The Hobbit with a Victorian backdrop

Rating: Null/10 (25 November 2016)

The film is long. Way too long for what the story gives. And the extras and excessive backgrounds remind me of the silly epic movies of the Eastern European film makers. Pointless. Just to show off their power.
Almost three hours long? Gangs? New York? I was expecting another Once Upon a Time in America. But after the first half hour, after the fantasy battle of the freaks is done I could only think Lord of the Rings, or The Hobbit. Sure, the film is short on magic, but everything else is in place. Leo DiCaprio has the acting skills of a Keanu Reeves: a face like touched by some sort of strange paralysis reciting the words. It does not look menacing, it does not look dangerous. Only dull. They are all supposed to be tough. But this is a carnival, a very expensive costume party where any trace of realism is masked by the new extravagant clothing and the make up dirt.
Back some decades I was considering Martin S a great director. As Dustin Hoffman's character in Wag the Dog says: even a rhesus monkey can be a director. Martin is an old man and a film buff. Younger men like Quentin Tarantino can be film buffs and be creative too. Martin is just an overrated somebody starting on an ego trip.
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