The Hobbit - An Unexpected Journey review (SPOILERS)
I decided to go see the first installment of "The Hobbit" today, just so I wouldn't have to wait until I got home. Turns out, after calling my mom after the movie, my brother and dad (who are big LOTR fans too) had already seen the movie. Sooo...no hard feelings about missing out. Plus, if the world really does end on the 21st, I'd have that business out of the way like I had promised myself.
General thoughts:
I thought it was good. Some fans might disagree with me, but I think this trilogy is off to a good start. However, it draaaaagged on in several places, but if Peter Jackson means to be thorough in his storytelling, then I'm not going to hold it against him or Weta Workshop...I've seen movie adaptations of books that just chop significant amounts of plot and character development parts just to cut down for time, or squish scenes together and rush through them at a mile a minute, and the movies would just bomb miserably. PJ's probably stretching them out to milk money out of them...either that, or he's just really OCD about including stuff that leads up to LOTR that went on behind the scenes during the events of Thorin and company's quest. Personally, I don't have a problem with that, because it answers a lot of questions movie fans who haven't read the books want to know. My brother, who hasn't read the books (and still keeps coming up with excuses not to), always pesters me with questions about certain things that crop up in the movies that are kind of left unexplained. So I'm actually kind of glad that PJ is including this extra stuff. Though one of these days I'm going to take my copies of The Hobbit and LOTR and shove them into my brother's arms and demand him to read them. If you like the movies so much, why don't you reeeeeeead the booooooks?!
About the actors:
I think the cast was terrific. Even the minor characters had a few moments to shine. And I was surprised at how (relatively) rounded-out each of the dwarves were. I know a lot of book fans raised a stink about how the dwarves don't look like proper dwarves (short beards, bald heads, axe-in-the-head, too human-looking, blah blah blah), but to a general moviegoer, it would be hard to differentiate between the characters, hence the unique looks for each of them.
I had a lot of doubts about Richard Armitage playing Thorin. I've seen him before in Captain America and BBC's Robin Hood, so I was a bit dubious over their choice of casting someone as young as him. I've seen the 1977 Rankin/Bass cartoon, and their version of Thorin always stuck with me (and the fact that he's voiced by Hans Conried, the same guy who voiced Captain Hook in Disney's Peter Pan). I always imagined Thorin as an older, cranky guy who was as driven to reclaim his ancestors' wealth as much as his claim to the throne beneath the Lonely Mountain. However, Armitage played Thorin very well...a leader and a seasoned warrior (which they showed more than once in the movie) who is passionately proud of his heritage, and has equally passionate faith in his companions (not so much in Bilbo, but more on that later).
Martin Freeman plays Bilbo Baggins to a T. He's perfect. That is all I have to say. He definitely conveys Bilbo's sense of doubt on his role as a burglar, as well as his homesickness for his Hobbit hole in the Shire so well.
Ian McKellan...need I give a review, after his performance in LOTR? He's as good as he ever was, if not better. :)
Cate Blanchett - I swear, this woman hasn't aged since LOTR. She is as beautiful as ever as Galadriel. I had my doubts about her role in the movie, but since she had a relatively small role, there's not much I can say, other than I'm glad she was portrayed as the compassionate elf lady I remember from the books and the two later LOTR movies, and not the creepy, cryptic "elf-witch" (as Gimli put it) from the first one. I have the same to say about Christopher Lee as Saruman. It was a small role, but it was good to see a familiar face again, but as a good guy this time. Saruman seemed like a practical character who looked at the big picture rather than letting news of a few troll attacks bother him.
Hugo Weaving - AGENT SMITH!! Ahem...sorry, I couldn't resist. It was a real delight to see him again too. I think Elrond seemed a lot more chipper in this movie than in the LOTR trilogy. He was smiling a lot more than I've ever seen him do. That very first scene he shows up in is my point exactly...there's a part when he speaks elvish to Gandalf, and the dwarves think he's threatening them, when Gandalf translates for them that Elrond was offering them a place to stay for dinner. He seemed to enjoy rattling their chain, in a manner of speaking.
Sylvester McCoy of Doctor Who fame played Radagast the Brown, a fellow wizard friend of Gandalf's. When I heard Radagast was going to be making an appearance in The Hobbit, I had mixed feelings. On the one hand, I was glad that he was finally getting his due as one of the Istari (wizards). On the other hand, I was worried whether his inclusion was even necessary to the story.
