My 2 Cents: The Hobbit

It's been a while since I've posted anything here and since I originally intended for this blog to focus on baking and movies, I think it's fitting that I give my first official review to The Hobbit.

Spoilers ahead. You have been warned.

First of all I have to say that I saw the movie in the special 48 frames 3D version. For those who don't get what's the big deal, I'll briefly explain what little I know. From what I understand, the standard method of filming has been 20-30 frames per-second since the 1920s because that was the most cameras of the time could capture. 48 frames per second is closer to what the human eye sees in every day life and is what most modern video games render. As a result the motions within the film look a lot smoother and faster and at times look a bit like a video game. It took a while to get used to, but personally I didn't really like it for this movie. I just didn't think it fit since a lot of the more memorable moments of LotR were the ones where the camera slows down in order to emphasize the gravity of the scene and seeing things move at times cartoonishly fast didn't sit right with me. But again that's just me and if you want to see the film this way, go for it.

Personally I get motion sick very easily so I went to the drug store and got some medicine before watching it. A lot of people apparently got headaches from this camera, but I felt fine thanks to the Dramamine that I took. But I was sleepy. Really, really sleepy (the fact that I had been working long shifts all week didn't help) and when I got home I just outright collapsed. So, again keep this in mind before you go see the 48 frames 3D.

Now, let me start by saying that I really liked it. It was just what I wanted it to be: a lot of fun. That being said it wasn't a perfect movie and there were things about it that could have been better. I didn't see any critical reviews before I went to see the movie, but I was really surprised to find that The Hobbit only rated a 58 out of 100 on Metacritic, which is to say it's getting a lot of mixed reviews. It didn't really shocked me that The Hobbit wasn't the critical darling that the LotR films were, but I didn't think it was a completely weak film either.

Skimming through the critical reviews I noticed two issues coming up among those who gave the film middling/low reviews: "it's soooooo loooooong" and "the effects look really phoney." To the first complaint, I have to say that whoever went into this movie thinking it was going to be brief is an idiot. Do you not remember how long the other movies were? One of my coworkers even tried to warn me about the movie's length before I went to see it. I politely laughed her off, but really how can that be an issue? That point is officially invalid to me. The other issue.... well, the best way to go over the movie is to break it down into three points: Things I liked, things that disappointed me, and things I didn't like. (Keep in mind that "disappointing" doesn't really equal bad, but were ideas that could have gone better or probably just bothered me.)

Things I Liked

1) Martin Freeman as Bilbo. Oh my flipping gosh he was perfect. Every single scene with him was my absolute favorite and he fit the role just right. Yeah, you can argue that really it was just Martin Freeman doing his usual schtick of being the fussy, overwhelmed guy who gets thrown into weird situations, but to me it just worked. I loved his facial expressions, I loved how he just seems so floored by everything, and I loved all the little things he does with his body to express his discomfort. To me it was just all around gold and I to rewatch all of his scenes and just smile.

2) The Dwarves. I really liked that we got to see more of dwarf culture and more dwarves in general. There were even brief glimpses at dwarf women and children (I think. It was very fast.) and since LotR focused so much on elves and men (and hobbits), seeing actual dwarves was nice. It was also really great that they had a fighting style that was all their own. When you see the dwarves fight its a lot of bashing and swinging and spinning. It was really a lot of fun.

3) The visuals. It pretty much goes without saying that the wide shots and landscape was absolutely perfect, because Peter Jackson just knows how to capture New Zealand, but it really did feel like coming back to a familiar world and that was nice.

Now on the issue of the computer effects... I have to say it's hard for me to comment on it, because the 3D version I watched really did give the whole film a very glossy look that made it hard for me to tell what was practical and what was computer rendered. I will say that I feel like the goblins were mostly CG characters which I didn't like, because what made the orcs great was how real they looked, but other than that everything looked well done to me. I guess I'll be able to comment on it more after I rewatch the film in 2D. But I can say that Gollum looks amazing. You'd think there would be no way to improve him, but he looks even more realistic now than he did back in 2003.

4) All the scenes that stayed true to the book. Obviously since this is being stretched into 3 films, there were a lot of scenes in Unexpected Journey that weren't from The Hobbit. Those parts I'll talk about later. The book scenes were great. I actually read The Hobbit back in high school, so I went in knowing all the parts a head of time, which gave me a different viewing experience from any of the LotR movies. So I was smiling when the dwarves came crashing into Bilbo's hobbit hole, I loved the fight with the trolls, and I really enjoyed riddles in the dark.

