Okay, but really nothing much

Rating: Null/10 (31 December 2002)

I read The Hobbit when I was very young and it was truly magical. Read Lord of the Rings a couple of times in my teens and it was wonderful. Saw the first film a few months ago in my late thirties and found it surprisingly entertaining. Waited eagerly for the this latest instalment and walked away disappointed.
Why? Well, look again at the first film. It has magic, it has wit, it has charm, it has wonder. Simply put, from the charm and wit of the Shire and Bilbo Baggins, to the magic of the Elves and the wonder of those great statues (erect and fallen) as we enter Gondor, the film places us very firmly in Middle Earth.
In this new film, wit seems to consist of poor "jokes" regarding Gimli's lack of height and Legolas speeding down a concrete staircase on a skateboard. Is this funny? The charm and sense of wonder has completely gone, and the magic that could (and should) have been created in the dark and mysterious forest of Fangorn has been replaced instead by a very amateurish rendering of the Ents. More than 10 years ago Steven Spielberg brought dinosaurs convincingly to life, so what on earth has happened here with Treebeard and co.?
Most sadly of all, I didn't once feel like I was in Middle Earth. To me, those panoramic background shots seemed all too often to be more the work of The New Zealand Tourist Authority than anything which Tolkien had conceived.
Gollum, of course, WAS good, but isn't a little tragic when a movie's best and most three dimensional character is the result of a computer?
I still look forward to the next episode, but whatever happens I know now that I can always console myself with one simple truth. While Jackson and Hollywood may destroy the movie, no one will ever be able to destroy the book(s).
May generations of youngsters to come continue to read these works and find in them the feelings of magic and wonder which I too did all those years ago!