I've been watching the Lord of the Rings trilogy the past few days and what strikes me is just how dated the series looks. It's been more than 10 years since the movies came out and remember how cutting edge the CGI was back then. The graphics back then were a main draw to the films and I'm just impressed by how far technology has come. Smeagol/Gollum is the main area that stands out as dated. Skin texturing and movement has come a long way. The CGI character on film just like there's a clear delineation between what was actually filmed, thus breaking that suspense of disbelief. While watching the film, I can't help but think what type of media we will use in the future to experience Middle-Earth and tell the story of the Third Age. Maybe it'll be VR or something more like Star Trek's halodeck.

The future is coming hard and fast and I'm happy that I can just be a part of the change. It's important to take a step back and see how far we've gone in such a little amount of time. We forget progress happens one step at a time. When the movies came out, the iPhone hasn't even been released yet. Having said that, I'm still waiting for affordable space travel.