If you’re a die hard fan of Peter Jackson’s Middle-earth adaptations, chances are you probably know the name Joe Letteri. Winner of four Academy Awards, Mr. Letteri has been an instrumental part of bringing the magical world of J.R.R. Tolkien’s books to life through the art of visual effects.
Read about it here at TORn before this information is available anywhere else! Thanks to Warner Bros. Home Entertainment, we can now bring you all the official information about when you will be able to take home The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug. These are the release dates worldwide:
Let ‘forge the golden dwarf’, join ‘jump the shark’, and ‘nuke the fridge’ in our lexicon for describing when a once-great creative force reveals itself truly spent.
The Desolation of Smaug, and the Hobbit trilogy as a whole, only makes sense as the world’s most expensive satire on the vast canvas of a contemporary film industry increasingly supported by so-called ‘tentpole blockbusters’. In true Kiwi fashion, the trilogy achieves this through an amazing capacity to laugh at itself… but quite literally at the audience’s expense.
In this satire, Bilbo – the ‘everyman’ protagonist – represents the average ticket-buying punter. The punter is convinced by some marketing wizard suggesting that in December 2012, and again in December 2013 and ‘14, that they will have a chance to join in an adventure. There is then an interminably long period of waiting – the only excitement being the occasional expository video blog laying out how the adventure will be undertaken.
On the announcement that the duology will become a trilogy, our punter expresses doubt that the source material can support three films, but is quickly trolled on the internet by fanatics of the first trilogy (‘fan’ is of course derived from the word ‘fanatic’). To be clear, in this case fanatics are those people who probably own elf ears, refer to the director as ‘PJ’ as if he is as close to them as their favourite pair of pyjamas and who, like trolls, would in all likelihood turn to stone if they were ever exposed to daylight.
There was a little Rivendellian hope in the early trailers for the first film, trailers that gave the impression that there had been no drop off in quality from the Lord of the Rings trilogy. Optimism was briefly restored.
The adventure finally got underway proper when, at long last, our punter made his way to the local multiplex in December 2012. Cue three hours of anaemic and contrived drama intercut by rock transformers, CGI goblins and computer game physics, with the main abomination being the Great Goblin of 48fps, which while hyped, proved utterly anti-climatic. Our punter is left with a ringing in his ears, and senses he’s had a different experience of the film from those around him when the lights come back on. He notes that they all have beards and look as though they spend a lot of time underground. These are the fanatics, and he realises with a sigh that they’ll be with him for the whole journey.
Following this first film, our redoubtable punter watches the fanatics climb trees to escape the snarling pack of critics whose opinions they deem below them anyway. However, recognising they were outnumbered, the fanatics avoid a fight and instead fly off to concentrate on how awesome the next film will be.
Enthusiasm for the second film is then notably down, with the prognosticators bearish about its prospects. Ever the true trooper, our everyman ignores the warnings and regardless, returns to the cinema in December 2013, along with the fanatics. But already alarmed by his experience in the darkness of the cinema in 2012, he quickly discerns that there is some strange power afoot. Clearly, the once fresh and new ‘Wellywood’ has now aged, becoming a place where the writing team repeat themselves from the earlier successful trilogy, and are clearly lost with regard to what and who the film is about, and who is the films’ intended audience. The murkyness that has descended on the story-telling capacity of once great filmmakers may have its source far away, in an old fortress – Hollywood – where a powerful eye looks outwards from MGM-Warner Bros-New Line.
No turning back
But having come this far, there is no turning back. Our everyman is a captive audience, having already put down money for tickets for the first two films. He will barrel on – with the fanatics he now has for company – and be back in 2014 regardless. And no doubt the next film will be another fishy outing, with the online community continuing to search for the silver lining to the new trilogy and increasingly finding themselves cut off from the mainland of opinion, too in denial about how they’ve been let down to even complain about their lot.
When the journey itself is finally over and we’ve arrived at our destination, we’ll see what lies at the end: a great, sadly self-indulgent dragon sitting on a pile of gold. Peter Jackson is indeed the King under the Mountain – the lonely mountain that may now count as New Zealand’s film industry. (For what is often lost in all the focus on Jackson’s ‘Wellywood’ is how it may, like Smaug firestorming Erebor, have sucked the air out of the Kiwi film industry, one that no longer seems to forge great films telling New Zealand stories, films like Once Were Warriors. Instead, there’s just Peter Jackson sitting on a heap of gold from making films informed by a North American cinematic sensibility.)
