The
Hobbit – An Unexpected Journey 2012
- Director: Peter
Jackson
- Based on the novel
by J.R.R. Tolkien
- Cast: Martin
Freeman, Ian McKellen, Ian Holm, Elijah Wood, Cate Blanchett, Bret McKenzie
(two seconds), Benedict Cumberbatch (voice only)
- Personal “oh yeah
him/her” reaction, i.e. have seen this actor in:
- Martin Freeman – Fargo, The World’s End, Hot Fuzz,
Breaking and Entering, The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, Shaun of the Dead,
Love Actually
- Ian McKellen – Vicious,
King Lear, Extras, Lord of the Rings, X-Men, David Copperfield, Richard III,
Cold Comfort Farm, Six Degrees of Separation, The Ballad of Little Jo, Macbeth,
Othello
- Ian Holm – The Aviator,
Day after Tomorrow, From Hell, eXistenZ, The Fifth Element, A Life Less
Ordinary, The Madness of King George, Frankenstein, Kafka, Hamlet, Henry V,
Dance with a Stranger, Brazil, Alien, Holocaust, O What a Lovely War
- Elijah Wood – Lord
of the Rings, Bobby, Paris je t’aime, Everything Is Illuminated, Eternal
Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, Black and White
- Cate Blanchett – Robin Hood, The
Curious Case of Benjamin Button, I’m Not There, Notes on a Scandal, Babel,
Little Fish, The Aviator, The Lord of the Rings Trilogy, Heaven, The Shipping
News, The Gift, The Man Who Cried, Elizabeth, Elizabeth the Golden Age
- Bret McKenzie – The
Flight of the Conchords
- Benedict
Cumberbatch – Tinker Tailor
Soldier Spy, Creation, The Other Boleyn Girl, Atonement, Amazing Grace, To Kill
a King
- Why? It should be seen?
- Seen: 31 July
2015
In the
olden days when Tolkien was required reading for hippies I did my duty and
ploughed through the books. But I wasn’t a very good hippie and I wasn’t
impressed.
Decades
later I gave the film The Lord of the Rings-trilogy a try. They were OK,
I guess.
So why
start the whole thing now? Well, we’re done with the Batman films….
And it’s a
fantastic cast.
Bilbo is
remarkably like Lester Nygaard in Fargo. That’s fun.
Otherwise
it’s all a bunch of men setting off on a quest for honour and recovering their
kingdom. Or something. A boring, actually distasteful concept, but the Hobbit
house is very cool and Bilbo is very appealing.
Heroes and
kings with long beards, big noses, furs and fuzzy horses in magnificent
landscapes fight the evil Orcs. There are some wizards, a bit of humour, great
bloody battles, cute little hedgehogs, clever sets and props and trolls who
speak Cockney.
It really
is terribly long. And not terribly interesting.
I certainly don’t begrudge McKellan and Freeman fame and fortune but
they should stick to Vicious and Shakespeare and Fargo and Sherlock.
Finally.
At one hour and twenty-seven minutes a woman appears. Playing a harp. Then
another one, playing a flute. And then a few minutes of the Elf Queen in the
form of Cate Blanchett. Not that she gets to do much. It’s a very male film.
The stone
giants are a bit cool. As is Gallum. So it has its moments. Not nearly enough
though.
I do long
for Harry Potter and Merlin. From which, by the way, much here is
plagiarised.
2 * of 5