The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey
Last night, myself and Mrs Sam took ourselves off to the local cinema to see what all the hype was about for the first instalment of Peter Jackson's The Hobbit series.
Being a fan of the original book, I knew what elements to expect so was pretty exited to see how Jackson put this together, but admittedly my heart did sink when I found out that, what I consider to be a relatively short story, was to be panned out over three movies.
To sum up the story, the Dwarven Kingdom of Erabor, built into the depths of The Lonely Mountain, has been thriving for generations, filled to the brim with gold and precious gems. The dragon Smaug, who is quite partial to a bit of gold himself, raids the kingdom and seeks refuge their himself, kicking out all the dwarves in the process. The Dwarve Prince, Thorin Oakenshield, assembles a party to claim back the kingdom and slay the dragon Smaug, with the help of Gandalf, who ropes Bilbo into the adventure as a misplaced 'thief'.
As exited as I was, I was also a little dubious. Being a Tolkien geek, I was disappointed at some aspects of the Lord of the Rings trilogy, specifically being the omissions of Tom Bombadil, the Barrow Wights in the Barrow Downs and how Farramir and Lady Eowyn came together, and most importantly, the complete omission of 'Sharky' in the final chapters of the books when the Hobbits returned to the Shire, with another epic battle (read the book and you'll understand). I also hated the way that Gimli and Legolas had been portrayed as some sort of comedy duo, but overall, it was a great series. The timeline was reduced vastly to accommodate the film as a whole, and to be fair, I understand that to put everything in, there would have to be two parts to each book, so I can't be too harsh!
Although much was removed from the Lord of the Rings trilogy, The Hobbit went the other way. As short as the book was, Jackson has done a fantastic job incorporating some of the elements listed in the appendices of the books, with subtle references made to other events that have or have yet to occur. The basic bones of the book are all there and meated out nicely with inter-texual references from the other books, and I do know that Tolkien had written this before the Lord of the Rings and was actually intended as a children's story, however Jackson has done an excellent job retaining that 'fairy tale' element and blended it with the beautiful and gritty settings of Middle-Earth. It is fun, exciting and beautiful, and what's more, watching it in HDR 3D made it seem as if I was really there looking at the whole thing through plain glass.
The casting was excellent. Martin Freeman plays a younger Bilbo Baggins (60 years prior to the events in Lord of the Rings) and managed to retain that character and charm of Ian Holm (older Bilbo) and yet play it down as an inexperienced, shy, naive Hobbit that is obviously going to be hardened by the events yet to follow. Elijah Wood returns as a fresh-faced Frodo Baggins and we see the return of Hugo Weaving (Lord Elrond), Christopher Lee (Sauraman), Cate Blanchette (Lady Galadriel) and of course, Ian McKellen (Gandalf the Grey). We also see Coleraine actor, James Nesbitt star as one of the 13 dwarves that partakes in this epic quest.
Forget the slating reviews; if you enjoyed Lord of the Rings you will adore this film.
How do I rate this one?
Five out of five frogs
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Originally Posted by Big J
