A Review of The Hobbit
Well, I finally got around to watching the Hobbit this past weekend. I was put off from watching it when it came out because, among other reasons, the reviews were bad. I didn’t like it for the following three reasons.
Filler, and lot’s of it. It definitely felt like they added an awful lot of padding to turn what was originally planned to be two movies into a trilogy. Some of the scenes felt unnecessary. From the very beginning, it took the characters about 45 minutes to leave Bilbo’s house and begin their “unexpected journey.”
Silliness: I understand The Hobbit was a children’s book, but there was way too much silliness in this movie. In the LOTR trilogy, all of the characters were portrayed with dignity. In those films, even the Orcs spoke more proper English than half the people I know. The Hobbits, the silliest of all the inhabitants of Middle-Earth, were funny, but not child-like. And what’s with all the singing? In this film, most of the characters were portrayed as caricature versions of themselves.
Predictability and repetitiveness. Maybe it was because I was not impressed and was picking out all the flaws, but the action scenes seemed to develop in typical Hollywood-like predictability. Like when the gang was trapped between a rock and a hard place, and you see Gandalf whisper something to a butterfly, what does it mean? It means eagles will wait until the last possible moment, and swoop in to rescue them. There was plenty more, but I’m getting angry just writing about it.
It feels like the second Star Wars trilogy all over again, only there were lots of Jar-Jars. The LOTR trilogy was not only a box office hit, it was critically acclaimed and won a total of 17 academy awards. This first of three films was nominated for 3 and won 0. Critically speaking, it was literally an epic fail.
