Reviews of albums, films, concerts, and more from the Bay Area Music and Movie Nerds
“We have to be so very careful about what we believe,” a very reassuring and overly confident professor Philip Goodman reminds us at the outset of Ghost Stories. This premise, that we must question our beliefs and those in whom we place our trust, is the central theme that undergirds a film that is often tempted to slide into cliche, but which ultimately satisfies as a genre entertainment with a theatrical flourish
I walked into Book Passage in the Ferry Building the other day and noticed it had a display of books labeled as movie tie-ins; the title Whiskey Tango Foxtrot was among them. Having seen the trailer for the Tina Fey-helmed film (she both produces, along with her old Saturday Night Live boss Lorne Michaels, and stars in the picture), and knowing I’d be reviewing the movie, I was curious, and picked up a copy from the large stack. I was immediately confused, as the book in my hand was about a female photographer in Iraq, not a reporter in Afghanistan, which I knew the Fey film was supposed to be about. What was going on? Did the producers change the story that much?
Let’s get this out of the way — The Hobbit should’ve been 1-2 movies, not 3. Most of us came to terms with this years ago. That’s a conversation for a another time, however. For now, let’s concentrate on the third and final installment of The Hobbit trilogy, and the final chapter (without debate) of Peter Jackson’s exploration of Middle Earth. The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies (HTBotFA) is not the best of the trilogy – it trails HTDoS (The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug) but is a bit ahead of HAUJ (The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey). While the middle chapter had some interesting character transitions, HTBotFA has very little substance outside the constant fighting taking place. We’ve seen better battles before, so the ones featured here seem tired and stale, and therefore overwrought with unique creature designs to help grasp for freshness. And once again, it’s an exciting but sometimes silly feast of CGI, the kind that makes you miss the hillside skirmish in Fellowship of the Ring or even the large battle at the end of The Return of the King, which featured a lot of actual actors in costumes. Here, it’s commonly 1-2 actors versus scores of CGI creatures. It’s just not as thrilling. And so the newest Hobbit film is a tired, ultra climactic end to a superfluously extended journey which was generally fun to watch, yet constantly played second fiddle to the far superior LotR trilogy.
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When The Fellowship of the Ring was released in 2001, it blew everyone away. Audiences had never before seen a fantasy epic of that calibur, never mind one with such genuine emotional weight. The success of the first film set up eager anticipation for the 2002 middle chapter, The Two Towers. Aided by pitch perfect trailers and, crucially, a strong-enough middle part story arc, The Two Towers was a great success. Who can forget the incredible battle at Helm’s Deep!? Ten years later, The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey was released to wide anticipation but ended up disappointing audiences. There are many reasons why this happened — some reasons fall on the filmmakers’ shoulders and poor editing choices, while other reasons involve misunderstanding (or ignorance of) the differences between the original LOTR and Hobbit source materials. Nevertheless, the sub-par (but in my personal opinion, still quite fun) first Hobbit movie ensured that we all just wanted one primary thing in the follow-up — to be a better movie. The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug meets, if not exceeds, our lackluster expectations. It remains flawed, lacking the character depth and story arcs we’ve come to expect from director Peter Jackson’s numerous cinematic journeys into Middle Earth. However, it doesn’t lag like the first film. It begins at a brisk pace and ends at an even faster pace, teasing us for the third and final chapter. And in between, we’re treated to a limited but welcome small dose of romance and emotional depth, as well as a handful of incredible action sequences. Even if it’s a minimal reward, we can finally start to care about these characters!
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