An Unexpected Journey, or the morning after

[Galadriel55]

Originally Posted by Zigûr

2. Both involved a very minor character being blown way out of proportion: Azog and Sakharine.

Nowadays you can't have an adventure without a major villain.

Originally Posted by Zigur

3. Both had loads of added action: e.g. Warg Chases, Goblin-Town escapades, etc. etc. for "AUJ" and, among other things, that utterly bizarre crane fight for "Tintin".

What's an adventure without a thrill? Or two? Or fifty?

Originally Posted by Zigur

4. Both featured some characterisation change in their secondary protagonists: Thorin's transformation into the king of angst, Captain Haddock becoming a sort of believe-in-yourself type. Incidentally, Bilbo and Tintin both "give up" at some point in the film; Bilbo tries to sneak off and go home, Tintin despairs of the adventure.

That's all that's left of "character development", sadly.

Originally Posted by Zigur

5. Both featured comedy belching.

And comedy drinking.

Originally Posted by Zigur

This is purely my opinion, but I think it's sad to see how utterly homogenised traditional adventure fiction becomes in the Hollywood meat grinder.

I think that's the main issue too. But that's been going on for a while. I wonder if the aduience now expects something like this because Hollywood has been making films that way, or if they have started making them that way because the audience expects it. I suppose it's a bit of a "the chicken or the egg" question, though.