The Vamp of a Lifetime

Rating: 7/10 (15 December 2013)

So the Money asked Peter Jackson if he could stretch The Hobbit out to three movies. And he did.
I enjoyed the Lord of the Rings movies, because I accept the fact that they are not J. R. R. Tolkien's Lord of the Rings movies, they are Peter Jackson's. So, these movies are Peter Jackson's. He has the right to rewrite whatever he wants. And he and his staff have done their homework, and taken liberally from others of Tolkien's writings, and extrapolated well on things Tolkien hinted at and never really portrayed.
This second movie of the three has moments of magic and beauty. There were moments where I gasped and moments where I laughed in delight.
There were more moments where I drummed my fingers in frustration and tedium. The tedium was in the frequent (of course) and interminable fight scenes. The tedium was in all the special effects, all the CG. Technologically wonderful, though no more wonderful than many other movies that have come out lately.
Only one or two of the magic came from CG.
The best moments of the movie came when Peter Jackson lets the whiz-bang out step back from center stage and let his fine actors do what they do- -act.
Evangeline Lilly is wonderful as Tauriel. Tauriel is a non-royal sylvan elf who has caught the eye of King Thranduil's royal son Legolas (remember him?). She doesn't have the otherworldly beauty of Liv Tyler's Arwen from the previous series. She looks more this-worldly. But she is no less beautiful. In one extreme closeup, her famous freckles show, and she is stunning!
Tauriel is as good a warrior as any male. She is also a strong minded woman who cares deeply. So deeply, in fact, that she is willing to break rules and orders. And Ms. Lilly plays her to perfection. Watch her face when she converses, watch her reactions. Wonderful!
Worst of all is the near-total waste of the magically-talented Martin Freeman. Well have some more experienced and famed actors fumed with jealousy that Mr. Freeman can stand, wordless, and express three or four emotions silently with his common-as-mud Everyman's face. As I drove away from the theater, I whimsically said, "It's a shame Martin Freeman had only four lines." My daughter said, "He had more than four lines!" I said, "Okay, six. Eight, tops."
He has more lines than that, and, brilliant movie actor that he is, lines actually can get in the way of his acting. But so can a heavy- handed director who loves computer generated effects than he does actors.
Ultimately, the public enjoys spectacle and movie magic. But what we really want is good story-telling. Peter Jackson more or less tells one-third of the story of the novel The Hobbit. But he doesn't really do it all that well. Acceptably, but no more than acceptably.