The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey

Well, it took JRR Tolkien to stir me from my long absence from reviewing movies. In case you were wondering, I am still seeing movies and should reach my usual goal of 50 new movies this year. My 2012 Top Ten will be published as soon as I see the important movies opening at Christmas.

Anyway, The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey is the first of three movies based on JRR Tolkien's first book that he wrote for his young children and published in 1937. The book, The Hobbit, is only 310 pages long, compared to the 1137 pages (including appendices) of the three books of The Lord of the Rings (LOTR). That comes to only about 100 pages per movie. And this first movie of the trilogy is not short, with a running time of almost 3 hours. The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey only covers the recruitment of Bilbo (Martin Freeman) by Gandalf (Ian McKellen) and the dwarves led by Thorin Oakenshield (Richard Armitage), their capture by the Trolls, their capture by the Orcs, the finding and stealing of the ring from Gollum (Andy Serkis), and their rescue by the eagles. Also included is the back story of how the Lonely Mountain was lost to Smaug (voice by Benedict Cumberbatch). This is reasonable but much material has also been added from Appendix E of LOTR which has a nice timeline of events leading up to the action 60 years after The Hobbit, and also from the fevered mind of the director, Peter Jackson.

In particular, we hear that Mirkwood has been invaded by the evil Necromancer (also Benedict Cumberbatch) a.k.a. Sauron, and the White Council, consisting of those heavyweights, Gandalf, Elrond (Hugo Weaving), Galadriel (Cate Blanchett), and Saruman (Christopher Lee) has been formed in response. There is a visit to Rivendell in the book anyway, and so a scene with the White Council is easily added. But the most egregious addition is an interminable sequence involving Radagast the Brown (Sylvester McCoy), until now just an obscure answer in LOTR Pub Quizzes. He is one of the five wizards in Middle Earth along with Saruman and Gandalf. Only briefly mentioned in the books as a friend to animals, Radagast is portrayed in The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey as a drug crazed cross between Uncle Billy in It's a Wonderful Life and the Enchanter (Some people call me Tim) in Monty Python and the Holy Grail. Radagast drives a sled drawn by a team of rabbits which Peter Jackson loves so much that it is shown over and over again. This entire sequence could and should have been left on the cutting-room floor, if there still was such a thing. It is awful and embarrassing.

One more small thing that bothered me is that the scene where Bilbo finds the ring has been changed so that he doesn't just reach out in the dark and find the ring. There is also a scene at the end of The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey when the party is trapped by the orcs, and Bilbo saves Thorin from a Warg. This addition is unlikely and unnecessary since Bilbo and/or Gandalf already have to save the dwarves' bacon during every crisis in the book. On the whole though, this first Hobbit movie hews fairly closely to the plot of the book, except that, as usual, Peter Jackson, can't leave the original characters alone. The worst scene, which harkens back to things that he did in LOTR, is where Bilbo can't take the insults of the dwarves anymore and decides to go home. This is very similar to the LOTR movies when Aragon doesn't want to go on the quest, Theoden wants to run away at Helm's Deep, Faramir becomes Boromir, Frodo wants to send Sam home, etc. etc.

Martin Freeman, most recently seen as Dr. Watson in the new Sherlock series on PBS, is great as Bilbo. I'm not sure that any other actor could be more perfectly suited to the role. And I quite liked the dwarves. The opening scene where they arrive at Bilbo's hole is well done although it goes on for much too long. Having seen the trailers, I was a bit worried that Peter Jackson was going to make the dwarves into the 13 Stooges, but he mostly stays away from this. The one exception is when they are captured by the Orcs and then escape with Gandalf's help. The fight and chase sequence is very reminiscent of Pirates of the Caribbean, and the Orc King strangely looks and sounds like Boss Nass from Star Wars Episode I. Otherwise, it is great to see Ian McKellen reprise his role as Gandalf and Gollum is still the best CGI character ever. He has only one extended scene with Bilbo, mostly right out of the book, where they trade riddles which is a highlight of the movie.

The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey looks to be a huge success at the box office making $84 million on the first weekend and it is getting very good word of mouth. But it's not that great. It would have been a much better movie and would have had much better pacing if about a third of it were cut. But when the director is Peter Jackson, there's no one to tell him this. It's definitely fun to see all these characters come to life, Radagast excepted. But it's a bit disappointing, of course, that after three hours, we find that Bilbo and the dwarves haven't met Beorn or been captured by the elves, let alone reached the Lonely Mountain. For that, we have to wait. The two sequels, The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug and The Hobbit: There and Back Again are scheduled to open December 13, 2013 and July 18, 2014, respectively.

