The Hobbit

[altariel]

We saw The Hobbit!

I'd really dialled my expectations down to zero, so I came out a happy bunny (word chosen intentionally).

It's LOOOOOOONG. Really, long. Having said that, it isn't dull. The pacing is steady but not slow, and while there are too many warg battles, they don't go on FOREVER like Helm's Bloody Deep.

It's almost beat-for-beat the same as FotR: you're ticking off the episodes and following the same rise and fall: "Oh, they should be getting to Rivendell round... about... now!" Thorin's story is a counterpoint to Aragorn's: king in waiting, etc. etc.

Martin Freeman is amazing. I mean, just terrific. Riddles in the Dark is pitch perfect.

They've found someone who can write dialogue. Glory be to God! So when people say things, other people react to what they've said, and then other people react to that. You won't believe the difference this makes. The fact they've got plenty of time (did I mention it was long?) means you can get all these conversations in full. At the back of your mind, you're thinking, "Oh, if only they'd been able to do The Lord of the Rings with as much space as this, we wouldn't have got Fake Faramir and Daft Denethor..." but then I suppose we'd only be partway through The Two Towers right now and perhaps all killing each other.

The entry to Rivendell is wonderful (although Rivendell itself still looks like it's made from pine cut-offs and MDF). Rhosgobel was a tad Brothers Hildebrandt for my taste.

The dwarves are chiefly distinguishable by their hair, apart from Thorin (the Northern one), Balin (the Scottish one), the one played by James Nesbitt (the Irish one), and the surprisingly cute one. There's a fat one too, I assume that's Bombur and we'll see more of him.

Radagast! Fuck yeah!

Visually, Dol Guldur is pretty unimaginative. Ruined towers, yawn, yawn. I'd have liked something more Deco or preferably Brutalist. You know, like a big seventies shopping centre. And Jackson needs to give up on the stupid clichéd pieces of direction, like having people shout, "Noooooooooo!" when they see something bad happen, or showing a child's toy being ground into the dirt by marauding villains, etc. etc. Really, Peter, you can do better than that.

I like all the additions of the White Council. Perhaps it makes the film less "Hobbity", but I really like the getting this bigger canvas, which gives a sense of Eriador being a battleground, and really shows how the story of how Bilbo got the Ring has huge significance. It's like they've made the version of the book that you read when you come back to it after having read The Lord of the Rings, rather than the one you read when you were tiny. Also "The Quest of Erebor" from Unfinished Tales is just about my favourite piece of Tolkien fanfiction, and here it is up on a big screen - yay.

You know, I really liked it. I even didn't mind Radagast's sled drawn by Rhosgobel Rabbits. It's so outrageously daft that it just made me laugh.

All in all, if you think of other major film trilogies that have been followed by a second major trilogy, then this is certainly no Phantom Menace. It's long but not boring, it's got a good heart even in the silly bits, and Martin Freeman makes it worth every penny. Imagine if they gave him this much to do in Sherlock.

Comments

[altariel.livejournal.com]

I felt the whole thing should have had more autumnal colours: russets and browns and yellows and oranges and reds, because that's how the book feels to me. So many films and TV shows go for teal-and-orange these days.

I can't stand 3D (gives me a headache) and would always avoid by choice. I also hate wearing glasses over my glasses.