Pretty much.
Pretty much.
C+
http://www.theonion.com/articles/the-hobbit-to-feature-53minutelong-scene-of-bilbo,30727/
C+
http://www.theonion.com/articles/the-hobbit-to-feature-53minutelong-scene-of-bilbo,30727/
You should watch this awesome Sesame Street/Beastie Boys mash-up right now.
Originally shared by Scott Smith You should watch this awesome Sesame Street/Beastie Boys mash-up right now. http://www.vimeo.com/27009580
More specific:
ReplyDelete1/3 actual story.
1/3 LotR callback fanservice.
1/3 gross monsters with open wounds and weeping sores rendered in glorious 48fps that make it impossible to take a kid to the movie of this children's story.
Funny. I was just talking to Isaac Sher this evening about why I think Peter Jackson is a less proficient director than Del Toro.
ReplyDeleteLOTR wallows in backstory, scene-setting, mood making and needless tourist shots.
Hellboy movies give you the same worldbuilding and cool sense of place without bogging you down.
Wallowing is a good word. In LotR Jackson at least needed to keep the story moving. One book per movie means you gotta keep things happening. The Hobbit was the opposite. Any chance to sidetrack or delay the story with a lingering shot or flashback was taken.
ReplyDeleteAnd did Radagast really need a stream of bird shit plastered to his face? C'mon, man...
I loved it. Yea I could have done without the bird shit but I loved the tie ins with the LotR movies and adding in a bunch of cool stuff from the appendices was expected. I can't wait to see the white council battle the necromancer. I do agree that this is not for kids which is a bummer but would you rather that the orks were more Jar Jar like?
ReplyDeleteI know I'm a party pooper, Jim. I swear I'm not trying to be a movie snob. Something must be wrong with me though, Jen liked both this and Dark Knight Rises more than I did.
ReplyDeleteThe callbacks to LotR were kinda fun. I liked the framing of the story with the Frodo before the birthday party stuff. But shoving Galadriel and Saruman into a pointless scene was just an excuse to put them on the screen.
The most jarring thing is the whiplash from silliness to horror. One second Radagast is rescuing a hedgehog, and the next we see Thorin graphically chop the arm off an orc more badass than anything I've put in D&D. It's a fine line to walk to bridge the different moods of the Hobbit and LotR and I really think Peter Jackson missed the mark. I wouldn't want Jar Jar, but these orcs were even grosser than LotR. And the Goblin King, omg. I thought either Gandalf was going to chop off his wattle or his guts were going to come spilling out of the cut in his stomach. They could have softened the monsters look without making them cartoony I think.
Gollum looked great though. I actually liked the 48fps in the action scenes. In slow scenes you could tell exactly how much makeup everyone was wearing though.
I will, of course, go see the next one in high speed 3D. I have to see what Smaug looks like. The nerd in me will not be denied.
I did not see it in 48 fps so that may be a difference. (and for the record I like Dark Knight Rises mostly because it was filmed outside my office, the movie was meh). The scene with the White Council was one of my favorite. It clearly foreshadows the coming battle with The Necromancer. While its not part of the story of The Hobbit, its one of my favorite story lines. The best line was when Gandalf mentioned the 2 Blue Wizards and said he couldn't remember their names! (they are never named in any of the books! :) ) Yea, total fanboy stuff. Guilty as charged.
ReplyDeleteI enjoyed the movie. I wish more movies slowed down, and didn't rush things. Why rush an epic journey that takes months. We are so spoiled as movie goers. Why does the lead automatically find what he is looking for right away. (because the audience will get bored otherwise.) I call BS. Enough with the montages that speed up training, and show someone going from looser to hero in 5 minutes. Let us suffer with the lead. Let us feel the weight of a heavy pack on long journeys.
ReplyDeleteI remember reading an interview with Tolkien, in which he recalled the point at which he realized that the story of the Hobbit was also the story of the One Ring and the end of the Third Age. Up until then, The Hobbit was just a fairy-story, meant mostly for kids. When he realized that The Lord of the Rings was going to be more than just The Hobbit 2, it began to change in many ways. Sure, both are based on Tolkien's studies in mythology and philology, but LotR also became this saga about courage in the face of certain doom, filled with evil and death and darkness, instead of a light and fun adventure.
ReplyDeleteThe framework of the movie makes sense - we know Bilbo wrote the story of his adventure, so why not tell it in flashback? But I think you're right that Jackson is bringing in too much LotR, and I think that's why he can't make up his mind whether he's making a fairy-story for kids or another dark saga.
That said, Jenny and I saw enough reviews to adjust our expectations before going and we mostly enjoyed it.