The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey

[calimac]

I saw it in 2D, 24 fps, and I still feel as if I've been bludgeoned by a giant stick.

Nobody who loves the book should be wooed thereby into seeing this movie (unless, poor sods like me, they feel they have to). Nobody.

I doubt I'll have any more to say until the bruises begin to go down.

Comments

[thnidu.livejournal.com]

Signal boosted.

[(Anonymous)]

That bad, eh? Apparently Corey Olsen likes this film, although that is hardly a surpise: he belongs to that tedious class of Tolkien fans who also insists that Peter Jackson's film have artistic merit. Perhaps I'm too harsh, but quite frankly, after this film, how anyone who is a fan of Tolkien can keep making excuses for Jackson is beyond me.

[whswhs.livejournal.com]

I must confess that I took this comment with a grain of salt: I rather like parts of the LotR films, whereas you clearly detest them, so I thought it possible that your unfavorable reaction might reflect our differing tastes as much as the qualities of the film itself. Having now seen it with chorale and a friend, I acknowledge that this was not so. This version of The Hobbit seems to take all of Jackson's weaknesses as a filmmaker and amplify them relentlessly, including the unsubtle ones such as exaggerated physical action, reliance on fear of falling (what was wrong with the goblins setting the trees on fire?), and junior high school humor; I can't think of a single scene that I thought added something to the original story, as I did with a handful of scenes in LotR.

Perhaps the worst was the Disney version of Radagast. Even if he was a lesser wizard, if he was going to be brought in at all he ought to have had some measure of dignity (Saruman's cracks about "Radagast the bird-tamer!" surely reflect Saruman's own mailce) and a hint of terror.