On November 05 2011 06:08 Biff The Understudy wrote: I never managed to watch Lord of the Ring until the end. As much as I like Tolkien novel, and although some image were really strong and some passages really successful, I really thought Peter Jackson did overall a terrible job.
Don't think I will bother watching him slaughtering The Hobbit, which is my favorite Tolkien book.
Now the thing here is, the trilogy was butchered because Jackson had to fit six books each worthy of a three-hour movie into just three movies. Now we have one book being split to two movies, which I predict will involve a lot of scenery shots.
I'm sort of worried about Galadriel showing up, and I hope to hell Frodo will only show up in a framing device.
Well, I also don't like the way Peter Jackson films. I don't find his movies that interesting in general. That's a pity because there are some amazing visual moments in his LotR. The Hobbit will be another action packed super fast and violent movie that look for efficiency and uses super basic (vulgar?) way of filming.
The other thing Jackson really fails at for me is the general tone, and that's the most worrying. In Lord of the Ring you would go in one minute from a ridiculously sentimental death scene (obviously in slow motion with muted sound) to an "epic" battle where 3 knights fight successfully twelve zillion orcs and trolls (if you are lucky it may be in slow motion too), to a scene of goofy humor with Legolas doing skateboard on a shield or Gimli doing obvious dwarf jokes, to a fairy Arwen or Galadriel moment that will always look like a shampoo commercial where you are supposed to be like "whoaaa", to a "cute hobbit" thing with Merry and Pippin being brave or whatever, and the tone was never stable more than a dozen of seconds in a row, which made that the whole thing was desperately boring. In a way this way of trying to please all audiences at every moment in every way possible without any integrity to the story he is saying really reminds me the new Star Wars films.
Now that really worries me, because The Hobbit is great precisely because of its amazing tone which is very homogeneous. It is a children book, with naive humor, never too serious, and that's what makes its charm and its quality (because, as a literary work, I think it has a much higher quality than the LotR). I don't see at all Jackson succeeding to do anything with this naivety.
On November 05 2011 18:13 Biff The Understudy wrote: The other thing Jackson really fails at for me is the general tone, and that's the most worrying. In Lord of the Ring you would go in one minute from a ridiculously sentimental death scene to an "epic" battle where 3 knights fight successfully twelve zillion orcs and trolls, to a scene of goofy humor with Legolas doing skateboard on a shield or Balin doing obvious dwarf jokes, to a "cute hobbit" thing with Merry and Pippin being brave or whatever, and the tone was never stable more than a dozen of seconds in a row, which made that the whole thing was desperately boring. In a way this way of trying to please all audiences at every moment in every way possible without any integrity to the story he is saying really reminds me the new Star Wars films.
Yes! That bothered me so much in the LotR films. Especially the Legolas scene you mention, or the numerous terrible jokes from Gimli.
It's not that I want a super dark film with no light hearted parts, the books have plenty of bits that were funny and not too serious. It's just that I don't want the characters making dumb jokes about how dwarves are short 20 seconds after someone just got an arrow in the throat.
On November 05 2011 18:13 Biff The Understudy wrote: The other thing Jackson really fails at for me is the general tone, and that's the most worrying. In Lord of the Ring you would go in one minute from a ridiculously sentimental death scene to an "epic" battle where 3 knights fight successfully twelve zillion orcs and trolls, to a scene of goofy humor with Legolas doing skateboard on a shield or Balin doing obvious dwarf jokes, to a "cute hobbit" thing with Merry and Pippin being brave or whatever, and the tone was never stable more than a dozen of seconds in a row, which made that the whole thing was desperately boring. In a way this way of trying to please all audiences at every moment in every way possible without any integrity to the story he is saying really reminds me the new Star Wars films.
Yes! That bothered me so much in the LotR films. Especially the Legolas scene you mention, or the numerous terrible jokes from Gimli.
It's not that I want a super dark film with no light hearted parts, the books have plenty of bits that were funny and not too serious. It's just that I don't want the characters making dumb jokes about how dwarves are short 20 seconds after someone just got an arrow in the throat.
