Dear Peter Jackson,
Some thoughts about the LOTR trilogy, AUJ, and DoS, pertinent to how I feel about the way this saga has wrapped up:
[Show spoiler]
You and I have journeyed far together. You brought Frodo's task to destroy the One Ring to life a mere decade ago, and with such verve and respect that myself and the world over could not turn a blind eye and fail to hail such an inspiring, thrilling, and (mostly) faithful adaptation. In those days it was clear your appreciation and understanding of Tolkien's most beloved work was paramount, and although some liberties were taken to accommodate the film medium, those liberties could be mostly forgiven in the wake of such illuminating entertainment.
Today is a far different day, and the lens I view your Middle Earth through now is not the same as when all was good and new. Time appears to have jaded your approach to the wonders of Middle Earth.
While some berated An Unexpected Journey for being slow, plodding, and somewhat uneventful, it still held much of the magic of yesteryear. Many great moments were found, and liberties, though present, were for the most part welcomed. Perhaps some moments in this first leg of the journey were a portent of what was to come, with Dwarves and Hobbit alike being immune to falling rocks, and Goblin Kings being so inept and vulnerable to attack by an aging wizard that one slice of a sword offers a silly comedic moment and death with little true peril. I held out hope here, however, as Thorin truly suffers in the mouth of Azog's Albino Warg.
Desolation of Smaug, in its extended cut, also held moments of magic, though it fell victim to much of the same shortcomings, peril-wise, as An Unexpected Journey. While there were some true moments of dread, found in Mirkwood and Smaug's Lair, there were moments of silly nonsense, particularly in the Forge of Erebor with an ineffectual dragon, but also with liberties taken by unnecessary fabricated characters such as Tauriel, cheapening elvish magic and Arwen's importance in the Lord of the Rings trilogy. I still held out hope, even in this, because in the extended cut you brought us a better sense of pacing, more interactions with actual book characters such as Beorn and Thrain, and I couldn't help but hope you would do the rest of the book justice with proper emotional heft to go along with the bloody conflict that was soon to shake Middle Earth after its long peace.
My lamentation of five armies clashing as noise instead of with symphonic, calamitous rhythm and purpose:
Do not read if you have not seen The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies. Massive spoilers follow here.
[Show spoiler]
After such a long journey, traveling through mountain, forest, valley, river, lake, and town, there was but some small matters to wrap up. A dragon threatened a town on the water. Armies of all manner awaited the opportunity to strike at Erebor should the threat of the dragon be eliminated. The characters we have traveled with required proper sendoff and emotional moments.
Certainly, the dragon threatens Laketown, burning and pillaging at whim. However, the witty, sadistic dragon I had hoped for instead functioned more as a flamethrower than a character. To this end, could Smaug not have tormented the denizens of Laketown a bit before reducing it to cinders and ash? A simple "Flee, flee for your lives! I will find you no matter where you hide and devour you as sheep." would have been very effective.
Certainly, the hero destroys the dragon, though in perhaps the most ridiculous way possible and within just a few moments. Smaug is further cheapened as a complete imbecile, ignoring the fact that the one weapon that CAN pierce his hide is pointed at him (and don't say he doesn't know what it is, because he had many of them fired at him the last time men had strength).
Certainly, Dol Goldur falls, but why does Galadriel appear so weak at particular moments throughout? It feels rather convenient that she falls to the ground weakened while the men (including the aged Saruman) fight it out amongst the Nazgul. While she may cast out Sauron from Dol Goldur, her appearance here felt very highly inconsistent, cycling between frail elf maiden and "beautiful and terrible as the dawn" elf queen.
A few more scenes before Kili and co. arrive from Laketown's ruins would have been nice, showing Thorin beginning the descent into broody madness. Certainly, we see him already in the throes of "dragon sickness", but this portion felt rushed and there was not much of a transition between Thorin just after Smaug left, and Thorin as he appears for the majority of the film.
Alfrid was funny...until you overplayed the joke. Enough is enough, and too much is superfluous. There's only so many times you can play the "evil crony wants to leave the cripples behind and snatch up all the gold" card before the joke wears thin. It also leaves less time for actual, meaningful moments between the characters we actually give a hoot about. Where's Bilbo making jokes? Does he have no other interactions with the dwarves aside Balin and Thorin at this stage?
You wasted a golden opportunity to show us a new, ingenious dwarven method for taking down giant trolls (trolls which magically were not affected by the sun here, despite those a couple movies back...but I digress). How convenient that instead of the dwarves being shown for their fighting prowess (aside amazing helmless headbutts courtesy of Dain the CGIronfoot), arrows magically appear and render these monstrosities inert, a victim of the incredibly rapid pacing this film suffers from. Oh, and you also let the elves take center stage again over the dwarves by showing us an awesome phalanx setup, then having the elves just leap right over that and completely invalidate the phalanx altogether.
