Actually, what I saw was The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey, however, before I talk about that movie, I'm going to talk about the video above. It is a compilation of scenes from a 1977 cartoon version of The Hobbit. That video is what led me like Tolkien and the world of Middle Earth. Of course, when it came out I was three and was too busy learning how to enjoy television and reading let alone trying to read The Hobbit. However, years later when I did finally see it, I did enjoy it immensely. I even have the actual VHS tape that might get a viewing in the near future so Abby could get an early education in Tolkien.
Just as with any adaptation from a novel to television or movie, things get left out or changed. It happened with the current iteration of The Hobbit and it even happened in 1977. When I first heard that Peter Jackson was turning The Hobbit into three films, I had the same reaction as everyone else - why? It's a very short book. It's not even as long as the shortest of "The Lord of the Rings" trilogy books. The Two Towers sits at 352 pages versus 320 for The Hobbit. So why would Peter Jackson want to stretch one book into three movies? Money.
But not really.
The producers (and Jackson) state that there was a lot of information that they wanted to add from the various indices of the books as well as expand on information barely glimpsed in The Hobbit. Without seeing the other two films and what they have decided to do, I cannot give a fair review. However, I can review The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey.
Let me start that this movie only serves as yet another example of why I need to travel to New Zealand. Standing in tundra with very, very tall mountains covered with snow in the distance. That just doesn't happen in North America. It's either tundra or snow covered mountains. Not both. Plus lush forests with creeks and rivers and waterfalls. Yes, I know that some of it is CG but I know that the country is vastly beautiful beyond any place that I know.
Secondly, I can agree with a lot of the critics of this movie that it is slow. It takes a good forty to forty-five minutes before Bilbo gets up off his duff and sets off on adventure. However, during the first forty minutes (fifteen or so used for a prologue), you get an idea of the quest of the dwarves. You find out what they are after and why. You see them playful and serious in just a matter of minutes. The song, That's What Bilbo Baggins Hates was not only in this film and the 1977 version, but is in the actual book. Yes, it was adapted but the lyrics still hold the general sense from the book and give characterization to Bilbo as a stuffy hobbit that likes order while the dwarves are the complete opposite.
Once the adventure begins, the movie really starts. There is action, emotion and humor. The humor is properly placed and the group of moviegoers I was with laughed at the appropriate times instead of letting the joke fall flat.
The movie does not have a proper ending, just as The Fellowship of the Ring and The Two Towers did not properly end. I didn't mind that at all, though, as most critics would wonder, why didn't the eagles just take them to The Lonely Mountain in the first place. That's something you can ask Tolkien when you see him. Where it ended felt like a good starting point for the next movie with a general sense of what adventures might lie ahead.
I chose not to see the film in the 48 frame per second version as I was unsure about what it could do to me. I don't get motion sick very often but every now and then I can be affected and I didn't want it to ruin my movie going experience.
I would suggest that anyone that liked the Lord of the Rings trilogy to see this movie and its eventual sequels. It was well done and while it seems slow at the beginning, once Bilbo leaves his home, everyone gets to join in the adventure. As the song would suggest, the greatest adventure is now to begin but we'll have to wait a few years to see how it ends.
Until next time.
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