The Hobbit and Fantasy

Lord of the Rings... The Hobbit. Even if you are not a fantasy enthusiast, you definitely still know of these novels. I've always had a belief in my head of what I've thought of the J. R. R. Tolkien novels. I am a fan of fantasy, but never personally found The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit to be all that interesting. Even though it is fair to say a lot, if not the majority, of today's fantasy foundation can be rooted back to Tolkien's works. But it is perhaps because of that fact that somewhat turned me off from the series. After growing up with so many different unique takes on the fantasy genre, almost every aspect of the Hobbit and Lord of the Rings books comes off as very generic and cliche. While almost every piece of fantasy has orcs, elves, wizards, dwarves, etc, they all just came off as 'nothing special' to me in Tolkien's work. I struggled multiple times to watch the Lord of the Rings films, as they just couldn't seem to interest me. The length of each movie made it feel like a chore to try and watch them and remained engaged. When I was a young teenager, I also attempted to read the annotated Hobbit. I got through one or two chapters before I felt I couldn't read anymore. It just seemed flat overall. Perhaps it was growing up as an avid video gamer, with fantasy games at my fingertips that warped my perception of the Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit. I could freely explore these amazing game worlds rich with unique twists on fantasy that has had decades to evolve from Tolkien's take on fantasy. However, going back to the Hobbit now, I am willing to give it another chance. It managed to grab me this time as opposed to my first attempt at reading. Maybe it's because I'm more mature and my attention span can last longer, I don't know, but it seems more interesting and engaging this time. I'm more willing to look past the generic and cliche stuff because the characters themselves have a lot of personality, which is always what really drives a story forward.