The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey
First of all:
SQUEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!! ♥ ♥ ♥
I'm going to split this up into parts.
Non-spoilery general observations:
First of all, the 3-D: This is the fourth 3-D movie I've seen. Of those, two did not bother me and one gave me a mild headache. This one did not seem to bother me, and many of the 3-D effects were awesome, and some were less so. I did have a mild headache by the end, but am not sure if the 3-D could be blamed--it could also be blamed on the caffeine in my Diet Coke + staying up until 4AM. So a mixed reaction on the 3-D. When I see it again I will probably stick with 2-D, but I do not regret seeing it first in 3-D
Second: the adaptation. Wonderful job! As I had hoped, so far as I could tell, he kept every major scene in the book, though he did truncate a few of them. He also added what in fanfic we'd call "AU gapfillers", but none of them affected the main part of the story.
Three: the score. Brilliant as I expected! Howard Shore did an amazing job in blending the familiar themes and motifs from LotR with the newer material written solely for TH. Oh, I want this soundtrack SO bad! Especially the solo reprise of Misty Mountains at the end.
Four: Martin Freeman hit it out of the park as Bilbo, IMHO.
Five: I want to go see it again. And I want it to be next year already!
The following are some rather detailed spoilers!
SPOILERS:
I was thrilled with the beginning, Bilbo writing in his book, Frodo's guest appearance;
Bilbo "good morninged" Gandalf, and they got the whole exchange in! And the "Chip the Plates" song was in there, just as I hoped! *grin* And we got to see Bilbo's dining room and his larder!
Bilbo was more proactive in his own decisions in the movie--he had no need to be rushed out the door by Gandalf, and that set the tone for the first movie. He had more growth and courage during this part of the movie than he did in the equivalent parts of the book. And Ian McKellan acted as though he'd never been away from the part!
I didn't much care for the part with Thranduil. I do not think he would have been quite so indifferent to the Dwarves' plight--but it goes to set up the hostility on Thorin's part towards the Elves.
Adored the overhead shots of the Shire as Bilbo cut cross country to catch up with the Dwarves.
Yep. PJ inserted lots of AU gapfillers, all of them of the action variety. Lots of extra battles and so forth. One chapter that had some significant changes in it was "Roast Mutton". It was very different than in the book, but then I've written an AU version of that chapter myself, so I can't complain--and I LOVED Bilbo's actions in this, once more bringing his latent heroism out. And they did keep some of the best lines from that chapter.
Radagast! I love Radagast--he's a comic figure, yet not wholly comic. He IS a wizard and he's playing his part. And I love his jackrabbit sled!!!
So cool to see Elrond out hunting orcs himself! And he was a lot mellower and less grumpy than in LotR.
As in LotR, PJ has brought on-board some OC orcs and given some real personality to the MCC ones.
GOLLUM!!! OMG! Andy Serkis was even better in the role than ever!
The Goblin King was gross! He reminded me of Jabba the Hutt!
I still don't get the connection between moths and Eagles. It makes as little sense here than it did in LotR. And PJ managed to "action up" the scene of the fir trees substantially, giving Thorin another chance to display both his pride and his courage and to play up the personal grudge between him and one of the Orc leaders. And Bilbo got another chance to be "fierce as a dragon in a pinch". Naturally PJ jazzed up the Eagle rescue substantially. Some of the best 3-D effects took place during that part of the movie.
I did get my hobbit-lass costume and my feet done in time to wear them, and the DH even wore his cloak and carried a staff! Our son went with us; no costume, though.
Pics:
This one was taken by our son:
This picture was taken by a random guy in the theater lobby, who asked if he could take a pic with us:
ETA: I had the captions backwards on the pics.
SQUEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!! ♥ ♥ ♥
I'm going to split this up into parts.
Non-spoilery general observations:
First of all, the 3-D: This is the fourth 3-D movie I've seen. Of those, two did not bother me and one gave me a mild headache. This one did not seem to bother me, and many of the 3-D effects were awesome, and some were less so. I did have a mild headache by the end, but am not sure if the 3-D could be blamed--it could also be blamed on the caffeine in my Diet Coke + staying up until 4AM. So a mixed reaction on the 3-D. When I see it again I will probably stick with 2-D, but I do not regret seeing it first in 3-D
Second: the adaptation. Wonderful job! As I had hoped, so far as I could tell, he kept every major scene in the book, though he did truncate a few of them. He also added what in fanfic we'd call "AU gapfillers", but none of them affected the main part of the story.
Three: the score. Brilliant as I expected! Howard Shore did an amazing job in blending the familiar themes and motifs from LotR with the newer material written solely for TH. Oh, I want this soundtrack SO bad! Especially the solo reprise of Misty Mountains at the end.
Four: Martin Freeman hit it out of the park as Bilbo, IMHO.
Five: I want to go see it again. And I want it to be next year already!
The following are some rather detailed spoilers!
SPOILERS:
I was thrilled with the beginning, Bilbo writing in his book, Frodo's guest appearance;
Bilbo "good morninged" Gandalf, and they got the whole exchange in! And the "Chip the Plates" song was in there, just as I hoped! *grin* And we got to see Bilbo's dining room and his larder!
Bilbo was more proactive in his own decisions in the movie--he had no need to be rushed out the door by Gandalf, and that set the tone for the first movie. He had more growth and courage during this part of the movie than he did in the equivalent parts of the book. And Ian McKellan acted as though he'd never been away from the part!
I didn't much care for the part with Thranduil. I do not think he would have been quite so indifferent to the Dwarves' plight--but it goes to set up the hostility on Thorin's part towards the Elves.
Adored the overhead shots of the Shire as Bilbo cut cross country to catch up with the Dwarves.
Yep. PJ inserted lots of AU gapfillers, all of them of the action variety. Lots of extra battles and so forth. One chapter that had some significant changes in it was "Roast Mutton". It was very different than in the book, but then I've written an AU version of that chapter myself, so I can't complain--and I LOVED Bilbo's actions in this, once more bringing his latent heroism out. And they did keep some of the best lines from that chapter.
Radagast! I love Radagast--he's a comic figure, yet not wholly comic. He IS a wizard and he's playing his part. And I love his jackrabbit sled!!!
So cool to see Elrond out hunting orcs himself! And he was a lot mellower and less grumpy than in LotR.
As in LotR, PJ has brought on-board some OC orcs and given some real personality to the MCC ones.
GOLLUM!!! OMG! Andy Serkis was even better in the role than ever!
The Goblin King was gross! He reminded me of Jabba the Hutt!
I still don't get the connection between moths and Eagles. It makes as little sense here than it did in LotR. And PJ managed to "action up" the scene of the fir trees substantially, giving Thorin another chance to display both his pride and his courage and to play up the personal grudge between him and one of the Orc leaders. And Bilbo got another chance to be "fierce as a dragon in a pinch". Naturally PJ jazzed up the Eagle rescue substantially. Some of the best 3-D effects took place during that part of the movie.
I did get my hobbit-lass costume and my feet done in time to wear them, and the DH even wore his cloak and carried a staff! Our son went with us; no costume, though.
Pics:
This one was taken by our son:
This picture was taken by a random guy in the theater lobby, who asked if he could take a pic with us:
ETA: I had the captions backwards on the pics.