All geeks great and small were looking forward to seeing The Hobbit. I am not a big Lord of the Rings fan, but I do love my sci-fi/fantasy. When Lord of the Rings first came out, I loved it. I wanted to get Arwen‘s Evenstar necklace and visit Hobbiton! It’s been 12 years since the original film in the series, Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring” came out and the fandom is still going strong.
I caught “The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey” in it’s 48-frames-per-second+3D format. I had many choices to choose from with viewing the film as it was also out in IMAX, normal 3D. and 2D. I have to say, with so many different formats, it’s actually quite confusing for a movie-goer. I decided on seeing the film in 48-frames-per-second+3D because I felt I wanted to see it the way it was originally shot.
I was not used to the 48-frames-per-second+3D format. I felt like I was watching CGI of a video game on a virtual ride the entire time. I don’t think it was necessarily bad, but it was different.
Despite the strange choice in format, The Hobbit looks as great visually as its predecessors. The sets, the costumes, the special effects were all visually fantastic.
It was great seeing so many old characters from the original film series that we have grown to love. Older Bilbo Baggins, Gandalf, Elrond, Galadriel, even Frodo makes a small appearance in the film! But our main character is young Bilbo Baggins portrayed by British actor, Martin Freeman.
I really enjoyed Martin Freeman‘s portrayal of Bilbo Baggins. He made Bilbo strong, sensitive, hesitant, relatable and endearing. A shy character that usually keeps to himself, Bilbo is thrown into the deep end when a wizard appears on his doorstep as well as 13 dwarves seeking out an additional companion on their adventures to reclaim their homeland.
The movie is based on a short children’s book prequel to the Lord of the Rings series and I honestly cannot see the necessity of a 3 hour long movie, let alone THREE 3 HOUR LONG MOVIES in a series for this tiny book. That being said, I have not read the novel. I own it, but have not yet read it. I dare-say that there would be many things in the book that are not in the film.
When it comes to a movie adaptation of a novel, there are many viewers that would not have read the book. But if the movie-goer does not understand what is happening in the film without reading the novel, then there’s something wrong. This happened to me several times during this movie. I wasn’t sure what was going on and assumed that many of these scenes were fillers to make the film longer than it should be.
I wanted to like this film, but I was left with mixed emotions and I do believe the initial reaction is usually the correct one. I didn’t hate the film, but I didn’t like it as much as I thought I would.
Hit or miss, I believe The Hobbit is worthy of a look but mostly for the avid Lord of the Rings fan.
Otherwise, I would suggest read the book. It’s shorter.