He relies far too much on the structure of the first three movies: start with a dramatic expositional prologue followed by introductions and a chase that stops abruptly at Rivendell – big council – followed by another chase, close with awkward foreshadowing scene for next installment.

To make matters worse he reinforces this cut and paste approach by relying too heavily on the same musical themes from the first films. I actually waited until I heard the Rivendell theme to go take a bio break because I knew there would be at least 30 minutes of (narratively speaking) meaningless introductions and exposition before the next stretch of movie.

Jackson could have completely edited out the initial Erebor back story, reduced the Rivendell council to a simpler exchange between Gandalf and Elrond, completely edited out the Radagast aside (as well as all silly drug using innuendo’s) and turn down the volume on the trumped up Thorin vs Pale Orc X-Box video game rivalry. BTW I’m fairly certain Weta pilfered the Pale Orc visual design from a Frank Frazetta illustration.

The fact that I still enjoyed the movie is testament to the charm of those parts that were still Tolkeinian: the amusing introduction scenes between Bilbo and the Dwarves, the Trolls, and most satisfyingly, the game of riddles, and finally the subtext of the whole story, the hidden heroism of the ordinary.

I think I’ve just gotten used to ignoring Jackson’s embellishments in these films because when he gets something right, it makes the tedium of the rest seem trivial.

The violence and frenetic action: well, I wouldn’t want to take a small child to see this movie. The trolls are funny enough and the goblins could have been merely frightening. Children love to see big bad things brought down. This book was written for children, and can be read to those quite young without ill effect. But this movies is pushed into entertainment for an audience with a stomach for gore that I hope no child has. The great orc has too much persistent menace. And aren’t angry wolves frightening enough? Maybe the problem is that CGI violence is too real looking.

What are they teaching in today’s film schools?

I expect Jackson has made much of Dol Guldur for the second movie. That is a story mentioned that he can meddle with considerably. The three movies do seem a stretch, but if he keeps pulling in history and building more into marginal characters, he’ll fill the time. And he will make good profit.

As for the Hobbit, which I saw tonight…it has its merits, especially the Shire scenes, the slower pace, and Martin Freeman, but overall, alas, the verdict is

THUMBS DOWN!

Peter Jackson’s had a long time to learn from the just criticisms of the Lord of the Rings movies, and now he has total artistic freedom. But all his faults are if anything more strongly on display here. The Hobbit might be a better and more coherent film than any of the three LOTR ones, but it ultimately annoys more.

The two big failings are that:

a) the big action scenes are ridiculous. this band of dwarves routinely survives the impossible, and the overall the action is the stupid Phantom Menace kind: a bazillion things happen at once. At those points, it’s a video game not a dramatic movie. It’s 2012…this junk uber-action is utterly old hat.

b) the childish whimsical tone of the Hobbit is lost…gets lost amid Jackson’s love of the epic and the manly-heroic. A more subtle criticism, but still.

Finally, the three-movie thing for the Hobbit is ridiculous…especially since it still doesn’t make this movie shorter. Should have been two episodes. I think the three-fold scheme has something to do with Jackson wanting to dramatically represent the poisoning of Greenwood into Mirkwood over the course of his trilogy, which happens over the course of a few months, whereas in the books this took hundreds of years. That is itself a mistake, akin to the one he made with his portrayal of Saruman’s ruination of Isengard in the LOTR. Frustrating, because Jackson is good at telling back-story, so he doesn’t need to distort the time-frame of the books the way he winds up doing.

Maybe a full post on it later.