Thoughts on Hellboy 2 and The Hobbit (spoiler free)

[andrewducker]

I am very happy that Guillermo Del Toro is directing The Hobbit.  His direction, art and cinematography are astounding and gorgeous.

I am equally happy that he is not writing the plot or the dialogue for it.  Because he does not seem to have grasped that a bunch of scenes is not the same thing as a movie, nor that trite and cliched dialogie is a bad thing.

Comments

[marrog.livejournal.com]

Along with his healthy dollop of "Omg this is the stupidest thing to do, but I'm-a do it anyway 'cause I need to for the plot to advance!"

Mind you, Tolkein already wrote a bit of that into the plot of The Hobbit...

[andrewducker]

Exactly - bunch of scenes where people leap from one to the next for no good reason, or sometimes bad ones.

I still enjoyed it, because it looked great. But it was definitely a 6/10. Shame, as it looked like a 9!

[bracknellexile.livejournal.com]

"was definitely a 6/10. Shame as it looked like a 9!"

You sure you weren't in your seat the wrong way up again? :p

[marrog.livejournal.com]

See, I'd give it a seven. That was a whole heap of Prettyshiny.

[andrewducker]

True. And in a style I don't get to see often enough. The storytelling bit at the beginning, with the "crude" animation, was worth the price of admission by itself.

[marrog.livejournal.com]

Yes, that bit reminded me that I still haven't seen Strings.

[andrewducker]

Oooh, yes - I thought that too!

[meaningrequired.livejournal.com]

I really liked it. If those elves had been in LOTR I would have been MUCH MUCH more sold on LOTR :)

[marrog.livejournal.com]

If those elves had been in LotR, though, it wouldn't have been LotR.

[meaningrequired.livejournal.com]

I always felt the LOTR elves were a bit faded and washed out. I like passionate, fiesty elves in eyeliner!

[andrewducker]

The LOTR elves are supposed to be faded - when you see them at the beginning of the first movie, in full battle gear you're seeing a race at the height of its powers, fighting against a God.

When we see them in the rest of the films it's millenia later, and they're old and exhausted, magic is fading from the world, and they're making their final journeys into The West.

You'll notice that it's always Autumn in the elven woods :->

[marrog.livejournal.com]

Heh. Or in other words, IAWTC.

[meaningrequired.livejournal.com]

Bah!

If Tim Burton had directed it they would have worn eyeliner....

[chuma.livejournal.com]

Yeah but then he would have cast Johnny Depp as Frodo...

[0olong.livejournal.com]

What, and he'd've been worse than Elijah Wood?

[marrog.livejournal.com]

Me too, but I think the LotR elves were a bit washed out. I mean, they were all "Yeah, we've seen it all and srsly, cannot be fucked anymore. Off to the West!"

[kurosau.livejournal.com]

See, I think that all of his writing for his spanish language features is awesome. I simply cannot understand what happens to the movies he makes for an english language audience, so I don't really think that it's him stinking up the place.

[andrewducker]

I'm not sure he's good at action movie dialogue...

[surliminal.livejournal.com]

See this is what I said about hellboy 1. And indeed pan's Labyrinth., And everyone disagreed with me :-P
he'a an ARTIST not a WRITER. it's like when John Byrne tried to write the X men (shudder!)

[andrewducker]

It's better than Hellboy1 - which wasn't even that pretty.

And I felt that Pan's Labyrinth worked as a story.

[chuma.livejournal.com]

Not seen Hellboy 2 yet. Recommend it? Or is it like the first; okay but nothing special.

[meaningrequired.livejournal.com]

I had a different storyline in mind and thus was disapointed.

I was disapointed, I don't think you'd be upset if you saw it on DVD, I don't think you'd say "Damn! Wish I'd seen it on the big screen!"

Though, theres a very pretty (female) blond haired elf in gothy make up that makes the whole thing easier on the eyes... but then I do have a recessive thing for elves :)

[andrewducker]

It's incredibly pretty, with a crap plot and mediocre dialogue.

[johnbobshaun.livejournal.com]

I didn't think the dialogue was necessarily *bad*... it was a maybe a bit too pulpy and B-movie-ish and at odds with the way the film looked, however.

My main beef was that Del Toro still can't pace and direct action very well.

7/10.

[andrewducker]

The action was more Good than Great - much better than the first Hellboy though.