A Review of The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey

*Warning this review may contain unintentional spoilers! Which is to say that my opinion on what is or isn't a spoiler is not necessarily the same as yours!*

After seeing The Hobbit twice already, once being opening night (duh), I feel I can give a full bodied, hopefully not too biased, review on possibly the best film of 2012. 

I debated whether to incorporate the book in this review, as I started reading it after watching The Hobbit the first time round and am now at a point after the film ends, if that makes sense. However I decided not to as I think if people compare books and films too much, book readers will always be disappointed that it wasn't followed exactly or characters weren't as they imagine, the Harry Potter films spring to mind and I will eventually review The Hobbit as a book. 

All I will say on this matter is that, Peter Jackson, Guillermo del Toro and all the other screenplay writers did a hell of a job incorporating the book to work for a film audience. I can't imagine any fans screaming at the screen, 'This is all WRONG!'

So, first things first. I haven't seen the film in 3D. I don't like 3D films all that much, it's much like the debate of colour TV back in the day. You didn't need colour to help an audience understand what is going on in a film or TV show, the actors, props etc tell you that, much as 3D doesn't add any storyline to a film. It just costs more and hurts my eyes after a while. 

Visually, I think the film is stunning, the CGI on the dwarves being a favourite. I feel it wasn't too overdone, the actors still look realistic, adding a twinkle to their eyes, length to their noses and obviously making Gandalf look a lot taller. The variety of camera shots used helped keep me engrossed, although I feel that I always look at different camera shots as I took Film Studies, but I digress. 

I'm not ashamed to admit that I had a lot of doubts about Martin Freeman as Bilbo. Most I have no real basis for, other than that I was like, er... Watson cannot be Bilbo, just no. But I will take my metaphorical hat off to him, as he was brilliant. I think he really made the character come alive with his facial expressions and gestures not just through his dialogue and it was nice to see a sort of underdog hero who hadn't used a sword before. I think it made it easier for the audience to connect with him and bring out a universal adventurous spirit, willing him on.  

Plot wise. You don't need to have read the books to enjoy the film and trying not to give too much away, the way it begins is a nice way of tying things together to start the audience off on this adventure and I am gutted that I have to wait another year for the second instalment. There aren't really any lulls in the film that make you wonder why Peter Jackson bothered with the scene. Everything is relevant and all the scenes flow really well into one another.

Like I said before, I don't want this to be a comparison with the book, but I feel the need to add this, there are nice little nods to the people that have read the books. Obviously the first time round, I didn't notice these and this didn't take away from my experience of my film. Come the second time, having read the first half of the book, I did notice them and chuckled to myself and I really like it when directors add these into films as it's almost like an in joke but without being mean to people that don't know the joke. If that makes sense. 

Something that I thought put the film above Lord of the Rings. (We will go with Fellowship, as that was the first in that trilogy of films.) Was the humour. This film is actually hilarious. The wit of the characters, as I mentioned Freeman's gestures,  just, I think Fellowship was a bit too serious and this isn't at all, loads of people laughed throughout and there is one particular scene with Radagast where I was in stitches at the silliness, but it's not embarrassing. 

The soundtrack to the movie is awesome, although, this is not a negative, it may just me being, well me. But at some points I swear it sounded very Zelda; Skyward Swordesque. I'm not saying it was ripped off or anything, just that it reminded me of it. I think the music really adds to the tone of the scenes, like when the a massive wide shot is used and you see the company walking in this open wilderness and then the score blares out, just excellent. The songs also gave it that very old feel. Which sounds stupid but I think it's one of those small things, like costume, that give it a feel of authenticity.

Finally what made the film for me were the Dwarves. They were fantastic. Just as a collective they have so much more character then I expected and the company just made it feel more adventurous and I wanted to go with them. All the actors seemed to bounce off of each other so it made it seem so realistic that they were actually a group of dwarves in Bilbo's house eating dinner and then travelling. I recognised a couple of them but couldn't tell you where from. Thorin's character was amazing as the scorned dwarf king. I can't stress enough how believable they were. So I do urge you to go an watch The Hobbit.

Overall. 5/5, 10/10. Whatever the scale it is at the highest end. And I do think that I enjoyed it more than Lord of the Rings, which I feel bad for in a weird way. I just think it was more fun. And everyone should definitely see it! 

LB