Warners headed remake, soulless and overproduced

Rating: 4/10 (2 June 2017)

Smug mega-nerd Peter Jackson and co have decided to avoid the source material all together in favour of making three-hour installments of crude humor, overdressed cast members, over-designed backdrops and massive, complex action sequences that all look, and feel, like computer game cinematics created by Blur Studios, complete with virtual camera moves and impressive but utterly unrealistic narrative.
At no point does the Hobbit really fit into the piece, he doesn't even like the dwarfs, nor want to go on an adventure with them. The basic dramatic tension between him, the dwarfs, the elves and the orcs never has any feeling or emotion and the last shot is a set up for a sequel instead of a story ending.
Ironically, it's a type of overproduced b-grade trash that you'd think you'd see from New Line or the old Canon Group company. An impressive movie visually, but forgettable, mishandled and meaningless. In my humble opinion, the Pixar writers and and directors should have been brought in to improve the material, as many of the "acting" scenes in this long-form computer graphics movie feel extraneous or empty.
Lastly, I object to this films exclusively white male cast and narrative, and the fact that the New Zealand public contributed nearly 200 million dollars in tax relief for the Warners production to be made in their trade territory, despite mixed reviews and the overall impression that it ruined enthusiasm for the older classic pictures. The New Zealand public also faces a housing crisis and mounting homelessness due to opportunistic immigration policies and other serious issues due to earthquake damage. Coughing up incentives for wealthy Hollywood producers is hardly a shared priority.