The Lorax 3D

In Jared Diamond's book, Collapse, he recounts the defining moment of civilization on Easter Island, which depended on wooden canoes to communicate with the outside world. He wonders what they were thinking when they cut down the last tree. The Dr. Suess book, The Lorax, gives an allegorical spin on this story. The book was written in 1971, but it has never been more relevant than it is today. There would seem to be nothing one could object to in this little story about the effects on the environment of industrial civilization run amok. But, of course, this story is now seen as part of the left-wing conspiracy to to brainwash America's children. But, none of this matters much since The Lorax is a pretty crappy movie.

First, I had to re-read The Lorax to try and remember what was actually in the book, and what was created whole cloth for the movie. Most of the book is actually in the movie, but it is lost in the middle between large swaths of new characters and subplots. Few of the actual lines from the book survive. The book begins with a kid coming to a mysterious man called the Once-ler to find out what happened to the trees and why the world is so dirty and smoggy. He gets the whole story of how the Once-ler invented the Thneed, a useless product knitted from the beautiful Truffula trees. When the first tree is cut down, the Lorax appears to speak for the trees and the wildlife that depends on them. But the Thneed business takes off and soon huge factories are producing them. More and more trees are cut down to meet the demand until the last tree falls and the business goes bankrupt. At the end of the story, the Once-ler throws the last Truffula seed to the kid, and asks him to plant it, That is the end of the book. 

This would not be enough for a Major Motion Picture, so like The Grinch and other children's books that have been made into movies, a new and larger story has been grafted on onto the original. A great deal of action and backstory has been inserted before the first line of the book. The kid (voice of Zac Efrons), who listens to the Once-ler's (Ed Helms) story of woe, now lives in Thneedville, where no one is allowed to leave the city, everything is made from plastic, and the smog is so bad that a nasty industrialist (Rob Riggle) has made millions selling "clean air." Also, added is a love interest, Audrey (Taylor Swift), for the boy, and his whole family including his feisty grandmother (Betty White). Audrey dreams of seeing real trees, and the boy vows to find one to win her heart. He is told to find the Once-ler, but to do so, he has to break out of the city ahead of the villains. He arrives at the Once-ler's house, and we get an expanded version of the action in the book. But the movie doesn't end when the Once-ler throws the seed to the boy. Oh no. We get a long chase sequence as the bad guys try to capture the boy and the seed before it can be planted. But (spoiler alert), there is a happy ending and redemption. The trees return, the boy gets a kiss from Audrey, and the Lorax (Danny DeVito) returns to forgive the Once-ler. 

Making major changes to a book when it is made into a movie is nothing new. And it was all done with the approval of Theodore Geisel's widow, Audrey who was a producer on the movie, and even lent her name to the romantic interest. But there are two problems with this movie version of The Lorax. First, they took out the good bits, i.e., the Dr. Suess lines with rhymes, and second, the new stuff they added in, especially the songs, is pretty bad. Apparently, they saw Despicable Me while they were writing the script, and decided they needed a villain, even though there already is a villain, i.e., the Once-ler. Many reviewers agree with me that The Lorax stinks, but the audiences, mostly young kids, who saw The Lorax seemed to like it. It pulled in an amazing $70 million at the box office over the weekend. Oh well. As a matter of fact, there is a wonderful animated film that tells a story of love amid the environmental destruction of the Earth and of redemption through the finding and saving a living plant. This film is called WALL-E. Please just rent that beautiful movie, and give The Lorax a pass.

Best Picture Nominees

Apparently, 265 movies were released in 2011 that were eligible for Oscar nominations. To see all of these movies, I would have had to give up my day job. But I am a dedicated moviegoer. I've seen about 75 movies in the last year including 15 movies since the beginning of December. My quest ended a couple of weeks ago when I slipped into my seat at the Rave at the Mall of Louisiana to see "War Horse." I have now seen all of the films nominated for Best Picture. This number used to be five but was increased to ten last year to broaden the appeal of the Oscars. But this year the number of films nominated is 9 for reasons that are not easily explained. Here they are:

* The Artist
* The Descendants
Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close
The Help
* Hugo
* Midnight in Paris
Moneyball
* The Tree of Life

However, the number of films nominated for Best Director is still 5 (with asterisks above) so obviously those have the inside track. I will blog about my Top Ten Movies of the Year soon but for now let me say that on the whole, these nine movies are pretty good. Three will definitely be on my list of Best Movies of the Year:

