Dear Peter Jackson,
I thought there would be trouble when I read that you ‘believed there was enough footage’ to shoot The Hobbit in three parts. Many people stated that there was barely enough story to get two good movies, but you found a way Mr Jackson.
Still my friends and I excitedly booked our tickets for the return to Middle-earth and we put our faith in the reliable hands of the director who brought us the Lord of the Rings trilogy.
We expected familiarity and that’s what we got, starting in Bag End with the assistance of Elijah Wood. However after coming out of the cinema after An Unexpected Journey it was hard to say how I felt, our immediate reactions were: ‘we were in there a long time’. Unfortunately there was more disappointment than joy as we spoke about the overlong and overstuffed movie.
Not to say that any Lord of the Rings fan wouldn’t enjoy this return to the big screen, but it seems because you decided to make three movies, you’re now focusing on the small details that are now amounting to large portions of the movie. I was surprised that the dwarves weren't really developed past the hungry and drunk stereotypes and there was no emotional connection. So unless you are really familiar with the book, you may become disinterested.
We tried to pick out the few scenes that were actually good amongst a stretched out nothing-y film. Everyone will note Bilbo and Gollum’s scene as a highlight and as ever Andy Serkis does an amazing job. But this scene comes to late and felt like a reward for sitting through over two and a half hours of footage.
We’re also beginning to see that action sequences aren’t your strength and those that we saw in The Hobbit blurred together somewhat. There are several very big action sequences, but it became dull as the dwarves easily beat thousands of goblins in their own lair and then survive a huge fall down a cliffs edge.
Lets hope the other two movies aren’t as sluggish as the first or that you’ll at least revisit the editing suite to make sure you’ve learnt from An Unexpected Journey.
