I finish my
viewing of The Hobbit Part 1 with totally mixed feelings. Chief among my
disappointment however is that this is exactly the way I expected to feel
following it. I wish that Peter Jackson had blown me away with a fantastic
vision comparable to LOTR or left me outraged at his desecration of the text.
Alas, to be somewhere in the middle, devoid of strong emotion is depressing.
Don’t get
me wrong, on the whole The Hobbit was a viewing pleasure. Visually dazzling
(and I only saw it in 2D, none of this 48FPS – I’m a traditionalist), amazing
attention to detail with the art direction and costuming, an emotional and
appropriate score (more on music later), and great performances from the leads.
I had a few reservations about Martin Freeman as Bilbo but for me the guy nails
it. The dwarves I admit were a little less impressive. Not so much in terms in
terms of performance as character development. I know 13 is a large number of
dwarves to create distinct characters for, but apart from a few they all seem
to blend in to one another. You’ve got Thorin, the leader; Balin, the fatherly
one; the fat one; then there’s one inexplicably good-looking one… he pretty
much only has a 5 o’clock shadow compared to the other dwarves, he’s never
shown using forced perspective (ie he’s never shown to look short and squat),
he even fights with a bow and arrow rather than a traditional dwarf weapon like
an axe or sword. It’s like Peter Jackson thought “we need a Aragorn/Legolas in
this party”. It actually kind of distracts from the film he seems so out of
place. The other 9 dwarves? I’ve kind of forgotten already.
 |
| Pictured: smouldering good looks not usually associated with the dwarf race |
My number
one complaint with the film is simply that it feels a little too much like
LOTR: The Prequel. I appreciate the use of the same locations for places like
The Shire and Rivendell, but other elements borrow too much from the previous
films. The score, while spectacular, borrowed many themes from LOTR like it was
trying to create the same emotions and perhaps recreate those films. I wish
instead that Howard
Shore had taken a chance
and done something different with this one. I know it’s a little nit-picky, the
score was really good, but it detracted from the film by making the audience
constantly compare it to its predecessor. Perhaps too the film would have benefitted
from a different director. I mourn the loss of Guillermo del Toro; whose vision
I feel could only have altered this universe for the better and allowed The
Hobbit to stand alone. With Peter Jackson at the helm An Unexpected Journey is just a little too expected.
Splitting
the story into 3 films is another thing that I’m no less apprehensive about
having seen the first one. I feel if they just stuck to the content of the book
they could have made one great movie, but instead they’ve added a whole lot of
extra content that doesn’t always gel. The best parts of the movie are
undoubtedly the elements that come straight from the book. The scenes with Gollum
are easily the highlight; Andy Serkis is a genius. The 3 parts also leaves me
worried about what is to come in Part 2. I have no doubt it’s going to be
another 3 hour long epic and I wouldn’t be surprised if the first 2 hours is a
whole lotta wandering around Mirkwood. I seriously fear it might turn out a bit
like Harry Potter and the Great Camping Trip (Deathly Hallows Part 1). At least
with the title The Desolation of Smaug
set in stone I’m guaranteed some dragon at the end. Part 1 was beautifully
restrained with regards to Smaug. Jackson
managed to show us a whole battle scene featuring Smaug while never showing us
more than a claw or a tail. That anticipation for Smaug is the number one thing
keeping me excited for Boxing Day this year.
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