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Yeah, it was pretty desolate, all right
Dec. 20th, 2013 07:47 pmI'm not sure these are spoilers. I'm only mentioning one specific thing about The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug. But I am going to gripe a lot. Consider yourselves warned.
Now, don't get me wrong. Being true to source material only bothers me for some things (like Laura Ingalls Wilder's Little House books -- do not get me started on the TV series -- just don't). Being slavish to the source material has never been crucial to me for the Jackson movies of Tolkien's work. I enjoyed the LotR movies for what they were, not as purportedly faithful translations of the books.
And I'm here to say that it's been literally decades since I've read The Hobbit, so I really couldn't tell you precisely when things ran off the rails in the two Hobbit movies, anyway -- maybe possibly for the change in the quality of the writing. Except for the things that the Internet's been howling about for weeks, which if you weren't under a rock you'd already know about, anyway.
However. I was expecting a good popcorn movie. I did not get this, in any way, shape, or form. The pacing was slow, and the interminable battle scenes slowed said pacing even more than it would have been without them. The plot felt like it was stitched together from a piece of this, and a piece of that, with no continuity whatsoever. And there's something seriously wrong when I'm walking out of the theater with my friend the Tolkien buff saying, this was as bad as submarines in the canals of Venice (a reference to the truly awful The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen -- the scene referred to is my standard for hurricane-force winds shredding the guywires of my disbelief).
I enjoy laughing with a movie. I desperately did not want to laugh at this one. But I couldn't help it. It was just too ridiculous for words.
Sigh. We finally walked out about twenty minutes (give or take) before it ended, after we caught each other looking at our watches for the third time. What a disappointment.
I will say that the guy who plays Bard is a very handsome fellow. And Tauriel was the only non-Tolkien part I did like. But I'm not sure I'm ever going to forgive Jackson what he did to Legolas.
Now, don't get me wrong. Being true to source material only bothers me for some things (like Laura Ingalls Wilder's Little House books -- do not get me started on the TV series -- just don't). Being slavish to the source material has never been crucial to me for the Jackson movies of Tolkien's work. I enjoyed the LotR movies for what they were, not as purportedly faithful translations of the books.
And I'm here to say that it's been literally decades since I've read The Hobbit, so I really couldn't tell you precisely when things ran off the rails in the two Hobbit movies, anyway -- maybe possibly for the change in the quality of the writing. Except for the things that the Internet's been howling about for weeks, which if you weren't under a rock you'd already know about, anyway.
However. I was expecting a good popcorn movie. I did not get this, in any way, shape, or form. The pacing was slow, and the interminable battle scenes slowed said pacing even more than it would have been without them. The plot felt like it was stitched together from a piece of this, and a piece of that, with no continuity whatsoever. And there's something seriously wrong when I'm walking out of the theater with my friend the Tolkien buff saying, this was as bad as submarines in the canals of Venice (a reference to the truly awful The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen -- the scene referred to is my standard for hurricane-force winds shredding the guywires of my disbelief).
I enjoy laughing with a movie. I desperately did not want to laugh at this one. But I couldn't help it. It was just too ridiculous for words.
Sigh. We finally walked out about twenty minutes (give or take) before it ended, after we caught each other looking at our watches for the third time. What a disappointment.
I will say that the guy who plays Bard is a very handsome fellow. And Tauriel was the only non-Tolkien part I did like. But I'm not sure I'm ever going to forgive Jackson what he did to Legolas.