Building on that note, for all the sound and noise of battle, as the film progresses the battle itself becomes almost a side-note. We barely see any of it after Thorin and companions chase after Azog. Even when Beorn arrives and becomes a one-bear wrecking crew, we get to enjoy that for all of 2 seconds before cutting back to the much smaller, separate conflict with Azog and his minions. I found myself surprised the battle was over when it did end, because there wasn't much focus on it once we got to the smaller encounters. For all the buildup, it really felt like we didn't get to see the alliance of elves, men, eagles, and others triumph.
Bilbo doesn't put on the Ring as he falls unconscious, or just before, which was ludicrously stupid (and completely opposite the book as well). There is no reason why Bilbo should have remained alive with everything that was going on all around him while he was unconscious in plain sight. It's not like the enemy can't see you're still breathing. Also, isn't Sting, Bilbo's sword, supposed to glow blue when orcs are about? Did that happen and I just missed it, or did you guys forget that important detail in post-production?
Why does Legolas have to kill Bolg? Aside their encounter in Desolation of Smaug, I would think Thorin would have a lot more reason to avenge Kili here. Then again, we can't really escape this sodding love triangle situation you created, so because Bolg knocks Tauriel around, you shoehorn Legolas in as the protector to keep this isosceles madness in play. Whatever the reasoning, it's less effective on an emotional level, because Legolas has no give-a-hoot for Kili, and actually should almost be thrilled that the third leg in the bloody triangle is dead. Aside protecting Tauriel (who falls into traditional damsel-in-distress mode) and his previously bloody nose, he has no dog in this fight.
While it is perhaps bittersweet to see Azog and Thorin impale each other, could this not have been filmed in such a way that Azog maintains the victory over Thorin, begins gloating, and then Beorn achieves his sweet revenge? To me, that would have felt so much more satisfying to see than an "Oh look, we're both impaled. Let's die in each other's arms." moment. Alternately, Dain could slaughter Azog, as he does in the LotR Appendices.
I thoroughly enjoyed Thranduil's reversal of opinion with Tauriel, and I mean that with as much sarcasm as possible. "It's not real love, what you feel for that dwarf." 20 minutes pass... "Wait, wait, you're crying. Okay, it was totally real love. Just stop crying, it makes me uncomfortable."
Where is Thorin's funeral? Where is the peace made with Thranduil as he lays the Arkenstone and Orcrist to rest with the King Under The Mountain? These are the moments, the payoff we were hungering for this entire trilogy. This was the supposed reason we needed three gigantic films for a 300 page book, because you, Mr. Jackson, wanted to do the source material justice, or so you said, and you wanted to interweave other aspects of Middle Earth into the tale.
Where then do our characters find themselves at the end of the journey? We certainly know Bilbo goes home, but Thorin has no funeral, Balin doesn't begin his efforts to reclaim Moria, and what of Laketown's residents? What of Beorn? What of Thranduil's gems of starlight (does he ever reclaim them)? The entire ending here felt rushed to the point my head nearly spun as I realized the credits were rolling. I know that you received a lot of flak for The Return of the King taking some time to wrap up, but gee whiz, was it that bad that we couldn't achieve some closure for the characters we've come to appreciate over the course of this adventure?
The pacing of this entire film was altogether too fast. Every moment leading into each other moment felt like it was over too soon, and the next moment felt like it didn't last long enough, or it was so conveniently arranged as to last exactly as little time as possible. I'll be the first to say that judicious editing is necessary, but when your fantasy film's pacing is most aptly compared to the Fast and the Furious franchise (where such pacing actually makes sense), perhaps you overdid it.
I could perhaps find more to come to grips with here, but just as my head hurt watching it, my head hurts reliving this last leg of your trilogy, Mr. Jackson. I can only hope that the extended edition brings some sanity to the proceedings here, and you give us the moments and closure that we, the audience, want to see from the characters we know and love. As it stands, not only was this last venture into Middle Earth unsatisfying, it is the only one that has left me weary and with a bad taste in my mouth.
All countries
Argentina
Austria
Belgium
Brazil
Bulgaria
Chile
China
Colombia
Cyprus
Czech Republic
Estonia
Denmark
Finland
Greece
Hong Kong
Hungary
Iceland
Indonesia
Ireland
Israel
India
Latvia
Lithuania
Malaysia
New Zealand
Norway
Philippines
Poland
Portugal
Romania
Russia
Singapore
South Africa
South Korea
Sweden
Switzerland
Taiwan
Thailand
Turkey
Ukraine
United Arab Emirates
Linear Mode
