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Monday, January 12, 2015

There and back again and again and again: a Review of the third Hobbit Movie

I finally bit the bullet, found a babysitter, and went to the last installment of 'The Hobbit,' and I can't say that it was worth it. I've been dragging my feet, dithering, and otherwise making excuses, and this from the person that once skipped class in graduate school to get tickets to the midnight opening of 'Return of the King,' and went to a movie she'd never heard of in hopes of watching the trailer for the same. I love Tolkien, am a big fan of the 'Lord of the Rings' trilogy in both its literary and theatrical forms, but I have been very disappointed with the current handling of 'The Hobbit.' To be fair, I will admit I am not a huge fan of the book either, it is a nice little story, but nowhere near 'Rings' in either a literary sense or on my list of favorite books, but it is not meant to be, it was written as a children's story, a lighter, gentler look at Middle Earth than that portrayed in the more serious 'Rings,' and it is this fact that I think which has proven the downfall of the current incarnation of the movies: they tried to make it as epic as 'Rings' and have only made a muddle of things.

I will reference back to one of my favorite characters from the Rings book, Faramir, though his character was horrendously abused in the movies (this is my one major beef with that production). In the books he says, "I do not love the bright sword for its sharpness, nor the arrow for its swiftness, nor the warrior for his glory. I love only that which they defend." This is the whole point of Tolkien Middle Earth saga, Hobbit, Rings, or what have you. Tolkien does not have war for war's sake but to protect that which is worth protecting, but the entire Hobbit trilogy is nothing but a great unending chase or, the last installment especially, a giant, protracted battle. There were a few good moments at the first that gave me hope for this last episode, but alas, they died aborning.

The actors playing Bilbo and Thorin especially were good, but they never got a chance to actually become the characters they play, rather the entire epic is spent in action rather than in exploration and development of any sort of character or plot. I felt like I was watching someone else play a video game rather than watching an actual movie. The whole elf/dwarf love triangle was also weird and verging on creepy, next thing you know Arwen will be hitting on Frodo! Why drag in Azog and the White Council? Why make a trilogy of a book that would make a decent 3 hour movie in the first place? Why were the battle scenes bigger, grander, and cooler than anything in Rings when the Battle of Five Armies (not 'the' Five Armies) was nowhere near that scale? Where did the Wyrms come from and why not use them to greater effect against your enemies rather than just digging holes? Who on earth was ever trying to refound the Kingdom on Angmar? Why make the lonely mountain of huge strategic value when it is actually in the middle of nowhere? Why attack Dale, a ruined town inhabited by refugees, did those scenes mind anyone else of Helm's Deep sans the walls? How did anyone survive anyway, with all those orc hordes and all the good guys annihilated? Five eagles and a bear aren't going to save the day, this looked worse than the Pelennor Fields! This was a story about a hobbit and some dwarves, a wizard and a dragon; it is a journey there and back again, an intimate look at a few characters rather than war on a grand scale, or it should have been.

There was no closure, no wrap up, no epilogue. Return of the King arguably had too much closure, but The Hobbit had barely anything at all. Who lived, who died, what came of them? Where was the moral tale of greed, jealousy, friendship, bravery, and honor? Sure, they had a few touching moments but they seemed a mere afterthought amidst all the grand theatrics. This would make a fine video game but a poor movie. I was sorely disappointed in the affair as a whole, it would be different had Peter Jackson not proven himself with the original trilogy, after that, this can be nothing but a dismal failure. There is no storytelling, only action; no character or plot, only blood and suspense. He has shown he can tell a good tale but that is far from the case here, only the video game junkies can find much to admire in this muddle; there is no story at all.

Perhaps modern aesthetics require all action, no subtle plot or characterization, nothing over which we must mull and chew and think, only blood and guts and glory with no moral underpinnings or thoughts of greatness to disturb our vain and shallow lives. We prefer to muddle on in ignorance and indifference, much like the denizens of the Shire when the world beyond their borders is on the very verge of collapse and then sneer at the returning heroes as if they were the ones who were mad; perhaps it is an unwitting and ironic commentary on the sad state of the modern mind in the Western world.  If you like carnage, action, and battle scenes, this movie is awesome. If you want a touching story with a smattering of adventure and danger with interesting characters and an actual plot, go read the book or find a different movie!

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