297. The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey

297. (02 Dec) The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey (2012, Peter Jackson) 45



I wouldn't see another film projected at 48 fps if I were held at gunpoint. In the state of the art venue I saw The Hobbit, the film looked like it was being screened in fast-motion. It was distractingly cartoonish and never managed to trick the eye in the way 24 fps does.

Issues with the projection aside, The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey is deeply problematic despite the artistry of its production design, effects and sound work. This story is too episodic, tonally defunct and overloaded with action scenes to ever draw us in. Unable to create a relatable ensemble, Jackson and company rely on The Lord of the Rings nostalgia at every turn to keep us engaged. From Howard Shore's familiar musical themes to Cate Blanchett's unnecessary cameo, it's a reminder that the other films always felt more cohesive and accomplished than this ever does.

The nature of J.R.R. Tolkien's book is no small part of the problem. Overloaded with characters and featuring a death toll in the thousands as our heroes barely manage a scratch, it's hard to be involved when there's no hint of danger. An overuse of CGI and gimmicky 3D effects establish an aesthetic that matches a video game-like plot where characters survive against all probable odds. A scene involving rock monsters, for instance, looks stunning, but would clearly result in the death of every character if this has the slightest notion of reality. Even fantasy needs some credibility.

The high points here are Andy Serkis's return as Gollum and Martin Freeman's deadpan delivery of some solid one-liners. The low points include oafish musical numbers and undercooked villains that emphasize how segmented the story is.

291. West of Memphis

291. (27 Nov) West of Memphis (2012, Amy Berg) 65



Even borrowing footage from the Paradise Lost trilogy, West of Memphis willingly invites comparison to a series of films that had substantially more urgency and impact. West of Memphis still plays compellingly, basically flying by in two and a half hours, but it has little to reveal aside from Peter Jackson and Fran Walsh's funding of the West Memphis 3's legal efforts. This is engrossing and well-edited documentary filmmaking, but there's little to be said here that hasn't been covered.

WEST OF MEMPHIS

WEST OF MEMPHIS

Written by Billy McMillan and Amy Berg

Directed by Amy Berg

Despite the abundance of information available on the subject of the West Memphis Three, I had not heard anything of them myself until last year, when a third documentary in an HBO series on the subject (PARADISE LOST 3: PURGATORY) began getting notice on the festival circuit. That film went on to earn an Oscar nomination for Best Documentary Feature but if any one film is going to shed some light on the West Memphis Three, it will be the all new, Peter Jackson produced documentary, WEST OF MEMPHIS. Clocking in at nearly two and a half hours, it may seem at first like too much to take, but it is fascinating and devastating from start to finish.

In 1993, three young boys under the age of 10, were killed in West Memphis, Arkansas. Three older boys, none older than 18, were accused of the crime, and of being Satanists, and subsequently convicted. The oldest of the three boys, Damien Echols, was sentenced to death. At the time, the parents of the victims were satisfied with the results of the trial and the case was closed. Closing the case though made the evidence gathered public knowledge and it started to become obvious to many followers of the case that there was just no way these three teenagers could have murdered those three young boys. Some evidence was ignored while other evidence was seemingly planted and meanwhile, three young men would go on to spend 20 years of their lives in prison, while the real killer continued to live free.

With Echols’s life at actual risk, the case garnered the attention of celebrities across the nation and, as it turns out in the case of Jackson and his wife, Fran Walsh, across the planet. Jackson and Walsh were serious financial contributors to the West Memphis Three appeal initiative and are both producers on WEST OF MEMPHIS. Their clout brings attention to the film, which is what is most important now, so that these boys can have their story told. As their story unfolds, with new evidence rejected by former judges concerned about admitting liability, and almost undeniable alternatives to the crime surfacing, it is constantly shocking to see how difficult their struggle to freedom has been. And Oscar-nominated director, Amy Berg, captures that journey, however tortured and painful it is, perfectly with this film.

Top Ranked Films of Peter Jackson

Peter Jackson
3 titles, 43rd in points with 17,076

These are all the films of New Zealand director Peter Jackson’s that made the top 1000 in our 2011 update of the Top Ranked 1000 Films on the Net, all polls.

1. Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring, The (2001) #79
2. Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King, The (2003) #92 [AA] best picture
3. Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers, The

Spielberg's full-length trailer to 'Tintin' hits

The Adventures of Tintin: The Secret of the Unicorn has been Steven Spielberg's much-anticipated companion piece to his more dramatic War Horse, both coming out this this year.  Much as been said regarding Spielberg's penchant for a "one for the critics, one more the masses" years, being it 1993 with Jurassic Park and Schindler's List, or 2005's War of the Worlds and Munich.  The new international trailer, below.

