by Nick Nunziata: link
God damn!
Not sure about this. But so far the first Hobbit film looks great so I’ll give Jackson the benefit of the doubt (he did give us The Lord of the Rings masterpiece). And I’d rather 63 Hobbit films than a 4th Rush Hour.
I could barely swallow such a simple tale getting blown up into two films. I can’t stomach it taking THREE films and roughly 7.5 hours for Bilbo to return home.
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Grouchy McGrouches all up in this thread.
Not grouchy, just with a good memory from the first hour of King Kong.
If “grouchy” is code for realist, then yes indeed Greg is grouchy. Me too.
Ah King Kong wasn’t bad. Lovely Bones was. Let’s at least wait to see how the first film fares this Christmas.
I will say, It’ll be weird seeing one of these films in the middle of the summer (the release date for the third is scheduled for summer 2014)
Well, if the movies actually suck I’ll the first in line gnashing my teeth and beating my breasts. It’s just that I haven’t even watched a full trailer or even read a plot synopsis yet.
I think Fellowship was sort of the first and last hurrah in terms of getting a product that was as little Jackson and as much of Tolkien as possible. At this point I’m inclined just to say “fuck it” and let Jackson go wild with whatever he wants. With so many reboots and reimaginings these days, I really can’t complain about someone doing a big colorful mess of a few films. Words like, “tight” or “focussed” were probably never going to be used to describe these films.
I’m really trying to wrap my head around how some of you don’t see this as a giant red flag.
Two reasons for me. Cause his Lord of the Rings trilogy was a masterpiece. And every piece of footage from, at least, the first Hobbit film looks to be faithful and on the same level as the trilogy. This could all turn to shit but equally I think Jackson should be given the benefit of the doubt.
I’m sure Jackson’s made a wonderful Hobbit film, it’s the extra five hours of material he’s putting around it that befuddle the hell out of me.
On the one hand, I think if this was an original fantasy film, none of us would bat an eye; so why can’t we accept that it’s possible to make something good spinning off the world that Tolkien created, and that Jackson has established onscreen with such ambition and success? But then there’s another part of me that thinks unless the third film is an absolute home run, there’s no way it can avoid the taint of fanfic.
I adore The Lord of the Rings. The Return of the King might be my flat-out favorite film ever. But The Hobbit didn’t need to be two films, let alone three. I don’t need to spend nine hours with a group of dwarves trying to steal gold from a dragon.
Still, I had (and will try to continue to have) faith. But it’s not King Kong that gives me pause about this. Kong was unwieldy, but it had heart and generally hit the big moments. What gives me pause here is The Lovely Bones, which was completely tone deaf and a miserable approach to the material.
If that’s the Jackson who wants to stretch this out for a third film… uh-oh.
(But hey, maybe they’ll all be awesome!)
LOTR was also three books’ worth of material that Jackson trimmed down to make into three movies. He’s doing exactly the opposite with The Hobbit – taking one book and cramming three films’ worth of stuff into it. To the detriment of the fairy tale simplicity of the story.
This is called a director having carte blanche, and it rarely turns out well.
Seriously, The Hobbit should NOT be 3 movies. It just shouldn’t
AThis sounds like the most excruciating, over indulgent approach possible to adapting this story. A four hour cut of the Hobbit could work, but it’s simply not the Lord of the Rings, and this sounds like a studio’s financial decision abetted by a director with wildly misconceived notions about the nature of his source material and no small amount of personal hubris. Apocalypse Kong: Redux.
I never want any film to be bad, so I will hold out hope this turns out for the best. I just can’t shake this feeling though that after we almost got a one film Del Torro Hobbit, we now find ourselves in a hostile, unfriendly timeline.
If this in any way impedes Sherlock, I’m’a cut a bitch.