Oh, I'm so glad I read this. Because YES YES YES, this is exactly what I feel about the film and I didn't even know it properly until I read it. I've never actually read a review of anything which I identified with so much.
I liked it, but I didn't love it like I wanted to. And for exactly the reasons you write.
All that swooping around and the cartoonish aspects of the flight/fight scenes may have been to please fans of gaming but was the weakest point for me. Still I was rather entranced by Richard Armitage's Thorin so more willing to forgive other aspects.
It did remind me though that I much prefer stunt work over CGI that always diminishes any sense of reality.
My housemate's comment on leaving - when did dwarves become sexy?
I can't say I disagree with your points, but I weigh them differently, and the movie was mostly a success for me. I found the mucking around with characters that was done in this movie much more forgivable (in Bilbo's case, even an improvement, except that no one could become a skilled fighter so quickly) than what was done with Gimli, Faramir, and Denethor.
For me, a film should be judged as a film, not as how close to the book it is. The question always is: does it work? With LotR, most of the changes worked. (And I think the Faramir changes, in particular, were highly necessary. I have argued elsewhere that Faramir in the book is pretty much a plot device, and the more conflicted and complex version in the film -- oh yes he is -- becomes more than that.)
Of course, it helps that I don't actually like 'The Hobbit' even as a childrens' book (and I collect period childrens' books) and considered it flawed even on that level.
As you say, Balin was good, as was Dwalin. The rest, apart from Bofur and Fili and Kili were pretty amorphous, but they were in the book, and 13 is too large a character set to deal effectively with in either a book or a film.
Freeman's performance was pretty bland, but it doesn't seem to have stopped the expected amount of fawning from his fans, although I can seee nothing to merit it.
I hated the beginning with old Bilbo and Frodo. Yes, we all know that Bilbo survives, but that sort of opener strips away any remaining vestiges of dramatic tension.
I absolutely adored the score for the song, and can't wait to hear the whole thing properly.
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I liked it, but I didn't love it like I wanted to. And for exactly the reasons you write.
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It did remind me though that I much prefer stunt work over CGI that always diminishes any sense of reality.
My housemate's comment on leaving - when did dwarves become sexy?
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Of course, it helps that I don't actually like 'The Hobbit' even as a childrens' book (and I collect period childrens' books) and considered it flawed even on that level.
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Armitage carried the whole bloody thing for me.
As you say, Balin was good, as was Dwalin. The rest, apart from Bofur and Fili and Kili were pretty amorphous, but they were in the book, and 13 is too large a character set to deal effectively with in either a book or a film.
Freeman's performance was pretty bland, but it doesn't seem to have stopped the expected amount of fawning from his fans, although I can seee nothing to merit it.
I hated the beginning with old Bilbo and Frodo. Yes, we all know that Bilbo survives, but that sort of opener strips away any remaining vestiges of dramatic tension.
I absolutely adored the score for the song, and can't wait to hear the whole thing properly.
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