the Hobbit, and Star Wars, was purely motivated by an insatiable desire for material wealth, a desire that will crush the soul of art no matter the medium.

Truly great art comes not from desire for wealth, but from an intrinsic creative spark.

Given Disney’s recent acquisition of Star Wars, I hope that that spark will be placed back into the legendary sci-fi universe, and that it will not simply be milked for all its monetary worth.