Shot/Reverse Shot: Episode 79 - The Hobbit Trilogy

Since the Hobbit trilogy has finished disappointing us all, now seems like the perfect time to access just what went wrong (besides the incredibly obvious stuff like turning a slim book into three bloated films, or making every effort to make the films look as shitty as possible). As fans of the original Lord of the Rings films, Matt and I approach Peter Jackson's work from a place of love, even as we mock it. Think of this as an intervention. We're just trying to help you, Peter, so that you can do better the next time.

Shot/Reverse Shot: Episode 68 - Prequels

Inspired by this great article for The Dissolve by Noel Murray, as well as by the steady stream of prequel projects that are appearing on television and in theatres lately - projects that include, but are not limited to, The Planet of the Apes rebooted franchise, The Hobbit trilogy, Fox's Gotham, NBC's Hannibal, Dracula: Untold, and The Conjuring spin-off Annabelle, which tells the origin story of a fucking doll - Joe and I decided to sit down and talk about prequels. There's inevitably some Star Wars talk, but mostly we talk about the dramatic limitations of most prequels, why the genuinely good ones fight predestination rather than just hitting all the expected beats, and struggle to think of prequels that we'd actually like to see.

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Greed, Fear and Hobbitses

Bilbo contemplates all the money he could have earned, but didn't.

 There's going to be a lot of stories over the next couple of days about how "badly" The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey is doing at the American box office. Those quotation marks are a small but essential part of the conversation, since any such talk ultimately boils down to the idea that the film has made staggering amounts of money - through 10 days it has earned roughly $150 million in the US alone with another $288 million coming from overseas; more money than the vast majority of us will see in our lifetimes - but not quite as much as people might have expected. Then again, the figures being dealt with are so vast that just doing okay might be the same as failure as far as the studio is concerned. It's the difference between an athlete being able to run 100m in less than or dead on 10 seconds; it's an achievement either way, but it's also the difference between a gold medal and nothing.