journal features

movie review - The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug

the journal of Michael Werneburg

twenty-seven years and one million words

Toronto, 2015.10.02

My son's interested in these movies, so we've been slowly seeing them through. I found this one particularly flat and lacking any of the character of the first. The tone is uneven, the acting is hesitant, the whole thing feels like a directorial failure. The state of the movie somehow clobbers the actual story, which is based on one of my all-time favorite books - and which should have been within the grasp of the director that brought us the vastly more expansive "Lord of the Rings". I'm not enjoying this, it's the "Star Wars" prequels all over again.

Not recommended.

rand()m quote

If I had my life to live over, I'd try to make more mistakes next time. I would relax, I would limber up, I would be crazier than I've been on this trip. I know very few things I'd take seriously any more. I'd certainly be less hygenic... I would take more chances, I would take more trips, I would scale more mountains, I would swim more rivers, and I would watch more sunsets. I would eat more ice cream and fewer beans. I would have more actual troubles and fewer imaginary ones. Oh, I've had my moments, and if I had to do it all over again, I'd have many more of them, in fact I'd try not to have anything else, just moments, one after another, instead of living so many years ahead of my day. If I had it to do all over again, I'd travel lighter, much lighter than I have. I would start barefoot earlier in the spring, and I'd stay that way later in the fall. And I would ride more merry-go-rounds, and catch more gold rings, and greet more people and pick more flowers and dance more often. If I had it to do all over again - but you see, I don't.

—Jorge Luis Borges