I'm just going to copy/paste what I wrote in one of my tumblr entries:
I was afraid he was going to end up being the “gratuitous comic relief” character of the movie, but I was surprised at how few funny moments we got from him. I’m no Doctor Who fan, but I did watch a few clips on YouTube of him as the Doctor, just to get an idea of what Sylvester McCoy is capable of (and I had seen interviews for The Hobbit, and even then, he throws in some comedy…things like physically restraining himself from revealing spoilers come to mind). The only real comedy that I remember from the movie (just saw it tonight for the first time, so I might be forgetting some scenes) was the comment he made about his sled pulled by “Rhosgobel Rabbits” outrunning the warg-riders. ((For those of you who aren't on Tumblr, I'd been obsessing over Rad's bunnysled. It was one of those little aspects of the character that I found rather endearing.)) All things considered, I thought he was well-balanced in terms of serious and comedic.
I think I need to start watching Doctor Who now...
Andy Serkis reprised his role as Gollum. He was definitely one of the highlights of the movie. Ten years since he debuted in The Two Towers (Fellowship doesn't count...we just saw glimpses of him), and Andy's still got it. Gollum was his memorable schizophrenic self on top of the general creepyness that makes him a sinister force to be reckoned with.
I really don't have time to go on about every single dwarf, but there were quite a few who stood out:
Kili (Aidan Turner) - I was actually dreading this guy and the fangirl following he'd pull in. I was expecting him to be the "Legolas" of the company (JUST TO NOTE: I wasn't much of a Legolas fan to begin with...he was kind of the "Counselor Troi" of the Fellowship...just stand there, look hot, and state the obvious). BUT, I was pleasantly surprised that he didn't stand there, look hot, and state the obvious. Yes, Aidan Turner is hot (the fact that he looks like Aragorn doesn't help x3), but his Kili was compelling enough to root for during the fight scenes. I'm glad he had a personality to go with those looks, though from what I've heard that's going to happen in the sequels, I'm a bit worried he's going to degenerate into the "prettyboy who does nothing but stands there and does cool stuff just to put fangirls in the theater seats".
Balin (Ken Stott) - The only thing I have to say about this guy is, he looks a lot like Tolkien himself (in his later years, at least), just dwarvishized. Stott played the part well, acting like the wise, kindly, grandfatherly figure I remember from the books.
Bofur (James Nesbitt) - IRISH DWARRF!! I loved his accent. <3
Gloin (Peter Hambleton) - There wasn't a lot of significant scenes involving him individually, but I can say this: I can definitely see the family resemblance between him and his son Gimli.
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My thoughts on the changes to the movie from the book:
~Radagast - I think I've explained enough in the "actors" section. In short, I was a bit worried about his inclusion in the movie, but he turned out to be unexpectedly enjoyable to watch.
~Introduction of Azog - I thought this was one of the most significant changes from the book, after the White Council scenes. While there was no main villain mentioned in the book, they did mention a few names of the goblin leaders, and I vaguely recall Azog being one of them. I wasn't expecting him to show up until later on, but I suppose if it means making the villain worthy of earning legit boo's from the audience, this wasn't *too* bad of an idea. What I do like about this is that they tied him in with the warg-riders who attacked the dwarves while they were up in the trees (before the eagles rescued them). I haven't read the appendices from LOTR yet, but I'm willing to bet they got the whole backstory of Azog from them, since they talk about the history of Durin's Folk and their conflict with the orcs, the most famous of which took place in Moria.
~The White Council - I was more or less dreading this too. I seriously thought this was going to involve a lot of unnecessary, irrelevant fluff, but it wasn't as bad as I thought. The only problem I had with this scene is when Galadriel was explaining where the Morgul sword came from. She mentions that the Witch-King of Angmar had been buried in Dol Guldur (an abandoned fortress in Mirkwood where Sauron had recently taken up residence). According to the source material, the Witch-King was NOT buried in Dol Guldur, but was biding his time in Mordor after suffering from a defeat by the Gondorian humans and elves. That's probably the only thing that bothered me about the movie on the whole.
~Just to note, the stone giants during that thunderstorm scene actually WERE in the book. Just not extensively described other than throwing boulders at each other. I can't wait to go home and tell my brother that those creatures are LEGIT CANON. I know this because I read the book three times. So there.
