by Subjectivist » Fri 27 Dec 2013, 09:56:35
$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Beery1', 'I') just read a review that basically said that they're releasing to theaters what is, for all intents and purposes, an extended edition, but that contrary to what happened to LOTR, fans of the book will clamor for an alternate condensed 2 hour "special edition" without all the CGI nonsense when The Hobbit gets its final DVD release.
When I found out, last year, that they were making The Hobbit into another 9 hour extravaganza, I knew it was a mistake. To me, it's a classic example of a "one-movie" book. I figured I'd wait until the third movie comes out before I even attempt to see any of them, but I gave in and saw the first movie on video a couple of months ago. My conclusion - they turned what should have been a simple slow-paced adventure story into an all-action special effects extravaganza. Did we really need all the stupid CGI plate-throwing, tumbling down while fighting through the mines, Radagast's hare-pulled sleigh of silliness, etc., etc., etc? I don't think so - it's all unnecessary padding. To paraphrase one of my favorite lines from Jurassic Park, "Jackson was so preoccupied with whether he could add tons of mindless CGI that he didn't stop to think if he should.". Still haven't seen the second film. I want to, because I still respect some parts Peter Jackson's vision, but I can't deal with the fact that he's selling out to greedy producers who want to milk Tolkien for another few years, so what respect I still have is wearing quite thin.
I mean, what's next - are they going to make The Silmarillion into a CGI-heavy version of Game of Thrones with naked cavorting Elf-prozzers humping Dwarves and even more of the "falling while fighting" rubbish? I fear Hollywood is turning Peter Jackson into a third-rate George Lucas, and I didn't think there could be anyone more third-rate than George Lucas.
Given the length of the novel The Hobbit I believe two movies of 120 minutes each would have done it justice, for a total of four hours. Instead we are getting a little over twice that in screen time and almost all of it is padding that doesn't add anything to the story or move the plot along. After I saw part two I pulled out my paperback novel and looked it up, the screen time from when Bilbo entered The Lonely Mountain and met Smaug is about 20 minutes long, but only 18 pages in a 287 page book. If they kept that pace for the whole novel it mould last just under 5 hours, which would be much more acceptible than 8. Not to mention that going to the theater three times and buying three blue ray movies is a lot more expensive than two.
Oh have no doubt I am eagerly anticipating he last movie, but I am also somewhat dissipointed in the second which I expected to be the last after seeing part one. Brevity is the soul of wit, and as a famous writer once said, the greatest sin an author can make is to waste the readers time. In this context all the unneeded fluff that does little to advance the plot just wastes my time.
In the Lord of the Rings trillogy a lot of stuff had to be cut out to keep the movies down to three hours. All four novels are basically the same length so now you have the exact opposite problem, too much has been added in.