The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey

Hey guys,

I can't wait to get started. Let's kick it off with a layman's review on one of the most popular movies of the twenty-first century, The Hobbit.

So, I went and saw this for the first time earlier this year, quite a while after its preliminary release. And to be honest, I was completely blown away.

Seeing it in 3-D was quite an experience. And on the big screen, it was spectacular. The sound was so loud I resorted to stuffing my ears with kleenex in a futile attempt to preserve my hearing. And the 3-D gave me a splitting headache afterwards; but who cares, it was awesome.

However, after watching it again, there were one or two things I found that I didn't like.

Number one, the pure scale. While Lord of the Rings was epically huge, it was meant to be epically huge. In comparison to the Hobbit, it's gigantic. But now they're splitting the Hobbit up into three movies as well - while understandable, it's not that necessary. It's just a moneymaking technique. Plus, while I can't really tell, it felt like they used a lot more CGI (computer-generated images) instead of real stuff. That was a strength of LotR, because it interspersed amazing CGI with real-looking miniatures and people in actual costumes. But I think they used much more CGI with The Hobbit, and that just gives the movie a fakish feel to it.

And number two, their departure from the book. Now, I understand their dilemma in making the movie - the actual villian, Smaug, just sits in his mountain for ninety percent of the book, doing nothing. They needed a more active antagonist, hence Azog (from the LotR appendixes). However, I believe that in LotR Azog actually dies. Strike one. Plus, they brought in the rising menace from Minas Morgul as well as Radagast - which was pure extrapolation from a passing comment made by Gandalf. Strike two.
Because of these departures from the book, it decreases J.R.R. Tolkien's original purpose and theme. By focusing on Bilbo and his journey with the dwarves, it brings an interesting focus on the development of the characters, not the actual action of the story. This story is about a hobbit, who finds the world outside to be much bigger than he imagined - and on the way, meets some very interesting people. In the end, he gains a more open-minded view of the world, and a more solid idea of what friendship really is. But when you bring in all these antagonists and different storylines, it splinters the original purpose.

But that being said, you have to take into account that this is a movie, not a book. There are certain things that don't translate well from book into film, and the works of J.R.R. Tolkien are some great examples of that. You need suspense. You need to hold the audience's interest. You need to create something that they want to see more of - and since they did all that with The Hobbit, An Unexpected Journey, I'd say they did pretty well.

Of course, this is just my opinion. It's a free country, please think what you like. And we'll see you next time, folks!