The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey

I went to see this movie last night

I opted to watch it in IMAX which, I admit, was a mistake because it was really dizzying the whole time. 3D tends to make my head spin, impressive as it is. People often bitch about movies being released in 3D. Why? I like that fact that that's coming back. Makes me think that the theatre will continue to be like it was. Oh, I'm off topic again. You want to hear about The Hobbit, right? Okay, I haven't yet read any reviews of it, so I'm not sure my opinion is popular or not, but I'm going to voice my honest-to-God reaction to the film. Let's begin.

The absolute first thing I noticed was the frame rate. I had heard that it boasted an impressive 48 per-second and you can instantly tell. I hated it. It makes the movie look "too real." It destroys the cinematic quality and feels more like a play or a behind-the-scenes sort of thing. It distracted me the whole time. This is an aggravating trend that's becoming more prevalent. New televisions often have a feature that makes the movie look this way. I always tried to point it out to people, but most don't notice it. Thankfully, you can turn it off, but you sure can't when you're in the theatre.

The first twenty minutes or so, feels more like the trailer for the next Elder-Scrolls game than it does a Lord of the Rings movie, but it serves it's purpose as a bookend that gives the backstory, without which woud make the movie rather confusing.

Despite the return of familiar sets, actors and score, the movie would stick out like a sore thumb when compared to the other three. Not because of it's plot, but because of it's style. First of all, EVERYTHING is CG, which is disappointing albeit not surprising. The first three used CG correctly. Obviously, you can't go build a giant tower with a flaming eye in the center, and you don't want to hire ten-thousand extras for just a few shots of the army. That being said, most of orcs and goblins that were shown close up, were people in costume and makeup. It gives the movie a much more authentic and organic look that I was greatly upset to find the new film void of. Did you know that during the first three films, rather than digitally edit the hobbits in to look smaller, the film crew built perspective shifting set pieces? When you thought Frodo was sitting right next to Gandalf he was actually sitting like this:

And one scene around a dinner table involved a partial camera circle, so they built a table that would shift and transform as the camera moved so that the hobbits would stay small and you wouldn't notice a thing. Too bad all they do now is digitize Gandalf into the frame.

I felt like I was watching a Disney version of the francise I've come to love over the years. Much of what happens seems so family friendly and cutesy. Most of then enemies are funny rather than scary, like what they used to be. Case in point, remember the trolls from the first three. Those guys were terrifying. Whenever a troll stepped out onto the battlefield, it meant trouble. They roared and killed everything in sight.

Now the trolls are bumbling doofuses that pick their noses are argue amongst each other. They look like this:

That seems strange seeing as how the other films were pushing the PG-13 as far as they could (there was a rumor that Return of the King would be re-rated R at one point).

Having said all of that, I think the best thing the movie has going for it is it's cast. I love every character. The dwarves are as hilarious as they are interesting and the young Bilbo is easy to latch on to as the lead character for the new trilogy. But the one who steals the show is Ian Mckellen as Gandalf. He's a lovable as he is wise and still cracks his occasional dry-humor quips.

My favorite scene is the part where Bilbo meets Gollum in the cave. Gollum is as intriguing as ever, arguing with himself and narrating everything he does. He makes Bilbo play him in a game of riddles over weather or not he should show him the way out. It's a great scene.

Despite it's perks, I didn't care for The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey. Gone was the atmosphere and thrills of the originals, gone was the painstaking attention to detail and gone was the adult target audience. It's just not what it used to be. I was enormously disappointed considering how long I waited for this movie ("What?! December of 2012?!") If you expect this movie to be anything like the other ones, like I did, you're going to be sorely disappointed. I think it wasn't a bad idea to take the series in a new direction, but this I disagree with. The first three were already so unique and this new one feels like a run-of-the-mill fantasy movie. I'm sorry, fans of the series but it looks like our true return to Middle Earth will have to be postponed.

6/10 - Might Be Worth Your Time For Curiosity's Sake.