Disappointing Things

1) The music. This is probably me being nit-picky, but I felt like the score sounded too much like it was recycled from the other films. Maybe it's just me wanting too much, but I was hoping that since the Hobbit was more of a fun, carefree (sorta) adventure we'd beg a more upbeat and wonder inducing score with a few touches of the old music. Instead we got sort of the same thing, but with a new badass, bassy theme for whenever the dwarves are doing something cool. It's an Oscar winning score so of course it's good, but it could have been better. To me at least.

2) Not enough of the Shire. Now a lot of reviewers complained that there was too much of the Shire because it took an hour or so for the actual quest to start, but to me that's a dumb complaint because if you'd read The Hobbit, nothing about that would have surprised you. It was basically the first two chapters being filmed and I think that issue just comes out of people wanting this movie to be a LotR clone. That being said, I'm very much a hobbit lover. Remember that long sweeping sequence from Fellowship that introduced us to hobbits and hobbit culture? I wanted more of that. I knew there would be padding in the film and I was hoping some of the padding would involve Bilbo's actual life in the Shire pre-Gandalf and him dwelling a bit longer on whether or not he should go on an adventure. But no, we didn't get that. We didn't even really get to interact with any other hobbits and that really disappointed me.

Things I Didn't Like

1) Thorin. Now, my problem with Thorin started from the moment I saw his character design. It didn't match up with the image I had of Thorin, because he looked too young and too human. This was made even worse when they outright said they wanted to make him the Aragorn of this movie. Why? We have an Aragorn character who comes in later in the book. I guess I understand because the movie fans were going to expect someone to fill the action heavy leader role and I went in saying to myself "just deal with it." Yet I didn't really get drawn in to him, because he was very much like a dwarf version of Aragorn. Maybe it's a little harsh to say I didn't like Thorin, because really my feelings for him can be summed up as "meh," but still I couldn't get into his backstory or his motivations. Of the dwarves my favorite was probably Balin, but mainly because he reminded me of Hudson from Gargoyles.

2) Radagast the Brown. Boy oh boy I did not like this character. Every time he was oh screen I though "oh geez, he's here again." Radagast is another character that I wasn't really expecting to love, but I still didn't enjoy. Let me make it clear that he wasn't a bad character, because he was goofy, but not completely incompetent which I appreciated, but I just... no... Also, his costume will either make you laugh or groan. (There's a white residue along the side of his face that had my brother and I debating on whether it was tree moss or bird crap. I thought it was bird crap.)

3) The old Bilbo sequence. This is really disappointing for me because I was actually looking forward to this part. I mean I see why they did it, sort of, because it gives us a prologue and some backstory about the city of Dale and the dwarves and why they're going on this quest and that's good, but it could have been done without including Ian Holmes Bilbo. I guess what really bothered me about this sequence was the fact that it took place the same day as the birthday party. I was hoping it would take place a couple of years or at least a week before the events of the Fellowship, but nope. It's five minutes before everything kicks off. When Frodo comes in an announces that Bilbo's birthday party is that day I wanted to scream "You've gotta be kidding me!" Because to me, it's just really really pointless. It doesn't add anything new to the character of Bilbo or his dynamic with Frodo. It just felt like an excuse to get Ian Holmes and Elijah Wood back in hobbit gear and really it could have been done better.

4) The attempts to tie into/make the film the Lord of the Rings. This is probably my biggest complaint with the movie. Once again, I saw this coming, but I still didn't like it. Before we saw the film I told my brother, who had never read any of the books, "Don't expect it to be the Lord of the Rings. This isn't the Lord of the Rings." but when we left the theater I heard someone saying to their friend "Now you have to watch the Lord of the Rings" and that really annoyed me.

In terms of the books, The Hobbit was very different in tone from LotR and I was really looking forward to that, but the movie went out of its way to add some weight and conflict were there wasn't any and it did feel forced. For example there was a council scene between Galadriel, Elrond, Gandalf, and Saurman that just felt really unnecessary and was only enjoyable because, yay, we're seeing Galadriel and Saurman again.

I guess the main "problem" is that at its core The Hobbit is story about a treasure hunt and that's not enough to make a movie out of, there needs to be more conflict and urgency see than that. Yet I feel that there could have been better ways to add a more serious tone to the movie, things that they did put in, but didn't focus on. Such as the idea of the quest changing Bilbo, how he's going to come back a different person or the idea that the dwarves aren't just out of fight Smaug for the gold, but to find a home. They talked about those things, but it's as if they decided that it just wasn't good enough. Walking away from this movie, the biggest issue that I have is that the things I complained about likely won't be fixed. They're here to stay because we're stretching one book into three films.

So overall, I think that if you liked the Lord of the Rings films and never read/don't care for The Hobbit/the books, you're probably not going to like An Unexpected Journey. If you really really liked The Hobbit book, you'll probably like this movie, but feel it could have been better. I certainly think it's worth watching and I'll probably go back and see it again in the near future.