This film is a testament to great casting, art direction, set design, costume design, music, and story boarding. Honestly, the planning they must have went through to prep for this. Absolutely insane.
The beauty of the whole thing is that Jackson is clearly in over his head. So many little exposure mistakes and attempts at tricks that don’t work. But on the whole, the film is a masterwork. It’s because Peter Jackson doesn’t know the rules that he makes all this work.
I’m worried I make it sound like beginner’s luck; in reality, Jackson is an incredible director. He has a vision, gets people who know how to do it, and enables them to do their best work. It’s what a great director does.
But I do think his innocence protected him a bit here. Having seen most of the bonus material, I wonder if he would have taken on the project had he known what it would be like. The pressure to pull this off was enormous, and he was an unlikely hire in every category — but he came through with a fantastic (albeit divisive) adaptation.
It’s astounding that his career has gone the way it has since these movies. He perfected the fantasy genre in one fell swoop, and we all thought he was the new Spielberg. I wish today’s Peter Jackson would know how good he is at this.
Anyway, thanks for attending my Ted talk. Happy new year!