My guide to Peter Jackson and his production team on how to win back Hobbit naysayers...It was always inevitable, really. Ever since the announcement back in July 2012 that Peter Jackson's two-part film adaptation of J.R.R. Tolkien's classic children's novel The Hobbit was to be instead split into a trilogy, the cynics of this day and age have been proclaiming that these new instalments in Tolkien adapted lore aren't anywhere close to the quality of the acclaimed The Lord Of The Rings movie trilogy. I couldn't have agreed less, awarding the beautiful, visionary The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey a full 5* rating when it hit cinemas last month. The question still remains, though- how can Jackson and his team ensure with the release of The Desolation Of Smaug this Christmas that the reviews of their next film are more universally consistent and positive this time around?
Firstly, despite some of the negative press that surrounded additional elements of Tolkien lore such as Radagast The Brown, the Necromancer and the White Council's inclusions in the first film, I reckon that it would be in the director and executive producer's best interests to retain these expansive scene additions. Such critics often seem to forget that The Hobbit was often a largely episodic adventure on paper, one that often lacked direction and as such would be difficult to convey as anything other than a Narnia rip-off in a single standalone motion picture. By including these new elements which are building towards a direct segueway into The Lord Of The Rings- especially with that nostalgic prologue taking place in 'modern day' Middle-Earth with an elderly Bilbo chatting to Frodo- the filmmakers can soon engineer a development whereby all six films based on these classic novels can be watched in direct chronological order. Believe me, for any complaints that there are now, fans will not likely pass up the chance to conduct a day-long marathon of Hobbit and LOTR Extended Editions gorging when the opportunity eventually arises.
Next up, a somewhat contradictory requirement: although the new LOTR elements of this new series of films are welcome, an increased focus for Bilbo and company on their final destination would be appreciated. Here, I'm essentially saying that while we all undoubtedly loved the opening teaser scenes of Smaug's capturing of Erebor and indeed the exciting cliffhanger preview of the CGI dragon itself, we want to see a lot more of the fearsome creature in Part Two. With any luck, the title- The Desolation Of Smaug- should clearly allude to Bilbo actually entering the dwarves' home to steal the treasure and encounter Smaug, played by none other than Martin Freeman's Sherlock co-star Benedict Cumberbatch. Perhaps we'll see Smaug's journey right through until his ultimate demise, but regardless of how it all turns out for the character, more focus on the unexpected journey to fight him should be an imminent priority. Should the extensive running time return as we all expect it to, I'm sure fans of the saga will be more than happy to have that increased focus of direction start to appear.
Speaking of the running time, this brings me to my final point on The Hobbit: The Desolation Of Smaug. As you should very well know by now, I absolutely loved An Unexpected Journey, and could not fault its three-hour borderline length or indeed the eventful occurences within it. That said, I do wonder if Peter Jackson isn't starting to become a little overzealous to intend each and every one of his movies to border on 180 minutes of somewhat uncomfortable cinema-sitting. While for the most part the director has shown strong justification for this, some of my colleagues who accompanied me to the first part of the trilogy did say that they switched off at around the 120/130 minute mark, not so much as a result of a poor climax but rather overexhaustion from the sheer length of the beast. Despite having no such problems in my viewing, I recognise the need for many of us to get up and have a stretch after a long time in a stationary position, and boy, did we spend a while in said position for the first flick. Considering that Extended Editions of these three films are basically a given, must Jackson really endeavour to make the original versions such long affairs? Yes, it worked wonders for The Lord Of The Rings (although The Return Of The King did push it as it moved towards the four-hour mark!), but as we've said before, this is a lighter and more fast-paced adventure for its characters. It's unlikely to make much difference to Jackson here, but at the very least it's something that would be great for him to at least take into consideration in future motion picture projects beyond this ambitious three-part production.
As ever, in no way whatsoever do I intend this piece to be a foreboding message of negative will towards the Hobbit saga, quite the opposite. Like so many Tolkien fans across the world, I absolutely loved everything about An Unexpected Journey, and am already counting down the days like a true devotee until The Desolation Of Smaug (December 13th) and There And Back Again (July 14th, 2014) hit cinemas. All the same, if Peter Jackson and New Line want to heed the words of critics of the original, as they should, to give them the best chance possible for a Best Picture nomination from the Academy Awards come January 2014, then they could do well to take a read of these points and act on them. I'm sure that The Hobbit: The Desolation Of Smaug and its Summer 2014 successor will be visionary instalments of cinema that continue to captivate with Martin Freeman's engaging performance as Bilbo Baggins, yet if Jackson wants to take things one step further and embalm this trilogy in film history in the minds of critics worldwide, then at least now, he should know where to start...
No comments:
Post a Comment