However, this particular film, produced by Spielberg, Peter Jackson, and long-time Spielberg backer Kathleen Kennedy, is a combination of motion capture and rendering animation.  Though there has been no official word as to whether this film will be ruled as eligible for Best Animated Feature or not, this film will surely be a contender should the animation branch deem it eligible.  The question is whether this film is strictly motion capture, or if it's motion capture with extensive animated rendering.  One makes it eligible, and the other doesn't. Should it be eligible, Spielberg could be looking at one impressive year.

[Thanks to Napier's News and @nathandonarum for the links]

The Dwarves of 'The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey' Emerge

A few images from Peter Jackson's upcoming The Hobbit films were released a few weeks ago, and I covered their new title revamping and release dates.  But now, we get a glimpse not of Bilbo or Gandalf, but rather of, according to the films' Facebook page, the dwarves Dori, Nori, and Ori.  More from the picture, after the picture.

JED BROPHY as Nori, ADAM BROWN as Ori and MARK HADLOW as Dori in New Line Cinema’s and MGM's fantasy adventure THE HOBBIT: AN UNEXPECTED JOURNEY, a Warner Bros. Pictures release. Photo by James Fisher.

DORI, NORI & ORI
These three brothers, all sons of the same mother, could not be more different from each other. Dori, the oldest, spends much of his time watching out for Ori, the youngest; making sure he’s not caught a chill or got himself killed by Wargs or Goblins. Nobody quite knows what Nori gets up to most of the time, except that it’s guaranteed to be dodgy and quite probably, illegal. Dori, Nori and Ori are intensely loyal to each other – and whilst they are perfectly happy fighting amongst themselves, woe-betide anyone who means harm to one of these brothers.

[Via The Hobbit's Facebook page]

Peter Jackson's "The Hobbit" Films Get Names

As per Hitfix, we have titles and release dated for Peter Jackson's much-delayed but finally-near-completed adaptation of The Hobbit.  Much like the trend recently with film adaptations of epically popular books, Jackson and New Line are splitting J.R.R. Tolkien's book into two parts.

it's gonna look like this, right?

Part one, The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey will hit theatres next Christmas on December 14, 2012.  The second installment, The Hobbit: There and Back, will open just under a year from its predecessor on December 13, 2013.  The Oscar-winning scriptwriting trio of Jackson, Fran Walsh, and Philippa Boyens will be joined by The Hobbit's one-time director and scribe, Guillermo del Toro as writers on the screenplay.  Jackson, of course, returns to direct and a number of the original actors from Lord of the Rings return to New Zealand.

Jackon, post Kong Kong weight loss

Given that Lord of the Rings was such a monolith when it came to the Oscars, I'm very interested to see how The Hobbit plays in 2012 and 2013.  Will it be another dominate franchise, or are the Oscars over Jackson and Middle Earth?  I'm a little skeptical, especially since the industry will be voting for the first one knowing that it'll have the second to honor the next year.  I should probably begin the book before 2012, but that never effected my enjoyment of the original trilogy.  Surely it will make a statement in the technical categories, but what of the screenplay, acting, and other big races?  We'll have to wait a year and a half to find out.

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Yearly Perspective – 2002 – Best Director Edition

I've been doing an intensive Yearly Perspective of 2002 lately.  And by “intensive,” I mean intensive.  Usually when I try and do these, it takes a few months, since getting together unseen movies is more challenging than not.  But when you run across an easy year like 2002, you don’t have to do much work. 

Scorsese on set of Gangs of New York

In a rare occurrence, only 12 films are represented in the 20 acting categories (Chicago, About Schmidt, The Hours, Adaptation., Road to Perdition, Catch Me If You Can, Unfaithful, Frida, Far From Heaven, The Quiet American, Gangs of New York, and The Pianist).  Two other films with no acting nominations were up for Best Picture (Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers) and Best Director (Talk to Her).  Add to that three other films nominated for their scripts alone in the Original and Adapted Screenplay categories (About a Boy, My Big Fat Greek Wedding, and Y Tu Mama Tambien).  As far as the major categories go, that’s a mere 17 films filling up a total of 40 nomination slots.  Without throwing more statistics in your face, that amount of overlap is very rare.  This even carries over into the tech categories, which repeat the aforementioned titles often, with peppering of Spider-Man, 8 Mile, and Star Wars: Episode II – Attack of the Clones thrown in there for good measure.  With such a small pool of films to get a hold of, doing a Yearly Perspective is not out of the question.