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Visuals
I saw the movie in 3D. If you go, I HIGHLY recommend seeing it in 3D. I don't normally like watching stuff in 3D, but this was exceptionally good in that format. The only problem was whenever there were scenes with a lot of fast movement, the visuals got a bit hard to handle (I had to squint during those scenes, because it felt like my eyes were getting overloaded with too much "visual data", so to speak). That, and whenever the camera panned across a scene, and a branch or rock passed in front, it was like getting poked in the eye. Not sure if that's a sign that the 3D is doing what it's supposed to do or if it was just an annoyance.
The CGI was hit or miss. Some of it, such as Gollum, was spectacularly done. Others, such as the wargs (and I've heard from other reviewers, the trolls, but I disagree), looked clearly fake...like, you could tell they were CGI and it was a bit difficult to suspend your disbelief when comparing them to the motion-capture used on Gollum and some of the goblins/orcs.
The New Zealand scenery was...quite literally, scenery porn. All those majestic snow-capped mountains, those rolling green hills of Matamata that make up Hobbiton (which, I heard, is going to be a permanent attraction!), and those scrubby, rolling hills of the Lone Lands......see, this is the reason why a trip to New Zealand is on my bucket list. My eyes were pretty much having sex with those scenery fly-overs. (And that scene at the beginning showing Erebor's interior....oh yeeaahh. Weta has really outdone itself there.)
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There's a shit-ton more that I really want to say about this movie, but it's getting very late, and I need to go to bed so I can get up early and take care of some apartment-related problems that haven't been fixed yet. (Grrr.) So I'm going to cut to the chase and give my rating for the movie:
8.5/10.
It was a fun movie to watch, but it wasn't perfect. I'd give it a 9, but it just...doesn't feel just right to be given a 9. It could be that I'd have to wait a WHOLE YEAR for the next movie to come out, plus all the departures from the books and my doubts on whether they were necessary or not, or the information dump we got from the flashback scenes and White Council scenes. It's kind of hard to explain. It was a good movie. It was fun, and it was truly endearing, and it was a relief to finally see a live-action movie based on one of my favorite childhood books. I'd say it was definitely worth the decade-long wait.
EDIT: Oh, and one more thing, I wanted to stay behind after the credits to see the new Star Trek footage, but everybody else had left the theater and I didn't want to be left in there alone (yes, I went by myself...can't believe I did it either). Plus, it was getting very late, and I had to get home to write this gratuitously long post for you to enjoy schlepping through. :P There was a trailer though...you can bet what all the girls in the audience did when they saw good old Benedict Cumberbatch...>__< Ugh, I hate fangirls. Seriously.
General thoughts:
I thought it was good. Some fans might disagree with me, but I think this trilogy is off to a good start. However, it draaaaagged on in several places, but if Peter Jackson means to be thorough in his storytelling, then I'm not going to hold it against him or Weta Workshop...I've seen movie adaptations of books that just chop significant amounts of plot and character development parts just to cut down for time, or squish scenes together and rush through them at a mile a minute, and the movies would just bomb miserably. PJ's probably stretching them out to milk money out of them...either that, or he's just really OCD about including stuff that leads up to LOTR that went on behind the scenes during the events of Thorin and company's quest. Personally, I don't have a problem with that, because it answers a lot of questions movie fans who haven't read the books want to know. My brother, who hasn't read the books (and still keeps coming up with excuses not to), always pesters me with questions about certain things that crop up in the movies that are kind of left unexplained. So I'm actually kind of glad that PJ is including this extra stuff. Though one of these days I'm going to take my copies of The Hobbit and LOTR and shove them into my brother's arms and demand him to read them. If you like the movies so much, why don't you reeeeeeead the booooooks?!
About the actors:
I think the cast was terrific. Even the minor characters had a few moments to shine. And I was surprised at how (relatively) rounded-out each of the dwarves were. I know a lot of book fans raised a stink about how the dwarves don't look like proper dwarves (short beards, bald heads, axe-in-the-head, too human-looking, blah blah blah), but to a general moviegoer, it would be hard to differentiate between the characters, hence the unique looks for each of them.
I had a lot of doubts about Richard Armitage playing Thorin. I've seen him before in Captain America and BBC's Robin Hood, so I was a bit dubious over their choice of casting someone as young as him. I've seen the 1977 Rankin/Bass cartoon, and their version of Thorin always stuck with me (and the fact that he's voiced by Hans Conried, the same guy who voiced Captain Hook in Disney's Peter Pan). I always imagined Thorin as an older, cranky guy who was as driven to reclaim his ancestors' wealth as much as his claim to the throne beneath the Lonely Mountain. However, Armitage played Thorin very well...a leader and a seasoned warrior (which they showed more than once in the movie) who is passionately proud of his heritage, and has equally passionate faith in his companions (not so much in Bilbo, but more on that later).