Hollywood is the Mirkwood of the 21st century, a dark rising force ruthlessly in pursuit of the money to be made in unoriginality and bloat: adaptations, sequels/ prequels, remakes and the splitting of films into twos or threes.
The Hobbit trilogy is, of course, all of these things. It has been sold as an adaptation, and a prequel to the Lord of the Rings. In its content, where it diverges from the source material, it appears to be largely rehashing the best bits of the first trilogy. And of course, the Hobbit has also been split twice, without adding anything of quality to the story.
As a consequence, for laying waste not only to Tolkien’s work, but also for brazenly taking the audience for a ride when in fact they were promised a journey, the Kiwi dragon must be shot down. This review is a black arrow. And like a black arrow, it appears to be a rare thing, especially on theonering.net.
Unlike the eponymous dragon, who had only one weak spot, it is hard to know where to begin in eviscerating this flatulent mess of a film. That the Desolation of Smaug diverges significantly from both the letter and spirit of the book on which it is based is not in itself the problem, although for anyone hoping to see the essence of the Hobbit captured on film, or even memorable scenes translated to screen, it must surely be a great disappointment. Rather, it is that it diverges so unimaginatively, inconsistently and pointlessly. As a film, even as one that sits in the middle of a trilogy, it is just a bad film, with a lazily conceived focus and structure, poor editing, dialogue and an injudicious use of effects.
Where is The Hobbit?
The title of the trilogy is ‘The Hobbit’, and yet Bilbo is barely the central focus, and when he is it often feels contrived and arbitrary. When he does play an active and necessary role his action is then rendered redundant by the events that follow. He rescues the dwarves from the spiders, but then the elves appear and do the same thing; he helps them escape the elves, but then Kili opens the second gate in a far more heroic manner; he has the bravery to confront Smaug, but then all the dwarves do the same. Indeed, much as in the first film, there is simply no sense of who the primary protagonist is supposed to be. The dwarves get more screen time than Bilbo. Bard – a tertiary character – gets more scenes than virtually any individual dwarf. Legolas, a character not even in the book, gets arguably more than Bard. And Tauriel, who is not only not in the book but also not in any Tolkien, gets more than Legolas. Who exactly is this film about?
The film itself also has no arc – no beginning or end. The anti-climatic escape at the end of the first film (anti-climatic as the villain was not defeated) was, it turns out, not an end at all, for the opening scenes of the second film continue with the company being chased by precisely the same orcs and wargs that they had just escaped in the previous film. Almost three hours later, with a natural climax again being denied and replaced by a wholly fabricated action sequence that, like the first film, resolves and achieves nothing but to pad things out, the film ends arbitrarily, with literally nothing resolved.
More pronounced than this was the sloppy editing. How is it that Azog is called away during the night from Beorn’s house, only to arrive at Dol Guldor seemingly before the Dwarves and Hobbit wake up the next morning? Why could he not have been shown arriving at Dol Guldor sometime after the Company reach Mirkwood, suggesting a passage of time? This gets at the major puzzle of this film: despite having almost three hours to tell a few short chapters of a quite small book, the whole thing feels rushed. There is barely a moment to linger. Indeed, the filmmakers appear to have been happy to shoe-horn in untold numbers of absurd and unnecessary action sequences at the expense of scenes that would make us care about the characters involved in the action.
The dialogue, like in the first film, sounds as though it was written by a sleep-deprived student an hour before a deadline, hoping that no one will notice the logical fallacies. Evidence of this is stark from the beginning: ‘Did they see you?’ asks Gandalf of Bilbo, when he has been on the look-out for the orcs hunting them. ‘No’, replies Bilbo. ‘What did I tell you? Quiet as a mouse!’, Gandalf concludes. This is arguably bad dialogue – a lazy confusion of a visual and aural reference. More strangely, in many places original dialogue has been replaced with fan-fiction dialogue, much of which is repetitive or redundant. Admittedly this is all not so unexpected given the dialogue in the first film, from old Bilbo’s verbose opening narration to Gollum’s suggestion that he would eat Bilbo ‘whole‘ (how could he eat a Hobbit whole? Raw, perhaps. But not whole)
And then we get to the special effects. The use of CGI is so pervasive in this film that for whole sections it appears to be an animated feature, with obviously digital backgrounds and – for the long shots – almost wholly digital characters. A digital orc has none of the weight or sense of threat of a prosthetics-clad actor. While the effects are some of the best ever put on screen, they are a poor substitute for prosthetics, animatronics and realistic physics. While the dragon and the spiders were very well conceived and executed, the problem with CGI became much more evident on those scenes were clearly less care was taken.
