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The Hobbit (Read 2417 times)
Jan 7th, 2013 at 11:08am

pogo   Offline
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SF Rocks
Beautiful Cleveland, Ohio

Posts: 689
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No comments yet? Seems a little obvious?Well, I'm not subtle, so I'll start.

Special effects: Stunning
Creatures: Stunning
Story choices & pace: C-
Peter Jackson does not know how to build. His idea of filmmaking is that every scene should be an over the top climax. Subtlety or escalating tension is foreign to everything he has ever done.
Tolkien's introduction of the Ring has it as such a trivial thing that Bilbo barely feels it on the ground. Jackson (literally) introduces it with a clank. Beyond the Lord trilogy, his King Kong and Meet The Feebles had exactly the same faults.
Journey has insufficient blood? Introduce a major baddie & plot element; (The white Orc).
The plot insufficiently portentous? Drag in four major major characters from Lord-- barely mentioned in the book version, in case any viewers doesn't get the idea that what is happening is IMPORTANT!!!
There are always difficulties translating a story from one medium to another. In fact, as a rule of thumb, I think that it is almost impossible to translate greatness between mediums. Where it has been done, it pretty much required that the original has to be thrown out or just a general plot thread be maintained.
It may be a great run on battle picture, but this film is not The Hobbit. It is Peter Jackson's opportunity to make a crash bang Creature Feature Blood Fest. Which is a shame. In spite of my perhaps hyperbolic criticisms, there are a few nice calm moments. They get lost in the din.
As a blood fest, it's pretty good. Special effects, battles, great. But I would really have liked to see something that attempted to film The Hobbit, not a remake of Battleship.
And Bilbo's toes weren't furry either.
« Last Edit: Jan 7th, 2013 at 6:21pm by pogo »  

Thars only two possibilities:Thar is life out there in the universe which is smarter than we are,or we're the most intelligent life in the universe.Either way, it's a mighty sobering thought-WaltKelly
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Reply #1 - Jan 7th, 2013 at 12:40pm

Jay Seaver   Offline
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Somerville, MA

Gender: male
Posts: 255
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I've been sort of reserving thoughts on it, because I saw it in 48fps 3D and that just never looked/felt right, to the extent that it sort of overwhelmed every other impression I had.  I kind of want to see it again in another format to see if my reaction was just a knee-jerk response to it not being what I'm used to or something I truly didn't like.

(On the plus side, the clarity was stunning, better than I've ever seen in non-native-IMAX 3D; it's got shots that I suspect would be blurred to heck on other formats.  It is, at the very least, interesting tech!)

But...  I don't really see myself wanting to give three hours to this movie again.  As much as I kind of liked the more kid-friendly vibe, which is appropriate given the source material, it just seems too spread out, especially with the very late-in-the-game decision to make three movies instead of two (which I gather had to be accomplished in the editing room rather than in the screenplay).

To be fair:  I'm no particular fan of swords & sorcery, and my resentment at how much of Peter Jackson's career these midget movies have consumed is only amplified by the fact that when Martin Freeman and Benedict Cumberbatch were working on these, they weren't making Sherlock, which is obviously much more important. Smiley
 
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