I was kinda bored after about 10 minutes. Spending the majority of the video explaining a labor dispute was probably not the greatest choice. This is the Phantom Menace of video essays. You probably could have gotten the point across in just a few minutes, and if you're not really going to explicitly look at what the law did to wages then I don't get the point of an extended look.
The ending feels either incredibly contrived or incredibly naive. It really took you nearly half your life to learn that the entertainment industry is quite ruthless? You never heard about the countless recording artists that record labels screwed over? You weren't paying attention during the very Writer's Guild Strike that you lived through? It was only 10 years ago. You haven't noted the male-female pay disparity across acting? This is very much an industry centered around getting bang for their buck, and they will maximize profits in very nearly any way it is legal to do so. I don't understand how or why that is a surprise to someone well into their 30's.
Ellis is 34 years old yet she acts like LOTR films were from from some winsome long-lost childhood....she would have been 20 when Return of the King came out. A fair amount of the conclusion annoyingly echoes Star Wars prequel talk - "Oh the poor quality of these followups now ruins my enjoyment of the old films". I'd certainly have liked for all the films to have been better, but you're really holding onto your anger and regret too much if the plodding Hobbit films hurt your estimation of LOTR.
She has covered the movies rather extensively, and this being part 3/2, not just as a joke, but with how part 2 ended off we knew this was likely going to be what she was tackling this episode.
Theres a difference between an industry being known to be quite ruthless and some of the degrees that are presented here, as you can tell by some of the reactions in this very thread. She wasn't surprised by this, perhaps just the severity of it and is merely drawing attention to it, as we need to keep doing.
I don't think the Hobbit films (well, the first two, i've not seen the third) are nearly as bad as the Star Wars prequel trilogy, but they are often soulless, studio manufactured, and misguided in addition, thematic direction and pacing. Taking that into account and the broader picture of how they were produced shines a new light on the entire franchise that can have you re-evaluate it with a different critical lens than you once did, its far less "it ruined my childhood" and more so just seeing things in different way than before, as its difficult to separate what we now know and the project as a whole, including The Hobbit films from the initial three. I've never been the biggest fan of Peter Jackson's Lord of the Rings trilogy, as the books were more my childhood, but i'll certainly see them in a different light, as i would have after aging and maturing, as i would after watching The Hobbit films, and as i would after watching Lindsey's videos essays, each bringing new perspective and insight.
