Then there is Jackson’s decision to film not only in 3D but in 48 frames per second, double the standard number. (He eventually stepped aside but retains co-screenplay credit along with Jackson and his Rings partners Fran Walsh and Philippa Boyens.) At first proposed as a two-part saga, it then became three, following the lead of the Harry Potter and Twilight series to split stories into the maximum number of installments. Once the venture came to life again, there were even more hassles involving ownership, lawsuits, studios coming and going and the initial involvement of Guillermo del Toro as director. Jackson announced his interest in filming Hobbit as early as 1995, before Rings, but was prevented from moving ahead by knotty rights issues. This might be one venture where, rather than DVDs offering an “Expanded Director’s Version,” there might be an appetite for a “Condensed Director’s Cut” in a single normal-length film. There are elements in this new film that are as spectacular as much of the Rings trilogy was, but there is much that is flat-footed and tedious as well. In Jackson’s academically fastidious telling, however, it’s as if The Wizard of Oz had taken nearly an hour just to get out of Kansas. If Hobbit had been filmed shortly after the book’s publication in 1937 (it’s a wonder that it wasn’t), one easily could imagine a lively affair full of great character actors and cleverly goofy special effects that would have moved the story along in smart style in less than two hours. Still, based on its maker, source and gigantic promotional campaign, this first section to the long-awaited prequel to Rings no doubt will mine equivalent amounts of box-office gold, as will its follow-ups. In pure movie terms, however, it’s a bit of a slog, with an inordinate amount of exposition and lack of strong forward movement. Spending nearly three hours of screen time to visually represent every comma, period and semicolon in the first six chapters of the perennially popular 19-chapter book, Jackson and his colleagues have created a purist’s delight, something the millions of die-hard fans of his Lord of the Rings trilogy will gorge upon. Tolkien’s The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey. There has almost certainly never been an adaptation of a novel more studiously, scrupulously and strenuously faithful as Peter Jackson’s film of J.R.R. 'Winning Time' Canceled at HBO After Two Seasons
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
Details
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |