Mercurius
Legend
I can't seem to avoid those monstrosities that Peter Jackson churned out as HBO keeps playing them, again and again. But as I write this I'm watching a few minutes of the bloated Battle of Five Armies and I could help but ask that cliche, but potent question: What would John Ronald Reuel think? I shudder to imagine.
Where the flaws and excesses of the Lord of the Rings films were forgivable because it was so clearly based upon a love of the source material, aside from a few cringe-worthy moments (e.g. the infamous "imagine a queen, both beautiful and terrible!" Galadriel freak out, or the excessive sentimentality of "Oh Sam!") they were pretty good films to boot. They captured, as best they could, the feel of Middle-earth.
But the Hobbit movies...well, they are to the original LotR films as episodes 1-3 of Star Wars were to the original trilogy. A soul-less, materialistic, CGI mockery. A total travesty. Where the LotR movies were flawed but beautiful homages to Tolkien, the Hobbit films are like searching his grave-site for valuables people might have left.
I did kind of like the Lonely Mountain sequence, with Smaug being pretty good and the Dwarvish halls being visually stunning. And of course there were other visual thrills. But I couldn't help but feel like it was all just a paper-thin spectacle veiling a money-grabbing ruse. I would have rather have seen Jackson produce a single movie that was for younger people, that didn't try to dredge up the leavings of the earlier films.
OK, I'll stop, but I could go on...
For shame, Peter Jackson.
Where the flaws and excesses of the Lord of the Rings films were forgivable because it was so clearly based upon a love of the source material, aside from a few cringe-worthy moments (e.g. the infamous "imagine a queen, both beautiful and terrible!" Galadriel freak out, or the excessive sentimentality of "Oh Sam!") they were pretty good films to boot. They captured, as best they could, the feel of Middle-earth.
But the Hobbit movies...well, they are to the original LotR films as episodes 1-3 of Star Wars were to the original trilogy. A soul-less, materialistic, CGI mockery. A total travesty. Where the LotR movies were flawed but beautiful homages to Tolkien, the Hobbit films are like searching his grave-site for valuables people might have left.
I did kind of like the Lonely Mountain sequence, with Smaug being pretty good and the Dwarvish halls being visually stunning. And of course there were other visual thrills. But I couldn't help but feel like it was all just a paper-thin spectacle veiling a money-grabbing ruse. I would have rather have seen Jackson produce a single movie that was for younger people, that didn't try to dredge up the leavings of the earlier films.
OK, I'll stop, but I could go on...
For shame, Peter Jackson.