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| JRR Tolkien's The Hobbit |
The Reprising moments of The Lord Of The Rings that comes in the way of the originality of The Hobbit Adaptation
Sir Peter Jackson , thirteen years before , had brought forward one of the biggest adaptations on screen by taking down J.R.R. Tolkien's masterpiece "The Lord Of The Rings" perfectly. Not only has that trilogy brought these iconic characters and the world of middle earth to life but it also had a plethora of moments throughout the three films that are worthy of outshining one another : such was the glory of that trilogy that it arguably stands as the biggest cinematic achievement to date. From the spine shivering moments of the Ride of Rohirrim to the intimate moment of Gollum's Soliloquy the film versions outdo each other and sometimes leads the moments of the book itself. In my opinion , Professor Tolkien would have been proud of the world.
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| Sir Peter Jackson |
Ten years after that achievement which had showered hundreds of awards on the team in New Zealand, Peter Jackson decided to take on the 1937 Tolkien children classic "The Hobbit" but this time he chose to produce the film with a new director on board (Guillermo Del Toro). However the film had to undergo a tough process of getting the green light for filming as there was no settlement over Warner Bros and MGM as the latter went to almost a state of bankruptcy. During the process a large amount of pre-production work had been done by the director with WETA workshop on designs of middle earth. The process went on for about eighteen months and still the film was not green lit. Guillermo was thus faced with a tough choice of leaving the franchise to pursue his other projects (Pacific Rim) which he ultimately did thus leaving the film in absolute jeopardy.
After a lot of thought Peter Jackson, who was a co-script writer at that stage, stepped in the directorial post and by that enabling the project to move forward. Now we all know that Peter Jackson while pre-producing The Lord of The Rings had two and a half years to prepare the world of Middle Earth. In the hobbit he was left with only five to six months. He had earlier stated that much of Del Toro's designs had to be dropped because they were very much Del Toro designs (similar to Pan's Labyrinth and Hellboy) which was unlike middle earth which we all know as real fantasy rather than fairy tale fantasy. So Jackson used some of the designs of Del Toro and made new designs for most part of the Hobbit.
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| One of Del Toro's designs which ultimately ended up in the film as the city of Esgaroth (Laketown) |
One of the earlier decisions that the screenwriters ,
Fran Walsh and
Phillipa Boyens, along with Del Toro and Peter Jackson took was to not only include the actual text of
Bilbo's adventure from the 1937 book but also take references from the bigger world of middle earth from
The Appendices of The Return of The King , specially from the section "
The Quest of Erebor". This choice ultimately made the story into a three part adaptation. This was , in my opinion , one of the best choices the team took. Yes we all know the The Hobbit story is simple and in no way does it ever feel like a Middle Earth lore if one does not have the prior reference of The Lord Of The Rings or the other works of Tolkien. But this sound choice of adaptation was marred by the way Peter Jackson did it and the main problem
"wasn't the 9 hour piece or the tone of the movie which was darker than the book ; Neither the problem is the actual script :THE MAIN PROBLEM LIES IN REPRISING THE MOMENTS OF THE LORD OF THE RINGS and forcibly trying to make the Hobbit feel more like a prequel than a stand alone story".
Being an ardent fan of the work on Lord of the Rings I can clearly point out the moments int he Hobbit which was depicted keeping the original trilogy in mind and here is the list so far :
- "No admittance except on Party Business" : Although the setting of the scene is during the 111th birthday of Bilbo, this particular portrayal in the movie is one of the first prequel-istic move by Peter Jackson and the script. It felt the same as in Lord Of The Rings. It was more like Jackson was bent on reprising a moment for nostalgia rather than creating a new one.
- "Gandalf brushing the chandelier inside Bag End" : A familiar scene for all Lord Of the Rings viewers that was not necessary in The Hobbit . This was a comedy moment which could have been shown in other ways.
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| Chase of wargs before the company reaches Rivendell |
- "The rivendell chase scene" : As impressive as it looks involving one of the most interesting characters Radagast (who wasn't in the book but was well crafted into the movie), the scene ultimately has a striking resemblance to the Flight to Ford scene in the Fellowship of the Ring. Again the idea to chose such a move over the magical revelation of the elves, as in the book at rivendell , is a reprising idea which might get away but it neither captures the tension and drama of that scene in lord of the rings for which it was purposed nor does it shows rivendell in a new way that we haven't seen before.