Moments of wonder
This is not to say there are not moments of wonder in the film. Overall, the set design was excellent. The panoramas were often breath-taking, even if the director himself appears rather too enamoured by New Zealand’s mountain vistas (or perhaps too indebted to the New Zealand Tourism Minister – who also moonlights as the Prime Minister – for giving the production massive tax-breaks to risk cutting back on the free advertising for the country), at the expense of a focus on characters. The acting generally was solid, despite the phoned-in dialogue and – in the dwarves case – little to do but react to monsters that would be digitally added later.
On the subject of the dwarves, it is now clear that the film’s problems on screen almost all come back to the attempt to flesh out each of the thirteen as characters in their own right. This is arguably the worst single decision of the whole production, and it is borne by the films like a great prosthetic albatross. There are several reasons why this was a bad decision. First, with the exception of long-shots, it is virtually impossible to get all the dwarves on screen at the same time without making them looking like a terrified huddle of children (not helped by their relatively small stature when around elves and men), clinging together for warmth and protection. This manner of getting them all into the picture strips them of all sure-footed, four-square dignity – the quality that dwarves are most meant to embody. Even if this wasn’t the problem, for the viewer there is, regardless, simply too many characters on screen in such scenes to register what is going on. Furthermore, the attempt to flesh out their characters falls flat, because ultimately they individually serve little purpose to carry the plot forward.
Given the sheer number of changes made to the original book, it is thoroughly bizarre that the filmmakers didn’t make one bold one at the outset with regard to how the dwarves are handled, which would have made the rest of the story far more cinematically tractable, not to mention less of a logistical headache. Three more effective alternatives come to mind.
What were the dwarfternatives?
First, the majority of the company could have been treated as they were by Tolkien in the book – as extras rather than characters in their own right. The point of the dwarves all having such similar names is to illustrate that they are, to Bilbo, one big indistinguishable rabble. The filmmakers would arguably have done better to have emphasised how similar most the dwarves are, and keeping them as an inscrutable pack of foreigners to Bilbo. The entire book is about someone taken out of their comfort zone and whisked away on an adventure into a world that is utterly alien to him. They could have had a running joke in the films where Bilbo keeps confusing all the dwarves, which would have relaxed the audience and made them realise that they are not expected to know who they all are, as Bilbo doesn’t either.
Second, they could have kept the introduction of the dwarves at Bag End, but then whittled down the company by having one die at each encounter with danger – one with the trolls; one with the goblins; one with the wargs; one with the spiders; two with Smaug (eaten with the ponies); three at the battle of the five armies. At the end, there could be left Gloin, Balin and Ori, as all three are relevant to Lord of the Rings, and Bombur, as he would be the least likely to survive. Killing off the dwarves would have created a sense of something at stake throughout the films, which was utterly lacking throughout. Kili’s leg injury in the Desolation of Smaug was frankly a feeble attempt to raise the stakes.
Third, and perhaps most plausibly, the Company of Dwarves could have been reduced to seven at the outset. These seven could have been the ones who actually have relevance to the plot of the book: Thorin, Fili, Kili, Balin, Gloin, Dori and Bombur. With the exception of Fili and Kili, this company would also have the advantage of distinct and thus memorable names. In combination with Gandalf and Bilbo, this makes a company of nine, which would have a pleasing symmetry with the Lord of the Rings. And as we know from the previous trilogy, a company of nine fits the cinema screen quite nicely.
In the end, however, none of these options were tried, and the result is the filmmakers resort to all sorts of otherwise redundant scenes simply to give the rabble something to do. The result is the unwieldy and unfocused shambles we see on screen.
