Review of The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey (2012) by Lariste K — 01 Jun 2017

Smug mega-nerd Peter Jackson and co have decided to avoid the source material all together in favour of making three-hour installments of crude humor, overdressed cast members, over-designed backdrops and massive, complex action sequences that all look, and feel, like computer game cinematics created by Blur Studios, complete with virtual camera moves and impressive but utterly unrealistic narrative.

At no point does the Hobbit really fit into the piece, he doesn't even like the dwarves, nor want to go on an adventure with them; the basic dramatic tension between him, the dwarves, the elves and the orcs never has any feeling or emotion and the last shot is a set up for a sequel instead of a story ending.

Ironically, it's a type of overproduced b-grade trash that you'd think you'd see from New Line or the old Canon group pictures. An impressive movie visually, but forgettable, mishandled and meaningless.

In my humble opinion, the Pixar writers and and directors should have been brought in to improve the material, as many of the "acting" scenes in this long-form computer graphics movie feel extraneous or empty.