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Old 05-14-2015, 09:34 AM   #28
Zigūr
Ghost Prince of Cardolan
 
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I suppose you could interpret what he's saying as that his film (rather than the book) is about Thorin's quest for the Lonely Mountain but if that's the case then he and his team either badly missed the point of the source material they were adapting, or chose (or were forced) to ignore it.

In my review on my blog (again warning re some light profanity for comic effect in the blog post if anyone reads it, also sorry for plugging my own stuff) I said the following:
If the character of Alfrid, the Tauriel material and the different silly monsters were extricated it would probably be a stronger product overall, but that wouldn't change the fact that the film is fundamentally undermined by its efforts to hybridise Bilbo's narrative with that of Thorin's, when his isn't inherently important. I note that in an interview for this film Peter Jackson said "The Hobbit is the story of Thorin Oakenshield’s quest for the Lonely Mountain." No it isn't. It's the story of Bilbo's character development. The Mountain is just a plot device. Thorin is a supporting character used to explore the theme of greed. That's why these films don't work: it doesn't matter whether you do or don't alter the source material when you don't fundamentally understand the source material in the first place. Maybe it's just marketing speak and he knows it's not true, because no one could possibly read The Hobbit and think it was about anything other than Bilbo at a fundamental level.
For some reason I want to give PJ the benefit of the doubt and lay this at Warner Bros.' door. Then again considering things he's said in the past, e.g. claiming to be a Tintin fan but also saying he's never read a comic, complaining that there are too many superhero action films in Hollywood these days, it's possible that sometimes he just doesn't always know what he's on about.
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