Parallels with the decline of George Lucas
The saddest yet most obvious conclusion from another three hours in Middle-earth is that Jackson clearly shot his bolt with Lord of the Rings. What he now directs are overly produced set pieces, with little room for characters or narrative. He no longer knows when to leave something alone, visually or narratively. Characters are not given time to breathe; action sequences remain unengaging animated blurs, and go on far too long. Smaug’s mystique and grandeur is utterly destroyed in the final confrontation with the dwarves, convoluted scenes that include not one but two scenes that are Jackson’s own ‘jump the shark‘ and ‘nuke the fridge‘ moments, in the case ‘jump on the dragon’s nose‘ and ‘forge the golden dwarf’.
To be fair, it could simply be that too many pieces of a big machine were already in motion when he came onboard following the departure of the original director Guillermo del Toro. Jackson may simply have had insufficient time to prepare. He himself has admitted he had five months to prepare, whereas for the Lord of the Rings he had two years, and the lack of planning is evident throughout the production, notable for its reshoots and pickups and changes to both plot and design.
But what seems more likely to account for this dramatic train-wreck of a trilogy is that Jackson has simply followed the career trajectory of George Lucas. Both conceived and directed revolutionary trilogies when under pressure to meet tight budgets while also trying to establish their reputations. But on the back of their original success, both men then built isolated empires to blockbusting filmmaking, and like the dragon Smaug, appear to have become transfixed by the toys they have collected.
Both men explicitly set out with their second trilogies to ‘revolutionise the cinema experience’, rather than to simply make good movies. As such, Jackson and Lucas both ended up with a keener interest in the process rather than the product. Indeed, with its use of cutting edge technology – Red Epic HD cameras, 3-d, forty-eight frames a second; motion capture – the Hobbit films appear to be more a show-reel for Weta Digital and the new technology put to work in making the film, and a tribute to earlier successes, rather than dramatic works in themselves.
The fanatics appear to be defending the first two films by arguing that you can’t perfectly adapt a novel – changes must be made. Undoubtedly. But the Desolation of Smaug is simply a poorly written and directed film, full stop. It had all the other necessary ingredients – fantastic design, excellent acting, classic source material – but the balance and marshalling of these ingredients is all wrong. And as any cook knows, it is balance as much as substance that matters when concocting anything that leaves people wanting more. The Desolation of Smaug is a salutary lesson that quantity simply can’t stand in for quality.
Thomas Monteath is a British academic and can be reached at thomasmonteath@gmail.com.
If you have a Tolkien/Middle-earth inspired poem you’d like to share, then send it to poetry@theonering.net. One poem per person may be submitted each month. Please make sure to proofread your work before sending it in. TheOneRing.net is not responsible for poems posting with spelling or grammatical errors.
For Tolkien fans, 2013 was the year of anticipating the dragon, as fans worldwide grew ever more enthusiastic between the final shot of the billion-dollar “The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey” and the opening of “The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug” in December. The staff of TheOneRing.net has been privileged to participate in many related events, by fans and for fans, and this ‘year of the dragon’ was more exciting than anyone expected! Take a walk down memory lane with us and peruse chapter 2013 of the “fan book of Westmarch” below:
JANUARY
Tolkien Forever “Toast To Tolkien.”
Fans in Los Angeles met at the Cat & Fiddle pub to share a drink and stories of all things Tolkien. The Tolkien Toast is a tradition started by the Tolkien Society to celebrate professor Tolkiens birthday on January 3rd. On that day, fans around the world lift a glass to “The Professor” at 9:00 p.m. local time wherever they may be.
Billy & Dom live fan chat – Merry & Pip reunion special
Our weekly webcast TORn Tuesdays had an exciting January as host Clifford “Quickbeam” Broadway snagged an exclusive “reunion” chat with Billy Boyd and Dominic Monahan. Dom discussed the launch of his new series on BBC America: Wild Things with Dominic Monaghan, and Billy filled us in on the new album, new album, Blue Sky Paradise, released by his band Beecake.
Dylan Sprouse on TORn Tuesday
Another great TORn Tuesday in January included an interview with guest Dylan Sprouse, star of the hit Disney Channel series “The Suite Life of Zack & Cody.” A Nickelodeon Kid’s Choice Award-winner and T.V. star, Dylan chatted about his own, personal love of Tolkien and how generational love of J.R.R. Tolkien is handed down to kids , inspiring them to great things! We hear you, Dylan!
