It is very late at night and I just came back from the cinema, but I think it would be difficult to sleep or to contain my thoughts for the following day, so I'll post now. At least I have motivation for once to make my post really short. Well, short for my usual length of "short", that is. But I'll point out only the few things that really caught my eye or mind. Also, I will wait to read the reviews of the rest of you only later when I have time, so it will be certainly uninfluenced analysis
*cough cough* So, let me start. Today (if I count tonight as still "today") has been remarkable for two things. First,
Legate of Amon Lanc got educated by a newbie with the post count about 30-something about a thing in the LotR Appendices he has had no idea about for over the larger part of his life (somewhere
here if you care). Secondly,
Legate of Amon Lanc, who, among other things, is the author of
this or
this, has seen the Hobbit and liked it. Yeah. Stop beating your computer screen, what you are reading is not a visual error. If I am to say a simple statement, I say:
I liked it.
Now, for a few highlights or "lowlights". What comes immediately to my mind is:
Handling the book's original plot: Well done. Nothing misses, nothing is twisted (and not even twisted beyond recognition, but nothing is twisted at all, except for the basic filmmaking license).
Adding the Dol Guldur subplot: That is weaker, but given what PJ operates with, again, it's a movie. And movie is for people who haven't read the books. And, let's be honest here, there are many among the book readers who do not even care about the "background" stuff beyond the frame of LotR and The Hobbit. So whether I go on explaining when was the White Council formed, when did they learn about Sauron, what did they do and so on - here we have the whole "Mirkwood is darkening" subplot squished into and ultimately, the outcome is the same, and fine by me. Of course, concerns might be regarding the Nazgul rubbish, but then again, if it serves to introduce "the Necromancer"... speaking of that, I really like the way the movie (or Saruman
) explained it. "A human wizard tampering with black magic, nothing more" = perfect. For some reason I loved this way of diminishing the threat. Also, the "shadow in the box" aka Necromancer actually looked quite good, much much better than the idiotic power plant we all know from LotR.
Bilbo and Gandalf: Handled perfectly, I see no problem. I still don't understand why the Uncloaking of Gandalf has to look so bad and ridiculous, the same way it did in LotR where it evidently did not work (it seemed as if Gandalf got some fit), but PJ is apparently of different opinion.
Dwarves: No objection. Very nice, very nice focus on some main ones (Balin, Dwalin, Fili, Kili, and gradually a couple of others), from the initial introduction throughout the story. And of course, Thorin. It was one thing I thought I might like, and it turned out that way. He remains a consistent character - except for the one unfortunate point in the mountains where he all of a sudden tells Bilbo he should not have been there (after they are falling down from the stone giants - it comes totally out of the blue). Since the start, there was this picture of him smiting the red iron on the anvil - totally reminded me of his important feature as mentioned in the appendices ("great anger burned in him as he smote the red iron on the anvil...") - not sure if PJ intended that, but if I wanted to mention a sentence in the book put 100% perfectly into a movie, this was one such example. All in all, praise, praise, praise to Thorin.
Trolls: So happy they didn't make them just ugly turtles and kept the whole thing basically almost unchanged (as much as you can in a film).
The Great Goblin: His voice almost lifted me from my seat at first. Aside from that, granted, 99% of his role is incredibly weak. But it was a nice impression.
Radagast: He was not as horrible as I feared. He was nuts and degraded into this poor senile being, but it was nice. Acceptable in the terms of movie license, I'd say.
The White Council: YES, YES and YES. That was the best, the coolest moment of the whole movie, slowly looming from the moment Elrond told Gandalf that he has something to explain... Wonderfully handled scene. Saruman. Was. Cool. And Galadriel too. When she appeared first and when she was talking (especially the mind-talking with Gandalf!!! Great one), she was great. However when she roamed around as they probably instructed her to do, she looked like a doll without strings and really made me think of "the marketing needs a pretty woman to pose, please". If you ask me, she was beautiful when she appeared and acted, not when she was standing in the background or roaming around with no purpose. That looked ridiculous. But close your eyes to that and you have the best scene of the whole movie. For me it really was.
- Gollum part of the plot handled well. Well except for Gollum, but that's the question of the design of the creature (I don't like it). I also like how the Ring's invisibility effect does not yet have the "corrupt feel" to it. Also, the idea of "mercy is the point" shown and conveyed well, I'd say.
Okay, minuses:
- Too unnecessarily prolongated
action scenes. Be it fighting or running from place X to Y while doing ridiculous stunts... I cannot emphasise this strongly enough. PJ could have made it into, if not one, then certainly two two-hour movies if he left out all the action rubbish except in places where it is relevant/important. Speaking of length, I had the feeling just after they left Rivendell that the movie could have ended just about there and I'd be happy. I don't know at what mark that event is, but I think if they had cut the unnecessary things, it might have worked around that timestamp.
- Too many unrealistic
stunt-scenes. I just realised that's what really I dislike the most. I really could not bear the escape from Goblin-town. Swinging whole platforms and all that while throwing the goblins overboard... horrible. Nothing against Ice Age, but that is an animated movie. Such things really are not supposed to happen in movies with real actors, sorry.
- Absolutely unnecessary
Azog subplot. The story as narrated by Balin was nice, but a) Azog is ugly (he's supposed to be mail-clad), b) I've had enough of idiotic wannabe-creepy grins of PJ's orcs into the camera for half an age, c) using Azog to introduce wargs was nice, but the fight against him in the end was unnecessary. Thorin was absolutely cool when he rose from the fire like a phoenix to meet his nemesis, that was perfect, but after that? Got kicked and it served no purpose whatsoever except to prolongate the movie with another few minutes.
-
The Transformers. Seriously. The worst thing ever. I was happy to hear they put the Stone giants in. When I saw them... The Transformers. *facepalm*
- The
songs. I
loved the Dwarven song, as sung by the Dwarves in the deep voices (NOT as sung by whoever it was during the end credits. The deep voices made it cool, the end credit-singer didn't), but what the heck was the plate song? So bad. Totally unimaginative tune. IT HAD THE SAME TUNE AS THE ALREADY UNIMAGINATIVE TUNES IN LOTR WHICH PIPPINS AND CO. ARE SINGING IN THEIR PUBS!!! Likewise, there was some goblin-song, right? I don't even remember it, it was also bad. And if there was anything in between, it was probably bad as well.
Summa summarum:
Best moments: The start in the Shire, the White Council.
Worst moments: The Transformers, escape from Goblin-town.
General verdict: Give me scissors, I'd cut several scenes and make a very good movie of suitable length which will be fun to watch.
I would not necessarily watch this again for all that money I paid for the ticket, in fact, I'd have paid half for even the original one if I could choose. But as a movie, at home, with a couple of people, I'd watch it again without any objection.