Welcome back to the Geekdom, I’ll be your Guide. I have a
confession to make. I have never read The Hobbit, nor have I read The Lord of
the Rings. I know I’m a terrible person; I just haven’t gotten around to it
yet. My knowledge of the LOTR world is limited to what I have seen in the films
and my editor’s extremely thorough knowledge, but even I can tell what an odd
move it is to turn this one book into an epic action packed trilogy. Like many
of you, I wasn’t sure if what I was about to watch was going to be any good or
not, due to the nature of what it was. So without further ado, let’s review The
Hobbit.
The
Negative
Now I saw this movie with my editor and therefore everything
the film had gotten wrong about the plot was described to me in fine detail.
Suffice it to say if you are a major fan of the book, be prepared to find that
the movie has changed a few of the details. This is not to say that every
addition of change was a bad thing, nor necessarily incorrect within the LOTR
universe, but a good majority of the changes were created for extending the
plot so that it could be made into a trilogy. In my book, padding is never the
highlight of a story.
The high definition of this film was both its blessing and
its curse. Every image was really sharp and clearly defined, down to the
make-up effect mistakes and poor CGI. At certain times you could see where the
actor’s leg would end and the fake hobbit foot began. There was a thick ring
around his lower leg that would give it away; the issue was that it was hard
not to see it due to the high definition. The high definition in the film made
everything look really good, but also pointed out ever error. The other problem stemmed from the CGI. I
personally couldn’t look at the Goblin King without seeing a blobbing mess of
poor CGI effects. While the high definition looked fantastic, it also made all
of its technical flaws rather glaring.
The Dwarves. By the end of the film I couldn’t tell you
much about any of them, none of them were developed that well, other than the
leader Thorin. To be fair this is something shared by a good number of stories
that have a large main cast. When a main cast is too big some of the characters
have a tendency to be overlooked. While I am certain that these characters will
get more development over the course of the next two films, I can’t help but
think that the Fellowship of the Ring did a much better job at introducing a
large main cast than this movie.
Lastly, they tried really hard to make the ending epic in
order to justify ending the film there. The final action sequence is way too
over the top with extreme amounts of slow motion just to get you to understand
how much of an epic fight this is and why it’s the perfect stopping point. This
falls under the same issue of padding in order to extend the story, but this
scene was incredibly unashamed of its padding nature. (Also my editor informs
me that if you have read the book it is almost ridiculous how epic this part
is, especially when it removes most of the actual villains who were in the
scene).
The
Positive
This is not Lord of the Rings. Don’t go into this movie
expecting to see more Lord of the Rings. This is an epic fantasy film whose
tone is far more for the light-hearted. Most people would look at that as a bad
thing, but I personally see it as the film’s shining aspect. The film is
allowed to not take itself as seriously as the LOTR trilogy did, granting it
the ability to visit the more fantastical elements of this world. I couldn’t
see the rock giants sequence fitting in too well with the LOTR trilogy but with
The Hobbit it feels like a neat addition to a fascinating adventure.
The acting was amazing as was expected. I feel special
praise should be given to Sir Ian McKellan for returning to the role of Gandalf
but not entirely being the Gandalf we knew. Gandalf is a fairly somber
character in the LOTR trilogy but that was because he was facing such dark
times. This Gandalf is hamming up the scene with some of the most humorous
dialogue. This added to the effect that this wasn’t just a copy of Lord of the
Rings, the journey will be almost entirely different.
The music in the film was beautifully orchestrated. ‘Of
course it was, this is Lord of the Rings you’re talking about’ you say, but the
reason I make particular note of it here is because of the few songs performed
by the main cast. The songs add their own particular elements to the film. ‘Far
Over The Misty Mountain Cold’ in particular adds such a powerful daunting
element to the night before the first day of the journey. Some of the songs were
taken directly from LOTR, but the new additions were a great asset to the film.
The action sequences were spread lightly throughout the
movie, but whenever they appeared it was always incredibly fast paced. While I
didn’t like the Goblin King’s CGI, the entire goblin chase sequence was an
amazing scene to watch. The screen was always busy with our heroes sprinting
through this world of rickety walkways while goblins climbed on all the walls.
It truly made the film feel like a fun thrill ride from start to finish.
In
Conclusion
Our return to Middle Earth was a little bumpier than
expected, but still an enjoyable return none the less. I wish the film didn’t
have as much padding as it did, and the high definition made it suffer more
than it added, but the acting was fantastically splendid and I look forward to
the next one. 3.9 out of 5.
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