Well, if you remember The Hobbit, it was not dark at all. It was light-hearted and had a charming simplicity. Lord of the Ring should have been dark. The problem with Lord of the Ring, and I mean the book, is that it has a really mild tone. In a way, I would make the opposite critic to the book and the movie. The movie jumps from one tone to another at a hysterical speed and everything becomes forced and boring, but the book is just plainly monotone. You never even have a single moment where you could smile since it takes itself so seriously from the top to the end. I still like it, but it's not very well written and definitely not a masterwork. I think The Hobbit is.
I personally don't think there could be a better person for the job. Peter Jackson's passion and the sheer commitment he has to creating the best film possible is inspirational.
Regarding the LOTR films, as an ex-film student I am often caught analysing scenes or continuity issues, pacing issues between scenes etc. One thing often mentioned is the switching between fighting, jokes, sad/serious scenes - I feel like this is absolutely necessary for: excitement, you can't show a whole battle at once, you'd get bored of just fighting for more than a minute or so; and juxtapositon, a common technique in film, happiness cut to sadness cut to fighting into epic effects, all serve to manipulate viewers and provoke emotional response. LOTR, imo, allows almost perfect timing for each scene - especially Return of the King.
I will concede that I found some of the dialogue within the battle scenes was completely unneeded (legolas counting kills???? come on), and there was a lot of continuity errors surrounding some of the later fights (orcs going missing between shots etc).
I just finished watching Return of the King (was bored, wanted a medival/fantasy movie to tide me over while I wait for Skyrim) and I'm not ashamed to say the final 20-25 minutes was probably the most emotional I've ever been from watching a film; tears in my eyes almost the whole time!
If The Hobbit is even close to the level of epicness of the trilogy I'll be 100% satisfied.
Alright no trailer yet, but Andy Serkis (Gullom and second unit director) said in an interview to expect a trailer around Christmas, so yah. Surprised that they will have a trailer out about 1 year before release, but still so damn excited. Can't wait to finally see how Martin Freeman looks as Bilbo and getting a first look at all the dwarves.
On November 15 2011 16:24 feanor1 wrote: Alright no trailer yet, but Andy Serkis (Gullom and second unit director) said in an interview to expect a trailer around Christmas, so yah. Surprised that they will have a trailer out about 1 year before release, but still so damn excited. Can't wait to finally see how Martin Freeman looks as Bilbo and getting a first look at all the dwarves.
Well.. There will be two movies anyway, so i think a trailer/teaser year before the first movie is somewhat expected. But glad to see it this early. Thanks for the info!
I'm think there are probably other people like me who liked The Hobbit a lot more than the LotR novels (which I didn't finish). I really like the movies for the epic battle scenes nonetheless, so news of a The Hobbit movie is good news either way.
Thanks for posting that. The video blog by Peter Jackson is really cool. Not a huge 3D fan in general for movies but The Hobbit was one of the books I read repeatedly from 8-14. Loved re-reading that book and tbh was a bigger fan of The Hobbit than LoTR. Video #4 shows some possible shooting of the dwarves trapped and wrapped up by the carnivorous spiders. Also at 5:05 the Editor of the films has a sweet Filco Majestouch Keyboard with a rainbow-style keycap set up. Pretty nice, maybe should mosey on over to the mechanical keyboard thread...
So much Peter Jackson hate lol. Honestly, I never had a problem with the way he did LotR. Could it have been better? Of course; movies are worse than books 99% of the time. Personal imagination is just fucking amazing and people can never capture that. Did Jackson do a good enough job to make the movie enjoyable for me? Fuck yes.
I'm kinda disappointed that Hobbit is ognna be in 3D, but i expected as much. The producers probably really knuckled Jackson into doing it in 3D. It should be amazing regardless tho.
Peter Jackson is to me the greatest contemporary director with del Torro and the Coens, there is no doubt in my mind it will be a masterpiece like many of his other films. I can't even begin to understand how anyone can dislike what he did with LotR and call himself a cinephile.
I've loved Peter Jackson since I watched Braindead in my girlfriends Film class.
Peter and Weta will do an amazing job with the Hobbit, they will have learned from the few mistakes made in LotR and will create another piece of film history.
Not only are they wildly successful in a difficult business but they are also excellent ambassadors for New Zealand overseas.
I emplore all who are critcising him on his handeling of LotR to watch other movies of his, Heavenly Creatures, The Frighteners, Braindead, Meet the Feebles and The Lovely Bones
EPT
