Friday, December 27, 2013

The Hobbit II - A good film after all, despite so much negative criticism

I'm a great fan of all of Tolkien's books and last night I watched The Hobbit II in the theater. This second part of the trilogy was two and a half hours long. Before I went there I heard many negative comments about how commercial Peter Jackson had become, and how ridiculous it was to extend such a short book as The Hobbit so much as to make three long films out of it. I also heard criticism regarding how the original story had been modified in some parts in order to extend it, and things like that.

In short, I like the film. Actually, I loved the film! It is true that there are some few modifications, but there are more additions to the story, rather than alterations of the main line. The development of the story is actually the same as in the book. Personally I find that all those "modifications" just add to the development and make it more fun. Perhaps I would just have omitted making too much fun out of some few battles (mainly the one where there elfs, orcs and dwarfs inside the barrels are involved), and I would have also omitted that silent liking or simply "love" between Tauriel and Kili. I concede that it looks nice, but that definitely is not the style of the author!


Still, the film is fun. I didn't get bored at any point. And I also find some bad will on the part of the people that criticize the length of the trilogy from "such a small book". In the first place, the book can be as deep as a longer book. And in the second place, these are the same people that usually criticize that a film is usually too short to include the whole story of a book. And they always complain of scenes or character's development that was omitted in the films because of lack of space and time. Now, instead, they are complaining of just the opposite. For the first time!

Also, Peter Jackson is trying to show in a more evident way the Evil that is brewing on behalf of Sauron. This is perceptible in the book, but the director wants to make it more perceptible, and I think that is OK. Because that is not an alteration in essence. Just a choice of developing more something that was more like just hinted and suggested by the book.

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