Written
December 20, 2012
Peter J drops it again
In "The Hobbit" Mr. Jackson again moves forward on the assumption that he is a better storyteller than Tolkien, & he is, as ever, wrong. PJ deserves thanks for stunning visuals, due to his choice of John Howe and Alan Lee as lead designers, but "TH" has its furry feet tripped up by new/changed scenes crammed with cliches & clumsy exposition, even where the original scenes covered the same ground with evocative imagery & blessed brevity.
The white orc's addition was actually clever, w/the weaving of him into the extant plot handled well, but many scenes were chopped w/o reason. PJ saved maybe 4 minutes running time by truncating many of JRRT's brilliant songs, many clever quips, & the main riddle in the riddle game, only to add a boring, clumsy intro that would have been better served as flashbacks in "Far over the Misty Mountains Cold". "15 Birds in 5 Fir Trees" & "Down, Down" were sorely missed! When Rankin-Bass' anime feels a truer tale than a $180M epic, something's very wrong.
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43
out of
81
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