Why I Hate Peter Jackson: There’s More Intro To Go

You’d think I’d have learned by now.

Turns out there was more to the introduction. We got a four-minute exchange between old Bilbo and Frodo that served NO purpose except to connect the first trilogy to the second. This scene was entirely gratuitous, playing upon the viewer’s fond memories for the LOTR. Since I had no fond memories, I found this part excruciating to watch.

Adding insult to injury, the dialogue was pointless. They didn’t even touch upon the adventure we’re about to watch. Instead, they throw in a bunch of references to the Sackville-Baggins and firmly established that this scene was happening immediately before the first scene of Fellowship of the Ring.

I will say again, everything after the 2-minute mark has been completely unnecessary. There is a rule of storytelling that says anything that fails to move the plot forward or reveal something about a character is superfluous and should be cut out. I would have cut the entire intro after minute two, but I think you can argue that one of the extra scenes could be left in, either the scene with the coming of Smaug or the tie-in with Frodo, but certainly not both. We’re 13 minutes in and the movie hasn’t even started yet.

The key elements of successful storytelling are tension and suspense. After 13 minutes, we have created two bits of tension, between the dwarves and the dragon, and between Thorin and the elves. The first bit of tension is inherent to the entire story and hardly needed to be established in a 13-minute opening, while the second could have come later. How about this for a scene:

At some point, Bilbo mentions he’s excited to see some elves, to which Thorin reacts very harshly. Bilbo is frightened, and the audience is left to wonder why Thorin has such a deep hatred. Later, Bilbo asks another dwarf, and is told the story of how Thorin asked the elves for help and was refused. We could have a flashback in which an actual conversation takes place, and Thorin is insulted. This would be infinitely preferable to Thorin looking up to the top of the ridge hundreds of yards away, where an army of elves just happens to be gathered, and then what looks like eye contact is established between Thorin and the Elf King as the elves decide to turn away.

The only bit of suspense that has been created to this point is what Smaug will look like.

I am sure that a central theme of this rewatch is going to be me looking at the justifications for having three movies. A gratuitous 13-minute opening sequence is a weak defense for Peter Jackson’s side of the argument.

Minutes Watched: 12.57

Number of Montages: 1

Number of Gratuitous References To The First Trilogy: 1

Start at the beginning

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