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Bruce Kirkland Shows Off Personal Collection of Cliches in “Thrilling”

In response to Bruce Kirkland’s 539‑word review of The Hobbit: The Desolation Of Smaug on Jam! Movies 

http://jam.canoe.ca/Movies/Reviews/H/Hobbit_The_Desolation_Of_Smaug/2013/12/11/21330441.html?cid=rssentertainment

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Are you sitting down? Bruce Kirkland has compiled all the greatest cliches of film criticism and offers them to the poor reader in “Review: The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug thrilling.” Even the title is a cliche. Snooze.

Bruce Kirkland begins Thrilling on a strange note as he informs his audience that LOTR nerds will be surprised by a cliffhanger ending. Really? Is that not to be expected? The cliffhanger?

The problem with Thrilling is that Kirkland fails to expand on his statements. It’s nothing but one-sentence criticism in the sense that everything is (insert adjective). “Jackson’s storytelling is cleaner and crisper” and “the final song, Ed Sheeran’s I See Fire, is intriguing.” It goes and on and on.

Thrilling covers all the essentials but ultimately Kirkland does just enough for the work to be called a ‘critique.” There is a paragraph of obligatory character mentions that is just completely mind-boggling. The critic notes that “Jackson also develops his core characters more truly, madly, deeply” and then rattles off a bunch of names.

It seriously seems like Kirkland is working from a checklist. It’s Film Criticism 101. There is no sense of original thought beyond basic statements.

Bruce Kirkland is a kind gentleman in Thrilling, however the effort is just not there.    

Quality of Writing Quality of Argument Spoiler Avoidance Presentation