Almodóvar winning Original
Screenplay for Talk to Her

Much has been written of 2002’s Best Actor race, which featured an un-nominated nobody besting four previous winners in a shocker which resulted in one of the most memorable Oscar moments this decade.  One would assume that such a category would be the strongest or most stacked race of the year, but in this humble film watcher’s opinion, the Best Director race reigned supreme.  It had a legend, a fugitive, and three openly gay men.  Look at the nominees: winner Roman Polanski for The Pianist, Rob Marshall for Chicago, Martin Scorsese for Gangs of New York, Pedro Almodóvar for Talk to Her, and Stephen Daldry for The Hours.  Add to that highly impressive slate of nominees the un-nominated-yet-still-brilliant work of Peter Jackson on Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers, Spike Jonze for Adaptation, Adrian Lyne for Unfaithful, Julie Taymor for Frida, and Sam Raimi for Spider-Man and you’ll be hard-pressed to compile a list of just five yourself.  At least I know I am.  Add into the mix directorial achievements I myself am not so fond of, but others enjoy: Todd Haynes on Far From Heaven, Alexander Payne for About Schmidt, Christopher Nolan for Insomnia, Paul Thomas Anderson for Punch-Drunk-Love, Sam Mendes for Road to Perdition, and Steven Spielberg for Catch Me If You Can.  Coming up with five yet that you love most?  I didn’t think so.

Lord of the Rings doesn't "count as one!"

For what it’s worth, it is very, very hard to argue with the Academy’s choices.  What Polanski did with a dried and overwrought genre was miraculous, and with his personal, emotional injection of verisimilitude you felt like a refugee alongside Brody; it was epic in scope, yet small in its careful and calculated vision.  Marshall, quite simply, reinvented the movie musical, setting a standard in the enlivened genre that he himself couldn’t even live up to; his strong, creative point-of-view took the movie musical out of the land of suspended disbelief and made it realistic.  Scorsese, with his legendary attention to detail, aptly adapts his typical gangster style to the brute thuggary of Civil War era New York City.  Daldry masters a trio of women and one standout Ed Harris to tell a story that’s spans decades and beautifully mixes poetry and self-discovery.  Finally, the Lone Director Almodóvar (lone director: a nominated helmer whose film isn’t up for Best Picture, a term now likely dead due to the Best Picture 10).  In no small part thanks to his brilliant screenplay, Almodóvar guides the viewers through a tale of love, obsession, and friendship, with stylized excellence; continuously boarders on creepy, beautiful, haunting, and charming.  Hard to argue with them, huh?

Polanksi even make Chipotle looks exciting

However, I’d only nominate two of them.  It’s that dandy of a year.  Okay, let’s keep Polanski and Marshall, sorry Marty, Steve, and Pedro.  For starters, how Peter Jackson wasn’t recognized for his masterful work on The Two Towers is beyond me.  His direction in the trilogy is never stronger than it is here, where he manages to make trees throwing rocks seems as exciting as Orc decapitation; it’s his balance of backstory, battle, and psychological discovery that makes a three hour epic seem like a breeze.  Spike Jonze made a Charlie Kaufman story work, which by and large is nomination-worthy in general, but with his assemblage of three performances giving some of their career-best work and balancing the irony with the action in Kaufman’s script, it’s hard not to applaud Jonze.  Finally—and in an unconventional choice, truth be told—I have Adrian Lyne for his subtle, yet oftentimes heavy-handed, work on Unfaithful.  Whatever happened in Lyne’s life that made him so apt at tales of infidelity (director of Fatal Attraction) must hold a strong place in his consciousness.  What he does with Unfaithful is nothing short of marvelous; going from steamy stairwell sex to murder to tight family drama with precision and focus is what makes the film work.  Hard to cut it off there.

Stephen Daldry on set

So who’s the best?  Well Roman Polanski won the Oscar.  Deservingly so.  However, not my personal choice.  For a while, it was Jackson if only because The Two Tower is my favorite of the trilogy.  But really, I think Marshall handedly has the finest direction of 2002.  Yes, some of the perspective of the film (it’s all in her mind!) should be credited to screenwriter Bill Condon, Marshall is the man who made it come alive and function as a film.  Each frame is so carefully orchestrated; each performance is just over-the-top enough to fit into a musical and without being campy.  His touch is ever-present all over the film: the sexiness, the style of musicality, and most importantly the overall architecture and look of Chicago.  Not to mention, he choreographed the whole kitten caboodle too, a feat which deserves an Oscar if only for the 10 minutes of “Cell Block Tango.”

So there you have it.  My Yearly Perspective on the 2002 Best Director race with comments on the real nominees and my personal selections.  If all goes according to plan, one of the acting categories should be next.

BEST DIRECTOR

***Rob Marshell, Chicago***

Peter Jackson, Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers

Roman Polanski, The Painist

Spike Jonze, Adaptation.

Adrian Lyne, Unfaithful

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