FEBRUARY
Sylvester McCoy live fan chat
TORn Tuesdays spent a full hour with Sylvester McCoy and he even played the spoons! Of course, he also touched on his role as Radagast, the wizard, in The Hobbit movies. Have a look (or another look) at this great interview.
Kiran Shah live fan chat a week later! (Archive not available)
In early February actor and stunt man Kiran Shah joined us for an exclusive live chat on . Kiran shared his experiences as a scale scale double for all 5 Hobbits (Frodo, Sam, Merry, Pippin, Bilbo) in the LOTR Trilogy and his return to Middle-earth in The Hobbit movies.
Unexpected Art Show – Los Angeles
To kick off TORn’s Oscar Party weekend, TORn held ‘An Unexpected Art Show’ at Lot 613, a blank-canvas special events space in the Historic Arts District of downtown Los Angeles. The show was a unique celebration of artwork from over 30 artists around the world inspired by J.R.R. Tolkien’s Middle-earth. Attending in person, and exhibiting their art, were Tim Kirk, who illustrated the 1975 Tolkien Calendar — the first by an illustrator other than Professor Tolkien, and Jerry VanderStelt, an artist producing licensed reproductions for The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings films. Additional artists include Donato Giancola, Stephen Hickman, and Jay Johnstone.
One Expected Party w/ Dom & Billy and Beecake
Once again, TORn returned to the American Legion in Hollywooed to host the party of all parties on the night of the Academy Awards. Attendees were treated to a live broadcast of the Academy Awards, a photo booth, fabulous food an drink, an amazing auction of LOTR and Hobbit collectibles and the company of Tolkien fans and friends from around the world. Sponsored by Houghton Mifflin, Air New Zealand., Sideshow Toys, The Tolkien Shop, The Noble Collection and Empire Magazine. World-class entertainment at the party included music ensemble Dorian Mirth, Celtic band Emerald Rose, Sir Ian McKellen impersonator Hunter Davis and a grand finale by Billy Boyd’s band, Beecake. Needless to say, a fabulous time was had by all!
MARCH
AUJ released on DVD
We knew the Extended Edition was coming but fans still bought AUJ on DVD… because we just couldn’t wait to invite Bilbo, Gandalf and the dwarves into our homes!
DVD press junket (Andy Serkis, Richard Armitage, James Nesbitt and Martin Freeman)
While we were all waiting for the release of the AUJ DVD, TORn staffers were able to get exclusive interviews with Andy Serkis, Richard Armitage, James Nesbitt and Martin Freeman. In these great interviews, the four talented actors shared their experiences preparing for their roles and filming The Hobbit movies If you listened to them before, they’re well worth another listen. If not, what are you waiting for?!
WonderCon – Anaheim – Panel
On March 31st, at the 2013 Wondercon convention, staffers Garfeimao, Josh and Clifford “Quickbeam” Broadway presented a panel titled: “TheOneRing.net’s Unauthorized Sneak Peek: The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug.” Upwards of 600 people attended as our staff showed excerpts from the WB DOS sneak peak gave their insights to the latest Hobbit news and rumors. Feedback from the attendees was mega-positive.
Tolkien Reading Day
On the 25th of March, the same day of the destruction of the Ring of Power in The Return of the King, fans gather worldwide to celebrate the works of J.R.R. Tolkien and read favorite passages to each other. Tolkien Reading Day was started by the Tolkien Society and celebrated its 10th anniversary this year. TORn coverage here and here.
APRIL
#VoteBilbo
#VoteBilbo
MTV Movie Awards hosted a fan-voting contest for “BEST HERO” and when we first discovered it, Kirsten Stewart, of Twilight and Snow White fame, was so far ahead of Bilbo it seemed hopeless. Beginning in last place, #VoteBilbo captured the hearts of twitter users around the world and, one by one, Bilbo overtook The Hulk, Batman, Catwoman and Ironman and finally led a heated battle with Snow White herself. An alliance was formed with LOTRProject to track voting in real time and while the battle was epic, and Bilbo came out ahead, the biggest reward was the many new friendships forged over twitter.
