tpigeon

I don't want to read too much into one quote, but Abrams seems resigned rather than excited by the notion of Williams returning.

So long that we're link-sharing, here's a link to an essay I recently wrote about An Unexpected Journey.

http://www.slantmagazine.com/house/2013/01/critical-distance-the-hobbit-an-unexpected-journey/

Problematic though it is, I quite enjoyed the movie.

Ted

To hit on some of the points that all of you have made, THE HOBBIT: AN UNEXPECTED JOURNEY is no doubt a disjointed work. There may be a few reasons for this, the most notable to me is that the book it's based on is episodic by nature. I like that aspect about the book, but it doesn't lend itself to an easy cinematic treatment, at least when it comes to balance and story structure and such.

The other point that bears mentioning is how the film only covers about six or seven chapters from the book, filling those in with a wealth of other material. Jackson and co. have been criticized for this, but I have no problem with it. As Quint has said in the past, viewers should accept that this is "The Hobbit-plus." To keep consistent with the tone and style of the previous films, this was somewhat inevitable. Now, the extent of their stretching is arguably gratuitous. And that's where this first film summers a bit. The emotional pull simply isn't there to justify such a sprawling work; as these films develop, I have no doubt that Jackson and his co-writers will develop all the thematic and narrative threads they've dutifully introduced here, but whether the arcs we're seeing in this film are truly satisfying is debatable, particularly in light of the somewhat flabby nature of the story and storytelling.

Recognizing these issues, I still enjoyed the film quite a bit. I was ambivalent early-on, but I found myself more drawn to the characters as it went on. Once the company arrives at Rivendell and beyond, I felt the movie was beginning to find its footing. It was the Gandalf-Galadriel interaction that finally convinced me that Jackson still had something to say. That's when I begun to feel that I was back in a Middle Earth and that Jackson was going to earnestly give us a more fully realized vision of it. The dwarves plot also begins to pick up after Rivendell. I particularly liked Bilbo's attempted escape from the cave before they end up in Goblin Town. Again, it's not the same kind of emotional pull we had in the earlier films. But that's ok. I think Jackson's only hinting at a larger emotional canvas.

I might have more to say about individual scenes or my thoughts on the characters and such, but I just wanted to offer a general reflection now. It's helping as I begin crafting my actual review of the film!

As for the score, I was disappointed with the overuse of the Misty Mountains theme and "greatest hits" quality it had regarding older themes. Having listened to the album, I can assume this was Jackson's doing. The theme itself is fine, but I didn't care for the heroic bursts of it (of which there were several). I rather liked its original use to underscore the journey. Shore will probably develop the Erebor material and other motifs, but I should also note that I am disappointed that the new Bilbo/Shire theme was all but removed from the movie completely. All in all, I was disappointed with the amount of re-scoring that took place and would have preferred Shore's original compositions.

Ted

I'm not sure I follow the editing argument. Some "tightening" won't result in a significantly shorter movie, unless you're talking about wholesale cutting scenes. The scenes that don't work at the end of RETURN OF THE KING have little to do with duration or editing, but instead with Jackson's confounding directorial decisions. The reunion at Frodo's bedside, for example, has some of most tedious use of slow-motion I've seen.

In general, I actually like that Jackson takes his time and let's his shots linger. It may make the weak scenes weaker, but it makes the good scenes stronger to a much greater degree. Jackson's flaws stem more from writing and occasional artificial quality some scenes have, which, I would guess, are the ones he doesn't innately have a sense for how to convey.

I should probably wait for LINCOLN to settle in more before I make such a statement. I'm having trouble finding the words now, but it almost seems to inject a WAR HORSE kind of sensibility into Williams's existing Americana/history mode, which is toned down a bit from its less subtle expressions in SAVING PRIVATE RYAN and THE PATRIOT. I'm sure this isn't the best way of putting it, but perhaps I'll find the words as I latch onto this score more.