Loud and Obnoxious

Rating: Null/10 (3 January 2002)

There is no doubt MR Jackson is extremely talented.That was obvious with his first feature"Bad Taste",but i have this feeling he sold out like almost all the bright young talents before him.His career was following an interesting and entertaining arc,and now he feels the need to be everyones friend and make a by the numbers soulless megabudget romp through his homeland of New Zealand.Sure it looks great,anyone with a decent budget and a computer can generate pretty images.So what seperates this one from the rest.Not that much.Everything about this film reminded me of something else,it was a venerable cornucopia of past films.Think Excalibur,Krull,Legend,Gladiator,Sleepy Hollow,Mummy Returns,maybe even a little Labyrinth too.This effort comes across as cold and calculating as The Phantom Menace(it has just about the same storyline too).The characterizations are hollow and cliched(The evil wizard,the good wizard,the unlikely hero and his bumbling sidekick,the beautiful princess)its all here for the mainstream public to consume.The music was pretty bland and uninspired too.Nothing new,nothing out of the ordinary and it's utilized to convey emotion,or more accurately to substitute for real emotion.Some of the performances are solid.Of course the Gandalf guy,and The frodo dude.The rest are one dimensional bores.This does not make me want to see the sequel,i left the theater with this empty feeling,something akin to empty calories,it gave me a little rush,but i was exhausted and disappointed when it was finished.This is nothing more than a Summer Popcorn rollercoaster ride.It's only because of the popularity of the books that people seem to think it's something profound.Plus it was released before the end of the year to make it seem more important,and to hopefully earn some oscars.I can't believe with 3 hours worth of film i still did'nt get to know the characters,nor did i want too,i cared more about characters from the PSX game FF7(which this reminds me of)than i did about any of these cardboard cutouts.But in the end it will make a Quillion dollars and Jackson will get his oscars and a star on the Hollywood walk of fame,and now he's a cinematic legend,but i think he knows there really was'nt anything special about this effort,and truly unique,thought provoking,entertaining films such as Donnie Darko,Soft for Digging,Training Day,and Ghost World will get thrown to the curb.So it goes,so it is,the hype machine strikes again,it's all about 'Dem dollas.As time passes and the hype dies down,people will realize they've been had again."One fool to rule them All".