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Review of Peter Jackson’s The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies
I quite liked the first Hobbit, though it was worryingly over-stuffed with Christopher Lee cameos and whatnot. The second film on the other hand was all stuffing and no meat, a relentless parade of middling events and characters apparently only there to pay off in the third film. In retrospect, so few of those moments and characters actually do pay off that it makes me dislike the middle film all the more. →
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Review of Peter Jackson’s The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug
There's a moment in The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug where Gandalf has wandered off from the company of dwarves and is creeping his way through an ancient crypt. Discovering an open tomb, he's startled by Radagast the Brown. "Why are we here, Gandalf?" asks Radagast. Good question, I thought; "To set up the next film" appeared to be the answer. →
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The Hobbit
I liked it, with some qualifications. →
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My 2012 film highlights
Throughout 2012 I watched approximately 262 films, which I don't think is an unreasonable amount. What follows are 20 films from that list that I felt deserved a special mention for a variety of reasons. Not necessarily what I'd consider to be the best films I saw last year, nor even limited to films that were released that year either. →
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Review of Peter Jackson’s The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey
Managing expectations is important; this is not strictly an adaptation of The Hobbit. Instead, it's a prequel to Peter Jackson's adaptation of The Lord of the Rings. This is crucial, because if you go in hoping for a lightweight children's fable, which is more or less what The Hobbit is, you'll find something bloated and overly dark in tone. As a prequel it's a success, though a qualified one. Note: To try and avoid confusion, I'll be referring to the film as An Unexpected Journey, and the book as The Hobbit. →