All of the PoC Shoehorned In
I counted at least four nonwhites, presumably immigrants to Laketown from Harad … and none of them get any speaking lines. One actress in particular, a woman who would be racially coded as Asian on this earth, got four whole seconds of screen time, and didn’t utter a single word.
If it sounds like I’m disappointed … well, I am. I wouldn’t count this trilogy as Star Wars Prequel Trilogy level bad, but it’s not at all what I wanted when I first heard about the film series. The Hobbit is one of my favorite works of fantasy, and the Lord of the Rings film trilogy is a spectacular adaptation. To see The Hobbit films prove to be such a massive disappointment really hurts my heart. I think I’ll go comfort myself with some malt beer and lembas.