"The Hobbit: There And Back Again" To be Renamed "The Battle of the Five Armies"

[Zigûr]

Originally Posted by Tar-Jêx

I know some people who criticised the 2nd movie because 'it wasn't humorous enough'.

Now that's an interesting opinion. Personally I think the tone is simply inconsistent, that it fluctuates wildly from farcical humour to extreme seriousness. It's one of the reasons that I actually think they needed someone with a British comedy background involved in the scripts to capture the whimsical tone. I know Professor Tolkien himself came to disapprove of that tone but I still enjoy it because I think the narrative rather suits the conversational or story-teller style.

I think over the past year or so I've become a little less bothered by these things. I still don't like or approve of them, but I feel as if I can be somewhat more dispassionate about them.

What tends to frustrate me is this: every popular film or TV show or what have you has a 'big forum.' For 'Tolkien,' particularly the films, it's TORN. Other things have their own 'big forum.' And on these places there are people who can't take criticism of whatever it is, and make that very clear: critics are often "whingers" or "whiners" who can't do it themselves and therefore should be ignored. And because these people are notionally, in their very negative way, 'likers,' which is usually the gist of the 'big forum' in general, they tend to get away with it. If however someone makes a similarly truculent claim about the 'likers' (calling them "sycophants" or "fanboys," perhaps) it's considered very taboo. This isn't something I've done, if you're worried, but I've noticed the double standard. It's completely off-putting to observe an unquestioned vocal element which is silently condoned by the authority because their opinions roughly align, which nonetheless utterly stifles certain lines of discourse. I've been guilty of making unhelpful generalisations in the past, which I try these days to avoid, but I'd like to think that at least if I take issue with the film I don't feel the need to slander the people who like it, certainly not on a forum where it's supposed to be part of a conversation.

Maybe at the end of the day that's my biggest problem with these films - the certain group of "defensives" who take it all too personally, and in doing so, in a way, make it personal.