journal features

movie review - The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey

the journal of Michael Werneburg

twenty-seven years and one million words

Toronto, 2012.11.23

Well, this year is turning out be really something. A lousy James Bond movie, a Tarantino movie I'll avoid at all costs, and now a really disappointing adaptation of The Hobbit, which is one of my favorite books.

I understand why they made this movie (and its forthcoming sequels(!)) after the success of "Lord of the Rings" but I think it's doing the book a great disservice. The book is a remarkably tight story that within its first 100 pages has not only brought the party together, whisked them out of the Shire, gotten them tangled with trolls and then with goblins .. but had also had the iconic encounter with Gollem and then reunited the party on the far slopes of the Misty Mountians. 100 pages. The story's one third done.

But no, here we have an endless getting around to getting out of the Shire and faffing about.

Not recommended.

rand()m quote

It's difficult in times like these: ideals, dreams and cherished hopes rise within us, only to be crushed by grim reality. It's a wonder I haven't abandoned all my ideals, they seem so absurd and impractical. Yet I cling to them because I still believe, in spite of everything, that people are truly good at heart.

—Anne Frank