Movie Man Darian Watching All Night Long

Tolkien 

This is a mixed bag for me. Tolkien is the new film about the creative mind and revolutionary mind behind literatures most incredible stories best known for The Hobbit and The Lord Of The Rings. This film tells the story about his upbringing and his relationship with the love of his life and that’s about it. To me this film was very entertaining but it failed to capture any real depth to who Tolkien was or what his mind was like. As it explores many aspects of his life but I felt very unsatisfied with the depth they brought to Tolkien as I felt like I wanted to see so much more of his writings of the iconic books we all know today. But they don’t show that at all they show the inspirations for the books but the moment it ties into the books comes at the very end and to me I would of found it more entertaining if they did the film from when he was writing the book and how he started it to the final publication as that to me would be fascinating. Not to say his life was boring I’m not saying that at all it’s just the way they showed the aspects of his life through the film was very slow in pace and just not delved deep enough to really capture my attention. 

Firstly, I’ll say what I liked about the film. The performances from its central actors did a fine job as Nicholas Hoult and Lily Collins capture the roles they portray onscreen with great conviction and emotion that will amaze you. It’s the performances much like extremely wicked which saved that film does the same very thing here. They are able to service their onscreen portrayals very accurately with great charisma and force. The entire rest of the Supporting cast also give great contributions to the film as well so the cast and performances are a key highlight to enjoying this film. 

Secondly, This film also shows a great look behind the childhood and schooling of the genius writer but sadly their wasn’t enough context for me to become attached as compelling as it was I didn’t have enough information or intrigue to latch onto the supporting characters due to the lack of backstory with them. So a massive problem with the film is the lack of substance within the film if it’s from a story point of view or the characters backstory it definitely has a glaring flaw from that point for sure.  

Lastly, This film is still worth checking out despite its massive flaws that did get in the way at times from throughly enjoying the film. But due to the Flawed telling but still interesting story of Tolkien it will have you watching to the end due to the great performances on top of it as well that service the characters forward in respectful and authentic ways. If your a Lord Of The Rings Fan is a Hobbit fan this is worth checking out as now you have the definitive collection you can watch Tolkien then the Hobbit and then the masterworks Of The Lord Of The Rings it makes for a great completion trilogy. It is still fun to be had and I do recommend it. 

Rated PG - 13 : for some sequences of war violence

This film tells the story of the master genius behind some of literatures greatest works from the Hobbit and Lord Of The Rings this is the look behind the curtain to Tolkien’s personal life and his inspirations he used for the masterworks we would know today. 

Nicholas Hoult : Nicolas Provides a Head strong performance! Hoult has shown his fantastic range in characters over the years from Warm Bodies to the X- Men franchise and over the years has been able to execute a range of characters with amazing commitment and energy. Here he really showcases his incredible emotional drive in amazing fashion. He is able to show the depth and emotional restriction of Tolkien in such complex ways. Nicolas rips through the scenes in such passionate emotion that comes alive from his sheer raw emotion brought to the screen. He was able to show such depth to his character with great emotional layers as he could be quite vulnerable and emotionally open to moments he shares with Lily Collins and then has his guard up and be very hardened on the outside from his hard upbringing and Nicolas explores places emotionally we haven’t seen him capture onscreen before and he does it with authentic and believable strength onscreen that works so well. Nicolas is able to portray Tolkien in such a respectful and honest way that seems very faithful to who he was as a person and creative mind Nicolas provides a incredibly strong performance that is staggering. 

Lily Collins : Collins gives a fantastic Supporting performance. Collins provides the heart of this film in many ways as she is the driving force that helps Tolkien and is one of the few constants in his life and Collins brings the character to light by tremendous force of emotion and commitment. She isn’t in the film as much as I wanted her to be but when she is she relishes in every moment by committing to each frame with great charisma and energy that roars through each scene in great fashion. As Collins lifts the words off the page and really brings them to life with great passionate emotion and believability that when she speaks you feel it like a wave and hits you like a punch to the chest as she is able to get into the mindset and skin of this role and really delve deep and give her absolute all to her performance. Collins again gives another fantastic strong performance that speaks volumes 

Dome Karukoski : Dome gives good direction that could of been improved on massively. This filmmaker I am unfamiliar with but after seeing what he did here I have mixed feelings on his sense of direction as a filmmaker why I say that is due to the fact he doesn’t drill down far enough to show the details of Tolkien’s life which is disappointing as he led a very interesting life and we get brushes of it in the film but not enough to keep myself really into the narrative as it felt to shallow in the execution of the story. I enjoyed finding out about different aspects of his life and his upbringing but the creation of the novels would of been nice to of seen because we see the inspiration for them but not exactly a really detailed telling of that portion of the story which is a little bit of a let down so if he focused more on the overall picture of the story of Tolkien instead of just a small portion of it I would of been more invested as it didn’t show to me the full frame of who this man was and only showed the small aspects which I didn’t mind but when we did see them it wasn’t shown to it’s full potential. Overall fine direction that could of been fixed upon massively.