Wow! THIS is why we go to movies, or at least I do. Big, bold and brassy.
For those of you living under a rock, this is the third movie of The Hobbit trilogy. An approximately 300 page story that took as much times to tell as its its 1200 page sequel, The Lord of the Rings. Lest you think this is a complaint, it's not. I am not a Hobbit purist and I like the direction Peter Jackson has taken the series. The movie takes up where the last one left off. Smaug the dragon incinerates Laketown and is killed by Bart. Because their homes have been destroyed, Laketown now goes to Thorin to give them what was promised so they can rebuild. Thorin, at this point, has become mad with greed and will not honor any past agreements. Through a huge series of events which I won't detail here (read the book dammit! It's 300 pages long. You can literally read it in one day.), armies of elves, dwarves and orcs all come to the same place and have it out in a 45-minute orgy of fighting. Thorin dies. Everyone's sad. Bilbo goes home. The end.
This is a tough review for me. There isn't a lot to say other than AWESOME! The story is not particularly complex. The Hobbit is a children's book after all. The trilogy cut it up into very bite-sized parts. Peter Jackson and Fran Walsh filled in some more story from J.R.R. Tolkien's The Cimarillion to fill out the time, and while the purists hated it, I loved it. I already knew the Hobbit, so it added a new layer of discovery for me which I enjoyed. The other issue is that, frankly, Tolien was not that good a writer, so most of his books are a bit of a mess. But he was a great creator and storyteller and made this world lush and amazing. Jackson did a masterful job at bringing both stories to the screen and I'm glad he did. He ties together the two trilogies beautifully at the end. I must admit, when I saw the end, I shed a little tear. In was introduced to The Hobbit when I was seven, and it has been a part of my life ever since. With this ending, this brings to a close about 37 years of waiting, and boy, was it worth it. The only reason for it not getting four stars, is that it's a little simplistic and drives every point home in the first 30 minutes. The other two hours is just more of the same.
I sometimes just love to sit in a theater and be totally entertained. The Hobbit did exactly that. Not was grand, exciting, epic and most importantly, fun. If you're not into the sto liken universe, it may not be for you. For all you Lord of the Rings purists out there, get over yourself and join our reindeer games. Stop being such dorks. You can't have everything, but this comes close. Nor everyone else, strap yourselves in for one wild ride. You'll thank me later, if you haven't already seen it.
No comments:
Post a Comment