Drowning in special effects

Rating: 5/10 (11 February 2013)

In one of the 'Making of..." interviews for Lord of the Rings, Peter Jackson pointed out that "this movie really needs to be made by someone who understands special effects, otherwise the special effects can easily overwhelm the story" (I'm paraphrasing), and then did exactly that in the Hobbit. In the Lord of the Rings, Tolkien's tale ruled supreme and the special effects were in their proper place. In this one, Tolkien's story is revised and pushed aside by the special effects. In Lord of the Rings, live actors are used as much as possible (even with Gollum) whereas in this one, computer graphics seem to be preferred. I think the introduction of a new character as the main antagonist is especially heavy-handed. To Peter's credit, it was probably a doomed project from the first. Lord of the Rings was a pseudo-sequel to the Hobbit and the 2 books are entirely different in character. The Lord of the Rings is a dark, dramatic adult epic. The Hobbit was a whimsical child's fairytale. But the screen won't have it.