Being a fan of the books is crippling. I get it. When something is converted from a novel to a movie, things get changed. Some things need to be added, and some things need to be left out. I totally understand that. My problem with it wasn't so much things were changed, but that so much was needlessly added.
Here is where I go off a bit on the movie but I have to preface it a bit. After re-reading everything I feel it necessary to come back to the beginning state that I thought it was a good movie. But I felt it could've been better. It doesn't need to be all action all the time. There's room for drama and playfulness.
Also, let me say that I also understand the basic movie narrative. You have to go out on a high note. If it's an action movie, you have to have action in it. In a story like this, you need to have action. While I'm being so fair minded, I will concede the fact that The Hobbit novel has a really weak ending. I'm a fan of the books. I loved reading them as a kid. I loved going back to them when the first movie came out. And I have a great time remembering the story with each new movie released. But re-read The Hobbit again. Tell me if you think that ending is anti-climatic.
Fan gushing aside, this movie is draining. It is so long and despite director Peter Jackson and the army of writers involved in this movie's best efforts, it's just a bogged down and padded story with a lot of the elements I found intriguing about the novels ripped out to make room for unneeded cameos and action scenes that took way too long.
Splitting this movie up into three movies I feel was a mistake. On my way home, it was all I could think about. What would I do if I were in charge of this? If I was trying to make The Hobbit into three movies, the first would end with the escape from the Goblin Cave, the second would end with them reaching the base of the mountain, and the third would take us to the end. But even with that breakdown it would require a lot of padding. Instead, what I thought would be better would be to split The Hobbit into two movies, and have a third where we follow Gandalf and his adventures with the Necromancer.
Think about this: This is supposed to be Bilbo's story. What we saw in the beginning of An Unexpected Journey was us the audience being introduced to this story in the form of Frodo Baggins reading Bilbo's diary. That means if we are being faithful to that narrative strategy, we can't have these long set-pieces involving dialogue he doesn't hear or people he doesn't meet. And that happens a lot in The Desolation of Smaug.
Some of them are very cool scenes. Gandalf at Dol Guldur was an awesome scene. I loved it. But I think it would've been better served as an addendum. Make the whole third movie about Gandalf confronting the Necromancer. If it was done that way, you could have a really good scene of Gandalf telling the dwarves on the journey home about the destruction of Moria by the balrog. Who wouldn't want to see the balrog being awesome again?
In this movie instead we get a really weird love triangle between Legolas, Kili, and Tauriel. Legolas and Tauriel were never in The Hobbit novel. Their presence is the very definition of fan service padding. And they take up a lot of screen time. Again I know Legolas is the son of the Grey King so his presence their is logical. I would still argue he wasn't in The Hobbit novel so therefore he's superfluous. He's there because the writers wanted extended fight sequences to pad the movie. And since we are talking about superfluous characters, who the f*** is Tauriel?
What finally did it for me was the interaction between Bilbo and Smaug. This was one of the scenes I was looking forward to the most. Because this was a true battle of wits. Except in this movie. Now it's an extended fight scene. I like action movies. Watching guys like Jackie Chan and Jason Statham do what they do is the only reason I ever watch a Jackie Chan or Jason Statham movie. But when we are talking about an epic adventure like The Hobbit, there's more to it than just action. I'm totally willing to take the criticism that it's just me. It's my preference and my opinion and it might be a minority opinion. But for me, all the action added looked and felt like a crutch. As if the movie just couldn't get going unless there's more action. As if the casual fan wouldn't understand the drama of Bilbo having to bluff his way out of being roasted alive by Smaug.
The movie is 2 hours and 40 minutes with tacked on action scenes. In fairness they are great action scenes. If that's what you like, you'll enjoy the movie. I just wanted more story. Because the story is pretty good too. I won't go so far as to say I was disappointed, but I wasn't satisfied either. Perhaps in the third movie.
No comments:
Post a Comment