Nicholas Hoult has given some great performances in the past, from his insane turn in Mad Max Fury Road to his sweet and memorable role in About A Boy, so the man has proven his acting chops, but what happened here?
Nicholas Hout, dare I say it, single handedly ruined this movie, in my eyes at least. He is incredibly bland, emotionless, one-note, tired and overall flat as J.R.R. Tolkien. In the last 5 minutes of the film, he almost cries, almost, and that's about as much expression you'll get.
The rest of the cast dance around Hoult with stellar performances. Lily Collins is an absolute joy to watch, and the young actors playing Tolkien and his friends are that good, that I would've happily seen a movie that was just about them, their time together at college and their fellowship.
Hoult's monotone line delivery sticks out like a sore thumb, so when his co-stars Anthony Boyle, Patrick Gibson and Tom Glynn-Carney come onscreen, their already strong performances are elevated even further because of how flat Hoult is. I'm so surprised.
The film itself is at times slow, but then at times rather enjoyable. It's shot nicely, with a very clean image and vibrant colours, though it feels like a 3-4 part BBC TV drama. The war sequences are so dull, with a horrible mish-mash of wobbly fantastical elements mixed in with war, it doesn't work yet they keep clashing together through monotonous flashbacks to Tolkien's time in the trenches.
Thomas Newman's score, though, is terrific. It's warming, soothing and fits every scene perfectly, at times it sounded like something out of Harry Potter, which is a positive, allowing me to remember the good times watching those films compared to sitting through this rather slog of a feature.
Nicholas Hout, dare I say it, single handedly ruined this movie, in my eyes at least. He is incredibly bland, emotionless, one-note, tired and overall flat as J.R.R. Tolkien. In the last 5 minutes of the film, he almost cries, almost, and that's about as much expression you'll get.
The rest of the cast dance around Hoult with stellar performances. Lily Collins is an absolute joy to watch, and the young actors playing Tolkien and his friends are that good, that I would've happily seen a movie that was just about them, their time together at college and their fellowship.
Hoult's monotone line delivery sticks out like a sore thumb, so when his co-stars Anthony Boyle, Patrick Gibson and Tom Glynn-Carney come onscreen, their already strong performances are elevated even further because of how flat Hoult is. I'm so surprised.
The film itself is at times slow, but then at times rather enjoyable. It's shot nicely, with a very clean image and vibrant colours, though it feels like a 3-4 part BBC TV drama. The war sequences are so dull, with a horrible mish-mash of wobbly fantastical elements mixed in with war, it doesn't work yet they keep clashing together through monotonous flashbacks to Tolkien's time in the trenches.
Thomas Newman's score, though, is terrific. It's warming, soothing and fits every scene perfectly, at times it sounded like something out of Harry Potter, which is a positive, allowing me to remember the good times watching those films compared to sitting through this rather slog of a feature.