The Hobbit, the Unexpected Burn Out:
Peter Jackson's highly anticipated The Hobbit has failed to grab any of the major Oscar nominations, angering faithful fans and continuing an Oscar trend of favouring drama over fantasy film.
The Hobbit received three nominations for best production design, visual effects and makeup and hairstyling but was sidelined in the best picture, best director or any of the leading actor categories.
Today's announcement has angered faithful Hobbit followers who have taken to fan sites to vent their anger.
"They deserve more than three nominations. Ian McKellen and Martin Freeman were awesome and the music of Howard Shore, the cinematography, the adaptation... it can't be more disappointing," posted Luxo on theonering.net.
"I'd give it one Oscar for Gollum's special effects. It deserves no more than that I'm afraid," noted another fan.
The Hobbit - the first installment in the trilogy - debuted in November to mixed reviews. Jackson's decision to shoot the film using 48-frames-per-second technology was lauded for creating hyper-real scenes while some found the experience too jarring and difficult to watch.
Film critic Darren Bevan, who covered the Wellington premiere of The Hobbit for onenews.co.nz, said it was no surprise the Hobbit failed to score major nominations.
"Since the first Lord of The Rings film debuted back in 2001, a lot of the cinematic landscape has changed. Hollywood had never really seen a fantasy epic like it, since Star Wars. But since then, we've had the likes of Avatar which changed the landscape for FX films. That, from James Cameron, didn't pick up wins from its major nominations but scored for technical achievements.
"The Academy voters don't have a previous track record in recognising fantasy films as Oscar worthy - preferring to go for films which could be seen as more worthy (such as Lincoln)."
Bevan, along with many Hobbit fans, is hoping the success of the last installment of the Lord of the Rings - The Return of the King - is a sign of what is to come for the Hobbit trilogy.
The Return of the King swept the 2003 Oscar's with 11 awards, including best picture, after the first two films only received seven awards between them.
"Sir Peter Jackson and the team shouldn't perceive this as a major snub - after all, the Return of the King swept the Oscars when the final film in the franchise was released," said Bevan.
"In fact, if anything the aspects of the film which really raised the bar and were Oscar worthy have been recognised and that in itself should be a cause for celebration."
The Return of the King is the only fantasy film to have taken out the best film category in the 93 year history of the Oscar Awards.
However the Unexpected Journey may yet reach a different immortality in the form of a New Zealand mountain peak, Mount Tolkien.
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