C2E2 – Chicago – Panel
TORn staffers were crowd-pleasers once again at the Chicago Comic and Entertainment Expo (C2E2) in late April. Staffers entmaiden and Corvar offered a presentation and discussion of all things Hobbit and were a big hit!
MAY
Adam Brown live fan chat
TORn Tuesday did it again with an exclusive interview with actor Adam Brown who plays dward Ori in The Hobbit movies.
The Fall of Arthur published – New Tolkien book
A rare and exciting thin happened in April of 2013: a previously unpublished work of J.R.R. Tolkien was released: The Fall of Arthur. Like too many of his works, the narrative poem, edited by his son Christopher, was never finished. Still, as it is, it covers much of the Arthurian legend including Arthur’s expedition overseas into distant heathen lands, Guinevere’s flight from Camelot, the sea battle on Arthur’s return to Britain, Mordred and the tormented Lancelot.
Phoenix Comic Con – Panel
Hitting the con circuit again, staffer Garfeimao brought ‘The Desolation of Smaug: Sneak Peek’ panel to Phoenix.
JUNE
Trailer 2 released
#Hobbitception Elves reaction video
All the Happy Hobbits, Fili and Kili, set out to do was quickly record their reactions to the 2nd trailer for “The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug.” So, still in their pajamas, they set up their camera and started recording their sheer, geeky delight over what they saw. Little did they know that their little recording would be picked up by mainstream news outlets like Entertainment Weekly and Stuff.co.nz. The production and actors also got a kick out of their enthusiasm. From Stuff: “Jackson saw the video and posted it to his Facebook page saying it was “pretty cute”. He then filmed Hobbit cast members Orlando Bloom, Evangeline Lilly, and Lee Pace watching their reaction, saying “here’s what I guess you’d call a sequel to that fan video”. More than 20,000 people liked his video of the video, with many applauding Jackson for satisfying The Hobbit’s avid fans. Way to go, Hobbits!
Emporium of Goods launched
Fans worldwide submitted t-shirt designs for TheOneRing.net Emporium, and we had a tough time keeping up with demand!
JULY
SDCC – San Diego – Panel & Booth
San Diego Comic Con was just as epic as TheOneRing.net shared booth space with the fine folks at WETA Workshop and Badali Jewelry. Cosplay was out in full force, impression the likes of Evangeline Lilly, Manu Bennett, and Richard Taylor.
#ThankYouPJ fan video project
The final day of filming on The Hobbit trilogy inspired fans worldwide to say “Thank You Peter Jackson” for creating films we love.
Tauriel “It IS out Fight!” poster
Evangeline Lilly supported our efforts for a 5 Army Solution with an amazing poster designed by Badali Jewelry artist David Powell.
AUGUST
Road To DragonCon
New adventurers Doug, Ryan and Katalena joined the 3rd annual Road To DragonCon, meeting Tolkien fans across the country.
Beorn revealed!
The blurriest pic to ever fire up Tolkien fandom.
S.H.I.R.E. Project
S.H.I.R.E Project (Sharing The Hobbit to Improve REading) is a new charitable effort started by TheOneRing.net to provide needy schools with copies of Tolkien’s literature. The inaugural drive exceeded all our expectations so look forward to more book-giving efforts in the future.
SEPTEMBER
Dragon Con – Atlanta – Four days of programming, celeb panels, a booth and an Epic 80’s Dance Party
DragonCon 2013 was yet again, the most Tolkien-centric event in the nation with four days of wall-to-wall programming from the track “Tolkien’s Middle-earth.” With TORn staffers MrCere, deej, greendragon, and Thorongil running the track, running the fan table to sell shirts and to see folks face-to-face and hosting big stars, this year’s edition also drew new attendees from Twitter and social media. The presence of stars was bigger than ever with Sylvester McCoy, Graham McTavish, William Kircher and Manu Bennett delighting fans at multiple panels. In fact, the two dwarf actors appeared on a large-room panel every single day of the convention. But one of the highlights of the week was the first annual Middle-earth Dance Party that created a big stir at a convention with endless entertainment possibilities.
Dragon Con video dance night highlights
Dragon Con ‘Tolkien’s Middle-earth’ track highlights
Baggins Birthday Bash – Los Angeles
TORn’s LA staffers hosted their 11th annual Baggins Birthday Bash in Griffith Park where close to 150 fans ate like Hobbits, drank like Dwarves and generally celebrated Bilbo and Frodo’s September 22 birthdays.
