Critics in Hollywood give epic 'Hobbit' bruising reviews

Martin Freeman in a scene from The Hobbit NEW YORK – AFP Peter Jackson's "The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey" opens in the US this month and critics say the movie, much like the epic journey it depicts, is adventurous but an uphill slog. The fantasy about a Hobbit called Bilbo Baggins, Gandalf the good wizard, 13 raucous dwarves, and a host of evil forces, takes viewers back to the lavishly filmed Middle-earth world that won Oscars and rave reviews in Jackson's previous "Lord of the Rings" trilogy.
But reviews from journalists, who got to see the nearly three-hour movie ahead of its December 14 US premiere, were also somewhere in the middle. Jackson's technical wizardry, using 3D and 48 frames a second, rather than the ordinary 24 frames, got gasps of admiration, mixed with yawns about overkill. And while the New Zealand-born director scored high marks for the faithfulness of the adaption from J.R.R. Tolkien's book, there was incredulity - and some cynicism - about the decision to split the relatively slender "Hobbit" into three enormous movies.
Jackson defended the decision to stretch the book to three movies, in contrast to the "Rings" trilogy, which was based on three books. He told reporters Wednesday in New York that in Tolkien's often "breathless" text, "very major events are covered in two or three pages," and that transferring the action to film required a more sumptuous treatment.”
"In Jackson's academically fastidious telling, however, it's as if 'The Wizard of Oz' had taken nearly an hour just to get out of Kansas," The Hollywood Reporter said in a bruising review. "There are elements in this new film that are as spectacular as much of the Rings trilogy was, but there is much that is flat-footed and tedious as well."
Variety's critic took aim at the overwhelming detail poured into 48-frames-a-second pictures. "Everything takes on an overblown, artificial quality in which the phoniness of the sets and costumes becomes obvious, while well-lit areas bleed into their surroundings, like watching a high-end home movie," Variety said. "The Hobbit," which was screened for journalists in New York on Tuesday, is a prequel to the darker "Lord of the Rings," introducing the main characters and plot lines that reappear through the entire saga.