Ultimately Unfulfilling

Rating: 5/10 (13 December 2014)

As a huge fan of the literature and the original Rings trilogy, I was eagerly anticipating this film. Ultimately though, I left the cinema feeling...well, nothing really. Is this really the same team that produced such emotionally evocative, at times beautiful, films? One can scarcely believe it. Unfortunately they seem to have developed the ethos that the only way to gratify us, the audience, is by relentlessly pounding us with scenes that are not only ludicrously implausible but which often skirt on the utterly ridiculous. The odd moment of absurdity can be excused (or may even be welcome) but this film is saturated with them to the point of just making the whole thing lack credence. And that just makes me, personally, not care. I cannot be invested in characters or a particular plot with all these nonsensical, slapstick things going on around them. What I liked about the original trilogy was that when someone did something impressive it had impact; now such events happen so frequently I was left thinking - so what? Yet another folly in one long stupidity. I'm sure the film-makers are trying to push the envelope, create ever more interesting and "never seen that before" moments but I think in this instance the story (thin to start with) suffers. All the strengths of the original trilogy in regards to clarity of story-line, pacing and script-writing were the weaknesses of this film. It was cut together in a rather haphazard, confusing manner leading to situations like "oh right, we've got the bad guys up this hill and the good guys on the other side of the valley...but we need them to come together for the final face-off...so..how about...yes, I know...MASSIVE GOAT-THINGS!". No rhyme, no reason. Massive Goat- things. Sigh. Sometimes just because you can doesn't mean you should. For large segments of the film I was wondering "what the devil is going on" and I've read the book a thousand times and seen the first two films. And then when a scene with supposed emotional impact crops up it feels forced and incongruous, which can never be said about the original trilogy (which I still think has some of the most poignant, touching and beautifully delivered scenes ever). And this is not a slur on the actors, who perform well. But they are saying things or acting parts that just don't fit and are at odds with the goofball antics that gaudily dominates the screen-time. And the script has its apparent frailties - Tauriel uttering those trashy lines "why does it hurt so bad" or something. I mean come on. That line is 100% Twilight. Lazy. If you can't think of anything for her to say, don't have her say anything. She is an elf, a race so profound and deep and mysterious. And they have her spouting that prescribed, hollow garbage. In fact this whole contrived Tauriel- Kili romance is feeble, perhaps indicative of the "too much screen- time, not enough material" thread that seem to runs through this trilogy. This was the opposite problem faced by the original trilogy (too much material, not enough screen time) which was solved with such aplomb. All I can think is that the team are better at adapting existing story-lines than creating story-lines de novo. Or at least in finding a place for them in the film. I wanted to like it so much...but the bits I was waiting to see (death of Smaug, Gandalf entering the fray dramatically just as the good guys were about to cross swords, Beorn laying the smack down, Dol Guldur) either never materialised or were poorly executed. Ultimately Unfulfilling.