TheOneRing.net was once again the only Hobbit content at the New York Comic Con and we’re always proud to represent Tolkien fandom! Our booth (complete with a ‘ring’ of dwarves mounted on the top), staffed by Calisuri, deej, Earl, greendragon, ImladrisRose, Justin, and Thorongil drew many folks eager for some Middle-earth goodies, and we were able to satisfy their craving with our own t-shirts and buttons, as well as Weta collectibles.
Sean Astin live fan chat
Sean Astin recalled his time on LOTR and updated us on his life and his projects since.
NOVEMBER
#HobbitFanEvent
November brought the long-expected “The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug” fan event hosted by Anderson Cooper in New York. The event was held live in major cities around the world and also online. Per Anderson: “this global fan event is for fans around the world to ask questions of their favorite Hobbit actors and also to see some never before seen footage from the upcoming film. Go here for the video and a full transcript of this exciting event!
AUJ DVD Extended Edition Bluray release
The release of the extended edition of “The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey” in Blu Ray format had fans around the world scratching their heads in confusion: “So, what version is available where and what is included on how many discs?” TORn to the rescue! Our staff put together this comprehensive, easy-to-follow guide to help fans zero in on exactly what they wanted.
Trailer 3
TORN Book Club – Show launch
November brought about the debut of a new weekly live streaming video chat show for Tolkien Fundamentalists and all book lovers. Sundays 3pm PT at http://theonering.net/live
DECEMBER
Premiere – Hollywood – pinch seen ’round the Tumblrs
Although Berlin got the bigger premiere, fans watching Hollywood were most delighted to see a fun moment between Benedict Cumberbatch and Martin Freeman. Only TheOneRing.net cameras caught this, inspiring legions of tumblr gifs and validating shippers worldwide.
As part of The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug’s premiere festivities, Air New Zealand graciously invited TheOneRing.net to the red carpet reveal of their new Smaug plane! Joining the Happy Hobbits at the event were TORn staffers Quickbeam & Sarumann, who shared a brief moment with director Peter Jackson and actors Aidan Turner (Kili) and Dean O’Gorman (Fili). Check out the pics and video here!
Press Junket – Beverly Hills
Check out our exclusive “Playlist of Desolation.”
William Kircher live fan chat
Bifur himself stops by and gives the scoop on our favorite Dwarf with an axe in his head.
FORTH EORLINGAS INTO 2014!
“Tolkien Fandom is the most generous, thoughtful and kind fandom I’ve ever seen.”
Although officially all shooting for Peter Jackson’s Hobbit movies wrapped at the end of pickups last year, the cast have always said that they expect to head back sometime this year. In his interview with TheOneRing.net last November, Richard Armitage said, ‘We have nothing official at the moment; but knowing Pete, knowing what that third movie needs to be like, you know, his taste and what he’s aiming for, I have no doubt in my mind that we’ll be going back to do more stuff … On the last day of the shoot, he [PJ] put his arms around me, and he gave me a big hug and said, ‘See you next year.’ And I was like, ‘What, do you mean for the Premiere?’ and he went, ‘No, no; we’ll be back here again…’ ‘
Now there is the first hint of a confirmation that there will indeed be further pickups to complete the third movie, The Hobbit: There and Back Again. The business section of newspaper Irish Examiner contains this article about actor James Nesbitt’s entertainment firm Brown Cow Films Ltd; at the very end of the article is the line, ‘Nesbitt confirmed that he is returning to New Zealand in around May for the filming of the third Hobbit movie.’
There and Back Again indeed! It looks like New Zealand may be becoming Middle-earth, and the fellowship of companions may be gathering, for one last journey in a few months’ time. And that is an encouraging thought.
The latest writing from TORn’s friend and regular Tolkien blogger Michael Martinez’s considers the content of Peter Jackson’s not one, not two but three Hobbit movies. The criticism often made is that Jackson has ‘padded’ Tolkien’s brief story, to create enough content for three films; but what of the content from the book which has in fact been lost? And how many of Jackson’s additions could be seen as necessary exposition, required to clarify and render cohesive several somewhat ‘glossed over’ plot points from The Hobbit (upon which Tolkien himself expanded, in the Appendices to The Lord of the Rings, for example)? Is any of Jackson’s content actually gratuitous padding, simply there to spin out a short tale? You can read Martinez’s take on all this in his interesting blog, here.
