Lucas
Versantvoort / March 7, 2013
Spoilers
ahoy! (I haven’t read The Hobbit, so I can’t comment on the film’s
accuracy.)
10 years
have passed since audiences were dazzled by Peter Jackson’s trilogy based on
Tolkien’s three The Lord of the Rings novels. Despite purists
(naturally) being upset by the many subplots and characters that were not
included, the films turned an ‘unfilmable’ tale into an epic series of films.
Now, Jackson and co. reunite to tackle
Tolkien’s The Hobbit, detailing Bilbo’s adventures prior to the events
seen in The Lord of the Rings. Young Bilbo is enjoying his simple
Hobbit-life, when all of a sudden Gandalf appears and claims to seek someone
“to share in an adventure.” Bilbo is not interested, but that same night (due
to Gandalf engraving a mark on Bilbo’s door) thirteen dwarfs arrive at his
doorstep. We learn they seek to take back one of their lost kingdoms, Erebor,
which was stolen from the dwarves by the dragon Smaug. Their plan to take it
back requires a non-dwarf (since Smaug is used to the smell of dwarves) to act
as a burglar. At first, Bilbo is uneager to accept with the high chances of
being eviscerated, lacerated and incinerated. The next morning Bilbo discovers
the dwarfs are gone and that he cannot resist to urge to go an adventure. Thus
begin Bilbo and company’s not-so-unexpected journey to Erebor which will of course
include many dangers…
While we expected returning to
Middle Earth would be a great experience, many issues become apparent when we
take off the rose-colored glasses, the main one being the film’s length.
Whereas the decision to go from two to three films when filming The Lord of
The Rings is an obvious one given that the novels are about 1600 pages
long, The Hobbit on the other hand is only about 300 pages long. The
amount of skepticism before this film’s release is precisely because it was
announced that instead of having two films, The Hobbit would also be
turned into a trilogy. This raised questions whether The Hobbit would be
too spread out…and unfortunately it is. I’ve seen it two times and especially
the second time, the first half of the film was considerably harder to bear.
The fact that The Hobbit is more considered to be a children’s novel becomes
more apparent with the time spent on minor detours and makes me pine for the
gravitas of the LOTR trilogy. Things pick up speed in the superior second half
with the highlight being Bilbo’s encounter with Gollum/Smeagol.
The spread out nature of the film is
reflected in its story, or rather its lack of story. The amount of character
development is minor. Save for Bilbo suddenly deciding to join Thorin and
Gandalf, Bilbo feeling homesick, Thorin having to overcome his dwarven pride by
requesting the aid of elves, the revenge subplot with Thorin and Azog, I can’t
help but feel that the amount of story development is minimal.
 |
| That about sums it up |
Surprisingly, I experienced a kind
of ‘fuzzy’ feeling whenever ‘old’ characters from the LOTR trilogy appeared.
Though it was already known that characters like Frodo would reappear, the
feeling of ‘nostalgia’ was still surprising and I couldn’t help but smile when
Frodo popped up all of a sudden. Speaking of characters, that is also a
definite weakness in The Hobbit: the dwarves. Although we spend most of
our time traversing Middle Earth with these dwarves, we only really get to know
two of them: Thorin and Balin. The others, though visually distinguishable,
remain a tad indistinct.
One cannot review The Hobbit without
discussing the use of 3D and 48 fps. I haven’t seen the ‘normal’ version so I
can’t compare, but there were upsides and downsides. There were moments where I
felt more immersed into Middle Earth, but…because the 48 fps and 3D version
creates the expectation of experiencing something ‘as real as life’, the
moments where the CGI looks fake stand out like a sore thumb even more,
undermining Jackson’s intention: “For me it gives it the sense of reality,
and makes you feel like you're leaving the cinema and entering somewhere new”
(christianpost.com). Case in point: the scene where Radagast the Brown escapes
a pack of Warg scouts by sled.
This scene brings me to another issue
with 3D: the shock when something approaches the camera rapidly. For me, this
contrasts with the very goal of 3D in The Hobbit: to immerse yourself in
Middle Earth. When something suddenly approaches the camera (a Warg or an
arrow), I’m thinking less about the fate of the main characters and becoming
more aware of the fact that I’m watching a film. There was also the issue of
light. Although the image wasn’t darkened like other 3D films (The Last
Airbender), I found that scenes including large sources of light (like a
setting sun) automatically created the stretches of light one sees when
squinting one’s eyes. This affected the area between the edges of the 3D
glasses and the edges of the screen, again making me adjust my way of looking
at the screen and more aware that I’m watching a film. Then again, the 3D does
create some memorable images such as when one of the eagles flies towards
Thorin, lying close to the camera, and picks him up. Here, the way the eagle
approaches the camera is beautifully enhanced by the use of 3D.
It was great to hear Howard Shore
returning to Middle Earth once again. His music for the LOTR trilogy was always
of the grand leitmotif kind and The Hobbit is not an exception. Besides
showcasing new themes (such as those for Gandalf and Erebor), Shore also made numerous references to his LOTR themes, some of which
were very brief. For example: when Saruman suddenly appears at Rivendell, Shore
reprises his industrial theme for Isengard in a smooth, less obviously evil
manner, foreshadowing Saruman’s ‘turn to the dark side’.
All in all, I find it to be unfair
to judge this first part on its own merits since the story is so spread out,
even though this was a conscious decision. Once part two and three are released
we will be able to judge these films as one whole experience. Until then, this
first outing is definitely not as bad as I feared, but worse than I’d hoped.
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