Martin Freeman plays Bilbo Baggins to a T. He's perfect. That is all I have to say. He definitely conveys Bilbo's sense of doubt on his role as a burglar, as well as his homesickness for his Hobbit hole in the Shire so well.
Ian McKellan...need I give a review, after his performance in LOTR? He's as good as he ever was, if not better. :)
Cate Blanchett - I swear, this woman hasn't aged since LOTR. She is as beautiful as ever as Galadriel. I had my doubts about her role in the movie, but since she had a relatively small role, there's not much I can say, other than I'm glad she was portrayed as the compassionate elf lady I remember from the books and the two later LOTR movies, and not the creepy, cryptic "elf-witch" (as Gimli put it) from the first one. I have the same to say about Christopher Lee as Saruman. It was a small role, but it was good to see a familiar face again, but as a good guy this time. Saruman seemed like a practical character who looked at the big picture rather than letting news of a few troll attacks bother him.
Hugo Weaving - AGENT SMITH!! Ahem...sorry, I couldn't resist. It was a real delight to see him again too. I think Elrond seemed a lot more chipper in this movie than in the LOTR trilogy. He was smiling a lot more than I've ever seen him do. That very first scene he shows up in is my point exactly...there's a part when he speaks elvish to Gandalf, and the dwarves think he's threatening them, when Gandalf translates for them that Elrond was offering them a place to stay for dinner. He seemed to enjoy rattling their chain, in a manner of speaking.
Sylvester McCoy of Doctor Who fame played Radagast the Brown, a fellow wizard friend of Gandalf's. When I heard Radagast was going to be making an appearance in The Hobbit, I had mixed feelings. On the one hand, I was glad that he was finally getting his due as one of the Istari (wizards). On the other hand, I was worried whether his inclusion was even necessary to the story.
I'm just going to copy/paste what I wrote in one of my tumblr entries:
I was afraid he was going to end up being the “gratuitous comic relief” character of the movie, but I was surprised at how few funny moments we got from him. I’m no Doctor Who fan, but I did watch a few clips on YouTube of him as the Doctor, just to get an idea of what Sylvester McCoy is capable of (and I had seen interviews for The Hobbit, and even then, he throws in some comedy…things like physically restraining himself from revealing spoilers come to mind). The only real comedy that I remember from the movie (just saw it tonight for the first time, so I might be forgetting some scenes) was the comment he made about his sled pulled by “Rhosgobel Rabbits” outrunning the warg-riders. ((For those of you who aren't on Tumblr, I'd been obsessing over Rad's bunnysled. It was one of those little aspects of the character that I found rather endearing.)) All things considered, I thought he was well-balanced in terms of serious and comedic.
I think I need to start watching Doctor Who now...
Andy Serkis reprised his role as Gollum. He was definitely one of the highlights of the movie. Ten years since he debuted in The Two Towers (Fellowship doesn't count...we just saw glimpses of him), and Andy's still got it. Gollum was his memorable schizophrenic self on top of the general creepyness that makes him a sinister force to be reckoned with.
I really don't have time to go on about every single dwarf, but there were quite a few who stood out:
Kili (Aidan Turner) - I was actually dreading this guy and the fangirl following he'd pull in. I was expecting him to be the "Legolas" of the company (JUST TO NOTE: I wasn't much of a Legolas fan to begin with...he was kind of the "Counselor Troi" of the Fellowship...just stand there, look hot, and state the obvious). BUT, I was pleasantly surprised that he didn't stand there, look hot, and state the obvious. Yes, Aidan Turner is hot (the fact that he looks like Aragorn doesn't help x3), but his Kili was compelling enough to root for during the fight scenes. I'm glad he had a personality to go with those looks, though from what I've heard that's going to happen in the sequels, I'm a bit worried he's going to degenerate into the "prettyboy who does nothing but stands there and does cool stuff just to put fangirls in the theater seats".
Balin (Ken Stott) - The only thing I have to say about this guy is, he looks a lot like Tolkien himself (in his later years, at least), just dwarvishized. Stott played the part well, acting like the wise, kindly, grandfatherly figure I remember from the books.