If you’re a die hard fan of Peter Jackson’s Middle-earth adaptations, chances are you probably know the name Joe Letteri. Winner of four Academy Awards, Mr. Letteri has been an instrumental part of bringing the magical world of J.R.R. Tolkien’s books to life through the art of visual effects.
Let ‘forge the golden dwarf’, join ‘jump the shark’, and ‘nuke the fridge’ in our lexicon for describing when a once-great creative force reveals itself truly spent.
The adventure finally got underway proper when, at long last, our punter made his way to the local multiplex in December 2012. Cue three hours of anaemic and contrived drama intercut by rock transformers, CGI goblins and computer game physics, with the main abomination being the Great Goblin of 48fps, which while hyped, proved utterly anti-climatic. Our punter is left with a ringing in his ears, and senses he’s had a different experience of the film from those around him when the lights come back on. He notes that they all have beards and look as though they spend a lot of time underground. These are the fanatics, and he realises with a sigh that they’ll be with him for the whole journey.
But having come this far, there is no turning back. Our everyman is a captive audience, having already put down money for tickets for the first two films. He will barrel on – with the fanatics he now has for company – and be back in 2014 regardless. And no doubt the next film will be another fishy outing, with the online community continuing to search for the silver lining to the new trilogy and increasingly finding themselves cut off from the mainland of opinion, too in denial about how they’ve been let down to even complain about their lot.
The title of the trilogy is ‘The Hobbit’, and yet Bilbo is barely the central focus, and when he is it often feels contrived and arbitrary. When he does play an active and necessary role his action is then rendered redundant by the events that follow. He rescues the dwarves from the spiders, but then the elves appear and do the same thing; he helps them escape the elves, but then Kili opens the second gate in a far more heroic manner; he has the bravery to confront Smaug, but then all the dwarves do the same. Indeed, much as in the first film, there is simply no sense of who the primary protagonist is supposed to be. The dwarves get more screen time than Bilbo. Bard – a tertiary character – gets more scenes than virtually any individual dwarf. Legolas, a character not even in the book, gets arguably more than Bard. And Tauriel, who is not only not in the book but also not in any Tolkien, gets more than Legolas. Who exactly is this film about?
This is not to say there are not moments of wonder in the film. Overall, the set design was excellent. The panoramas were often breath-taking, even if the director himself appears rather too enamoured by New Zealand’s mountain vistas (or perhaps too indebted to the New Zealand Tourism Minister – who also moonlights as the Prime Minister – for giving the production massive tax-breaks to risk cutting back on the free advertising for the country), at the expense of a focus on characters. The acting generally was solid, despite the phoned-in dialogue and – in the dwarves case – little to do but react to monsters that would be digitally added later.
First, the majority of the company could have been treated as they were by Tolkien in the book – as extras rather than characters in their own right. The point of the dwarves all having such similar names is to illustrate that they are, to Bilbo, one big indistinguishable rabble. The filmmakers would arguably have done better to have emphasised how similar most the dwarves are, and keeping them as an inscrutable pack of foreigners to Bilbo. The entire book is about someone taken out of their comfort zone and whisked away on an adventure into a world that is utterly alien to him. They could have had a running joke in the films where Bilbo keeps confusing all the dwarves, which would have relaxed the audience and made them realise that they are not expected to know who they all are, as Bilbo doesn’t either.
The saddest yet most obvious conclusion from another three hours in Middle-earth is that Jackson clearly shot his bolt with Lord of the Rings. What he now directs are overly produced set pieces, with little room for characters or narrative. He no longer knows when to leave something alone, visually or narratively. Characters are not given time to breathe; action sequences remain unengaging animated blurs, and go on far too long. Smaug’s mystique and grandeur is utterly destroyed in the final confrontation with the dwarves, convoluted scenes that include not one but two scenes that are Jackson’s own ‘jump the shark‘ and ‘nuke the fridge‘ moments, in the case ‘jump on the dragon’s nose‘ and ‘forge the golden dwarf’.