The first is "The Descendants." This film, written and directed by Alexander Payne, and starring George Clooney, tells the story of a Hawaiian family which owns the largest tract of undeveloped land in the islands. Clooney, a workaholic who has become emotionally detached from his family, is brought suddenly back to his senses when his wife has a serious boating accident. He suddenly realizes that he has two daughters to take care of, who are strangers to him. Adding to the stress is the impending sale of the family land by Clooney and his cousins (including Beau Bridges) to a developer. This is Payne's first outing as Writer/Director since "Sideways" which appeared seven years ago. I loved "Sideways" and "The Descendants" is great too. Both films are about protagonists, Paul Giamatti in the earlier film and George Clooney here, trying awkwardly to re-establish their interpersonal relationships. I have a lot of respect for how Clooney tries not to just make the same movie over and over again. He is very good in "The Descendants"as are Shailene Woodley and Amara Miller who play his daughters. It is also great to see Beau Bridges (Jeff's older brother) who plays one of Clooney's cousins bent on selling the land.

The second is "Midnight in Paris," directed by Woody Allen and starring Owen Wilson, Rachel McAdams, Marion Cotillard, and many others. Even though I really loved this movie, I was surprised to see it in the Oscar list, first because it came out early in the year, and second because it is a Woody Allen movie. Allen hasn't been nominated for Best Director since "Bullets Over Broadway" (1994), and hasn't had a film nominated for Best Picture since "Hannah and Her Sisters" (1986). Most people gave up on him, but since he left New York City and started making films in Europe, he has been reborn with movies such as "Vicky Cristina Barcelona." "Midnight in Paris" tells the story of a writer (Wilson) with a bad case of writer's block who, while on a trip to Paris, is magically whisked back in time each night at midnight ending up in the 1930's. There he meets the glitterati of art, music, and literature including Cole Porter (Yves Heck), Josephine Baker (Sonia Rolland), Zelda and F. Scott Fitzgerald (Alison Pill and Tom Hiddleston), Ernest Hemingway (Corey Stoll), Gertrude Stein (Kathy Bates), Salvador Dalí (Adrien Brody), and Pablo Picasso (Marcial Di Fonzo Bo). This is a wonderful, fun movie. The characterizations of 1930's Paris are great, especially Hemingway, and Owen Wilson provides his gee whiz take on it all. Marion Cotillard is good as usual as Picasso's mistress who falls for Wilson.

Last but not least is "Moneyball." This film was directed by Bennett Miller (Capote) and benefits greatly by a screenplay written by those old pros, Steven Zaillian and Aaron Sorkin. It tells the story of Billy Beane (Brad Pitt), the General Manager of the Oakland A's, who with the help of a young geek (Jonah Hill), turns baseball on its head by using obscure statistics to find great baseball players. Zaillian and Sorkin are nominated for their script, and Pitt has a Best Actor nomination, but the movie is stolen by Jonah Hill, known for appearing in teen comedies such as "Superbad," who delivers the performance of his life. He is nominated for Best Supporting Actor. I'm a big baseball fan, but I don't think you need to be a baseball fan to like this movie.


Of the other nominated films, "The Artist" has the most buzz and is the favorite to win Best Picture. As you must know by now, it is a "mostly" silent movie about the silent movies. It is a very interesting film and it's definitely different. The surprises in the Best Picture category were "Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close," and "The Tree of Life." The latter film, like "Midnight in Paris," was released early in 2011 when most films are forgotten. It is a beautiful and unusual film, linking the evolution of the universe to the lives of characters in the film. Brad Pitt gives a very good performance along with this year's "it girl," Jessica Chastain. She is teh hardest working actor in Hollywood, also starring in "The Help," "The Debt," "Take Shelter," and "Coriolanus" in 2011. She is great. "Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close" may suffer from its subject matter. It is about a man (Tom Hanks) killed in 9/11, and how his wife (Sandra Bullock) and son (Thomas Horn) try to deal with their loss. Max von Sydow is nominated for his amazing performance as the boy's grandfather. "The Help" which tells the upstairs downstairs story of Alabama in the 1960's is pretty good too. It has great performances from Viola Davis, Octavia Spencer, and Jessica Chastain (all nominated). My least favorite film of the nine nominated, is "Hugo." I have to say I am going against the flow here since most people who saw it, loved it. It is directed by Martin Scorsese, and tells a fantasy of a young boy (Asa Butterfield) who lives in the Paris train station and keeps all the clocks wound. He meets a young girl (Chloe Grace Moretz) who tries to help him. Ben Kingsley and Sacha Baron Cohen also star.

Tonight is the big night. Needless to say, I will be watching.