Bofur (James Nesbitt) - IRISH DWARRF!! I loved his accent. <3
Gloin (Peter Hambleton) - There wasn't a lot of significant scenes involving him individually, but I can say this: I can definitely see the family resemblance between him and his son Gimli.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
My thoughts on the changes to the movie from the book:
~Radagast - I think I've explained enough in the "actors" section. In short, I was a bit worried about his inclusion in the movie, but he turned out to be unexpectedly enjoyable to watch.
~Introduction of Azog - I thought this was one of the most significant changes from the book, after the White Council scenes. While there was no main villain mentioned in the book, they did mention a few names of the goblin leaders, and I vaguely recall Azog being one of them. I wasn't expecting him to show up until later on, but I suppose if it means making the villain worthy of earning legit boo's from the audience, this wasn't *too* bad of an idea. What I do like about this is that they tied him in with the warg-riders who attacked the dwarves while they were up in the trees (before the eagles rescued them). I haven't read the appendices from LOTR yet, but I'm willing to bet they got the whole backstory of Azog from them, since they talk about the history of Durin's Folk and their conflict with the orcs, the most famous of which took place in Moria.
~The White Council - I was more or less dreading this too. I seriously thought this was going to involve a lot of unnecessary, irrelevant fluff, but it wasn't as bad as I thought. The only problem I had with this scene is when Galadriel was explaining where the Morgul sword came from. She mentions that the Witch-King of Angmar had been buried in Dol Guldur (an abandoned fortress in Mirkwood where Sauron had recently taken up residence). According to the source material, the Witch-King was NOT buried in Dol Guldur, but was biding his time in Mordor after suffering from a defeat by the Gondorian humans and elves. That's probably the only thing that bothered me about the movie on the whole.
~Just to note, the stone giants during that thunderstorm scene actually WERE in the book. Just not extensively described other than throwing boulders at each other. I can't wait to go home and tell my brother that those creatures are LEGIT CANON. I know this because I read the book three times. So there.
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Visuals
I saw the movie in 3D. If you go, I HIGHLY recommend seeing it in 3D. I don't normally like watching stuff in 3D, but this was exceptionally good in that format. The only problem was whenever there were scenes with a lot of fast movement, the visuals got a bit hard to handle (I had to squint during those scenes, because it felt like my eyes were getting overloaded with too much "visual data", so to speak). That, and whenever the camera panned across a scene, and a branch or rock passed in front, it was like getting poked in the eye. Not sure if that's a sign that the 3D is doing what it's supposed to do or if it was just an annoyance.
The CGI was hit or miss. Some of it, such as Gollum, was spectacularly done. Others, such as the wargs (and I've heard from other reviewers, the trolls, but I disagree), looked clearly fake...like, you could tell they were CGI and it was a bit difficult to suspend your disbelief when comparing them to the motion-capture used on Gollum and some of the goblins/orcs.
The New Zealand scenery was...quite literally, scenery porn. All those majestic snow-capped mountains, those rolling green hills of Matamata that make up Hobbiton (which, I heard, is going to be a permanent attraction!), and those scrubby, rolling hills of the Lone Lands......see, this is the reason why a trip to New Zealand is on my bucket list. My eyes were pretty much having sex with those scenery fly-overs. (And that scene at the beginning showing Erebor's interior....oh yeeaahh. Weta has really outdone itself there.)
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
There's a shit-ton more that I really want to say about this movie, but it's getting very late, and I need to go to bed so I can get up early and take care of some apartment-related problems that haven't been fixed yet. (Grrr.) So I'm going to cut to the chase and give my rating for the movie:
8.5/10.
It was a fun movie to watch, but it wasn't perfect. I'd give it a 9, but it just...doesn't feel just right to be given a 9. It could be that I'd have to wait a WHOLE YEAR for the next movie to come out, plus all the departures from the books and my doubts on whether they were necessary or not, or the information dump we got from the flashback scenes and White Council scenes. It's kind of hard to explain. It was a good movie. It was fun, and it was truly endearing, and it was a relief to finally see a live-action movie based on one of my favorite childhood books. I'd say it was definitely worth the decade-long wait.
EDIT: Oh, and one more thing, I wanted to stay behind after the credits to see the new Star Trek footage, but everybody else had left the theater and I didn't want to be left in there alone (yes, I went by myself...can't believe I did it either). Plus, it was getting very late, and I had to get home to write this gratuitously long post for you to enjoy schlepping through. :P There was a trailer though...you can bet what all the girls in the audience did when they saw good old Benedict Cumberbatch...>__< Ugh, I hate fangirls. Seriously.