Four Hobbits of Highly Destructive Nonsense

Rating: 5/10 (14 March 2004)

The beauty of a fable is that it is short, poetic, insightful and morally to the point. I guess THE LORD OF THE RINGS saga doesn't count as a fable, since it is none of those things. It does have the simplest (or flimsiest) of premises. The protagonist, Frodo, a Hobbit, a small creature in a big world, has to destroy a golden ring which -- for reason that are unclear -- possesses a great deal of evil. This involves a journey through Middle Earth, which includes an interminable number of obstacles, not the least of which are a ridiculous number of subplots and extraneous secondary characters.
Peter Jackson's three-part, 10 hour-plus spectacle is either a masterwork of modern technology or a sample of how CGI has become a curse on the medium. I vote for the latter. As long as Jackson keeps focused on the Hobbits -- Frodo, Sam, Merry and Pippin -- and their more normal sized companion/protectors, the trio of films is fairly intriguing. But the basic storyline is upstaged repeatedly for giant battle scenes that subvert and belittle the moral battle at the heart of the film. And large armies of computer generated soldiers killing other large armies of computer generated soldiers is neither very much fun, nor very interesting. Just busy, noisy and confusing. Jackson certainly has a gift for cluttering up the screen with chaos.
Despite the assumption that this is a family film based on material from a perennial young readers' favorite, this is one of the most violent films that I have ever seen. The brutality, while remarkably and unbelievably bloodless, is nonetheless unrelenting.
I have to admit the scope of the film is impressive, as was undertaking the massive project in the first place. But, seeing as how this is likely to be the mythological/cinematic touchstone for a generation of filmgoers, I really wish these films had more substance. This is filmmaking for the video game generation: mindless action, mindless violence, mindless noise. Somewhere inside all his hubbub and malarkey is a rousing adventure, best found with one's finger on the fast forward button.