When I first heard that The Asylum planned a production namned Age of the Hobbits I swore it would be the only Hobbit-related movie I would see in 2012. Fail. I actually went to the cinema to see Peter Jackson's The Hobbit in 48fps 3D and enjoyed it a lot! A couple of months later Age of the Hobbits finally got a release in Sweden, but for while I was afraid it would never see the light of day. An army of lawyers beloning to New Line Cinema and, I guess, MGM, threatened The Asylum with legal action if they didn't change the title... and what could the makers of Age of the Hobbits do? It was released under the title Clash of Empires and the wtf-title Lord of the Elves, depending on which country - but I wanted the original title, because it's the best one if you look at the exploitation point of view.
Thank Satan the distribution company Take One released it under its original title here in Scandinavia and of course using marketing like this:
Age of the
HOBBITS
I friggin' love stuff like that. Sure, it fools less smart people - but for us others, who loves cheap knock-off's this is heaven. Directed by the talented Joseph J. Lawson (Nazis at the Center of the Earth), this is one of the best looking and best-paced productions from The Asylum made. The story, written by Eric Forsberg, is a standard fantasy saga that works fine compared to some bigger productions I've seen, going from adventure to adventure without stopping at unnecessary romantic subplots or talking heads. It's bascially a couple of a midget family who wants to save their friends from the evil rock people and talks help from Bai Ling and that big dude from Stargate, the TV-series. And then they fight big lizards and stuff.
But believe, this is a very entertaining film. First of all, the locations is stunning. We visited Cambodia last year and ever since then I want to go back. The nature, the people, the food - very down to earth, friendly and with a rich culture heritage. In Age of the Hobbits the filmmakers makes sure you won't miss a single piece of stunning scenery and believe, if you takes away the flying lizards and fantasy dwarfs, this is what we saw in Cambodia. But I guess there's more fat tourists around the sights. It's a pity they don't use any temples though, but I guess they either couldn't - because the Cambodian government is quite sensitive when it comes to letting a film crew stomp around with heavy equipment in their precious ruins - or maybe they demanded too much money to let them use it?
It takes a while to get used to the little people playing the family going to save their friends, but the Cambodian actors - Sun Korng, Srogn and Khom Lyly - are actually damn good in their parts, even if they're dubbed by American voice actors. Sun Korng has star quality, it wouldn't surprise me if he shows up in other productions being shot in Cambodia in the future. They're more inspired than the professional stars and also lacks that "Okay, lets do this and get the paycheck before sundown"-feeling you get when you see Bai Ling and Christopher Judge - they aren't bad either, but they have done stuff like this before - many, many times. But not everyone is good. One man, who looks like drunke ex-pat they found in a local bar, really does one of the worst performances I've seen in a movie from The Asylum. But hey, that's life.
Age of the Hobbits is cheese. Juicy, smelly cheese. But it's also made with talent and passion and a lot more entertaining than I ever could expect.
Here's an article from The Cambodia Daily about the shoot. Well worth reading!
"A couple of months later Age of the Hobbits finally got a release in Sweden, but for while I was afraid it would never see the light of day. An army of lawyers beloning to New Line Cinema and, I guess, MGM, threatened The Asylum with legal action if they didn't change the title... and what could the makers of Age of the Hobbits do? It was released under the title Clash of Empires and the wtf-title Lord of the Elves, depending on which country - but I wanted the original title, because it's the best one if you look at the exploitation point of view."
I felt the same way about Call Girl(2012).
"It's bascially a couple of a midget family who wants to save their friends from the evil rock people and talks help from Bai Ling and that big dude from Stargate, the TV-series. And then they fight big lizards and stuff."
You had me at Bai Ling.
"We visited Cambodia last year and ever since then I want to go back. The nature, the people, the food - very down to earth, friendly and with a rich culture heritage."
Life has been good since Pol Pot and his khmer rouge left the place.
"Age of the Hobbits is cheese. Juicy, smelly cheese. But it's also made with talent and passion and a lot more entertaining than I ever could expect."
Maybe I should see this before Jacksons version.....I haven´t seen it yet.
Good review and thanks, for the article.
Posted by: Megatron | February 27, 2013 at 16:03