- "Rivendell" : Yes , it was beautiful , new , green and original. Nothing was wrong with the picturisation of the elven valley . But the originality lacked in the musical score. Despite being the same place, the music in rivendell could have built on the actual theme into a much different theme. That would not only have expanded the arc of Rivendell but made it much more original location in The Hobbit because lets not forget we see Rivendell in Hobbit before The Lord Of The Rings.
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| Weathertop |
- "Orcs gathering at Weathertop": This was not necessary at all . It does not create a new moment in the film , furthermore it scratches the beautiful moment of the Lord Of the Rings when Aragorn reveals it . They could have shown any other different Orc gathering : that would have been awesome. I loved Azog despite the fact that he was not alive in the lore. But this part of the story was a good development. But Weathertop : that's not done.
- "Narsil and The Painting of Sauron" : Not required rather a clumsy move , specially showing the narsil sword which was such an important part in the actual trilogy We din't see to know it here . We also din't need to know Sauron here . Here it was only necromancer.
- "The White Council" : The reveal of Galadriel and Saruman was unecessary . Even if they showed the two characters, which by the way was revealed in a very artistic way in the original trilogy , they could have shown in a much different way and not in a way of cliche . Although I am in full support of the White council in the story . They do meet sometime in the story . Its good they depicted that in rivendell. I liked whatever they discussed as it was a beautiful scene in the movie.
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| The falling of the ring on the finger |
- "The Ring" : Yes , the music needs to be same. Gollum's cave was perfect : beautiful performances from the actors , amazing score . beautiful scenes and amazing setting. However this one little important scene where Bilbo discovers that the ring can make one invisible is essentially the exact copy of the scene in Fellowship of the Ring where Frodo falls in Bree. Sorry Peter, this is more a George Lucas move.
- "Out of the frying pan and into the fire" : A number of shots in this segment lacks originality . Starting with Gandalf calling the Eagles in much the same style as he did in the lord of the rings with a moth/butterfly and even the coming of the eagles reprises the Orthanc sequence of the original trilogy. The second problem with the segment is Thorin charging down towards Azog : Everything in the shot is right but the musical score is same as the Nazgul theme . This was totally out of context of the scene and I still cannot comprehend why Jackson did what he did . He could have used any heavy score of The Hobbit in the movie but the prequelistic nature took him to emulate the Nazgul theme.
- "Thorin hugs Bilbo and Gandalf heals Thorin" : The first scene brings in a theme of Return of the king where Aragorn is crowned as King of Arda. I din't quite understand the context why it was used here. The musical score was also there where Barad Dur fell crashing so using it here was lack of originality. The second scene was Gandalf healing Thorin much in the same way he brought Pippin back from a state of shock in the Return of The King. The final shot of the movie with Smaug's eye opening is similar to a scene in AVATAR where Jake Sully's eye open in the very last moment. This scene was very predictable instead of revealing the eye they could have shown the eyeball moving underneath the eyelid.
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| Beorn from The Desolation of Smaug |
"Beorn" : Instead of producing some interesting shots of Beorn which was so beautifully described in the book Peter Jackson produces this shot that bears a good resemblance to Fluffy in Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone. This was a huge disappointment for many who loved to see the humongous bear of a man Beorn which was one of Tolkien's mysteries.
- "Necromancer" : Everything about the necromancer is great till the point when it confronts Gandalf who wields the Flame of Anor similar to the one against the Balrog in the Fellowship of The Ring. Then Necromancer turns to Sauron which is a good moment actually and is quite original. but the duel kind of reminds of his heroism against that iconic Balrog scene which is a still bugging for me.
So these are the shots which I think are due to The Hobbit being a prequel or simple lack of originality from the screenwriters. I might have missed some more or might have been a bit too harsh on Peter Jackson because the entire journey of The Hobbit is similar to Lord of The rings but at least new moments could have been created. Legolas has been a bugging factor throughout and the unnecessary mention of Gimli before him was a bit cheesy. It would have been avoided had Guillermo being at the helm because he would have brought in a lot of fairy tale elements into the tale which might not have been like middle earth but original never the less. He thought of "color coding" the movie into eight phases of green , red, crimson , blue , golden ,etc. I don't know whether that is a right way to go about middle earth films as the hobbit is basically more real fantasy than an imaginative one. Let's hope Peter jackson brings in a total original film with tie-ins but new moments in the final chapter of "There and Back Again" which releases later this year.
- By Sanchayan Sarkar
