The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey

Let's get this out of the way. Do you love the book, The Hobbit? Do you want a movie that is simply the book on film? Then you should stay home and read the book. If you got upset and distracted by the way Peter Jackson wasn't strictly faithful to the timelines and events of the Lord of the Rings books in his adaptations, then save yourself, and everyone else, the bother and read the freaking book again. You're not going to be happy. You're just not – you know it, I know it, everyone knows it.

Peter Jackson is taking the opportunity of telling The Hobbit to also fill out more of the Middle Earth story. He's including other material that Tolkien wrote to make a more complete Middle Earth story, together with the Lord of the Rings films, than would be possible with sticking only to what is in The Hobbit book. When this series of films is finished, it looks like the goal is to be able to watch these and the Lord of the Rings films as one singular tale, as opposed to two separate entities that are tied together only by Bilbo, who doesn't feature heavily in the latter story, and the ring, which doesn't feature heavily in this story.

And, so far, it looks like the two series will fit together quite well, at least as far as look and style are concerned. Unlike, say, the Star Wars films, where the original set of films and the prequels look and feel like very different entities. Although Jackson has switched to shooting on digital and can do more with CG now than before, he still uses a lot of the same techniques, and uses much of the same crew. The result is unity and consistency to both series.

I felt like there were some times where they forced thing a bit, particularly emotion. For instance, when Bilbo meets up with the rest of the group after escaping Gollum. They believe he has run away and so much the better, because all he's wanted to do is go home anyway. He hears them and after a few moments of doubt, he sneaks up on them, invisible because of the ring, takes it off, reappears, and makes a speech about why he wants to help them. And immediately everyone's happy and they believe in him, where a minute ago they didn't. It felt like a cheesy, forced moment. And there's a couple of them. It is something that Jackson indulged in with the Lord of the Rings series as well, with emotional, inspirational speeches.

The film is nearly 3 hours, but I didn't notice the length. Once they leave the Shire, the movie keeps a pretty good pace. So it moves along well. I think they incorporated the additional story elements well, bringing back story and more motivation to some of the characters than in the book. In the book, it's basically just that they want to get their ancestor's gold and treasure, because they like gold and treasure. But with the added story elements there's more about regaining their lost kingdom and home. It makes for a more fulfilling story with greater character depth.

I saw the film in 3D. It was filmed in 3D, not a post-conversion. I thought it looked very natural. I've given up on 3D actually adding anything, it doesn't and didn't here. It just looked good. But nothing will be missed by seeing it in 2D. I didn't see it in the 48 frames-per-second that Jackson shot it in, so I can't comment on that.

The film is cast well. It's a large cast because there's a lot of characters. And because there's so many characters, you don't really get to know most of them that well, aside from the real main ones. But that is the result of the source material. Like the Lord of the Rings series, the special effects, make-up, and costumes are all outstanding. The film is fun and exciting. I'm interested what they do with the story in the next two films.

3 1/2 out of 5

Anna Karenina

I've never read Leo Tolstoy's Anna Karenina. I also have never seen any previous film versions of it. I've also not seen any of Joe Wright's previous films. I also hadn't really heard much about this film. I'm stating all this here to note that I can't comment on how this film treats the story, as compared to the novel; how effective it is in telling the story, as compared to previous film treatments; or how the director's style or tendencies come into play. Basically, I know nothing about anything to do with this film and can only speak from the vacuum of this film in and of itself. Why point this out?

Well, the film is very stylistic. The film has a theatric quality to it. Occasionally. Every once in a while they call back to a stage, as though it's a play being performed. And every once in a while the actors make their way through the 'backstage' area on their way from one scene to the next. And every once in a while the actors in a scene move as though choreographed. And I like this. It's very unique. The choreography sense makes it feel very musical in a way. They set this up in the opening minutes. And once it becomes clear, I totally bought into it.

But you may notice I used words like “occasionally” and “every once in a while” up there. And that's the rub. It sets up this feeling, it says 'here's what we're doing' and you go 'okay, I'm ready.' But then it doesn't really follow up that style of the first few minutes consistently throughout the rest of the film. This device didn't seem to be used for any particular characters specifically or for particular types of scenes. Just every once in a while 'oh look, there's the stage' or 'oh look, they're going backstage.' Everything else is done in a traditional film style on contained sets. And when he decides to show a scene or a character on this stage, it's not as though they're playing to anyone or that it is a play being put on.

There's a scene after Anna's husband, Count Alexei Alexandrovich Karenin, finds out she is in love with Count Alexei Kirillovich Vronsky where he leaves the room and goes into his study. We follow him into the room and he's sitting on a chair on the stage, the camera behind him looking out to an empty hall. Maybe he's going to soliloquize or put on an act in some way, you think. But no, he just sits there. On a stage. For what purpose? I don't know.

So, essentially, this effect is just there for show. It's there to be there. When it's there at all. Which is a shame because, as I said, I liked it. I just didn't feel it added anything or was implemented in a way which said something about the story or the characters. I thought 'maybe it's representing the artifice of their society,' but in that scene I described above, her husband is displaying no artifice, it's a display of honest emotion from him. So...what was it?

The film looks beautiful. The sets and costumes are outstanding. It's shot gorgeously. The camera work is superb. The cast is fantastic. The moments that seem choreographed have a musical energy (Stiva walking through his office, all the men stamping paperwork in unison, rising as he approaches and sitting as he passes like a wave rolling by, while his assistant puts a coat on him without him missing a step or having to stop, for instance) that just grabs you – though as I talked about, these moments seem to be there merely for stylistic points.

It's a good film. All in all, the story is told well. It's just that there seem to be poorly implemented stylistic touches from the director. It's disappointing to walk away from the film thinking more about what purpose these touches served than about the merits of the storytelling itself. And that's why my rating for this film is so low - it's better than might be suggested, but the distraction of the style is too much. That's the failure of the film.

2 1/2 out of 5