Premise: This is the first third of the hobbit book by J.R.R.Tolken and tells the tale of Bilbo Baggins,a baggins of bagend no less, and how he 13 dwarves and a wizard joined together to cross middle earth and reclaim the lonely mountain. The reason for this quest? a fire breathing dragon by the name of Smaug stole it from the dwarves alone with all their treasure and head dwarf Thorin Oakenshield is a little bitter about it.
Now to the hobbit itself, I said before I loved the first three so was rather excited to see the hobbit and ended up seeing it in both 3D and 2D so i shall start by comparing them. As in all 3D films there was a few of those obligitary shots when the camera plunges a great depth( mainly so 3D watchers don't feel cheated i suppose) and once that shot is over i started actually comparing them. The 3D i enjoyed alot more then I normally do because it was far more intergrated to the film then most, it wasnt a few grand 3D moments on what is a glorified 2D film as I find most to be.
The Hobbit actually really effectively uses 3D and it has to be one of the first films where i really enjoyed the 3D ( maybe it was the 48 frame shot that compliments it more ?). That being said it was fun to see it didnt add anything to the film for me I didn't find the world any more or less real then i did on my 2D screening.
The set and the shooting just as in LoTR is fabulous, New Zealand is clearly a wonderful place to shoot. The sets and the world were brilliant and there is no denying that however i didnt find any of the places very unique to the film, in the other 3 there was always somewhere i remembered and particularly associated with an area but with the hobbit it was just a new cast in the same places. Also Jackson did his famous sweeping shots as his characters just trek over incredible beautiful places , for no other reason then to inform the watcher they are moving (we need such shots or us audience will assume they are actually still in the shire). I know that was famous in the first lot but I think the hobbit needed to distinguish itself a bit more and in this area it was on par but did not exceed the others.
Now to the cast and plot , the characters were really great, it had a wonderful timing to the conversations and i rarely found it strained. The characters were really great ,though admittedly there were a lot of dwarfs which really didnt seem to do anything other then just walk around, like no lines nada, but even still there was a really nice natural comradeship by the cast which made up for the accents thing (seriously there were 12 dwarves from middle earth and one born and breed in Northern Ireland, very strange). I really enjoyed the lead performers Ian McKellen was a wonderful Gandalf as always and actually brought and developed his character which i was just really impressed with.Martin Freeman as Bilbo was really spot on with Bilbo however I remained unconvinced it was his talent, i think its more that he is like Bilbo naturally, either way it was a good preformance.
Now i really dont believe it is possible to disscuss the hobbit without talking about how brilliant Andy Serkis was as Gollum
The single biggest thing coming from this film has to be that this man deserves an oscar and i am right on that band wagon, his half an hour is by far my favorite part of the film and the whole time he is just spectacular. He manages to both terrify and make you love Gollum who is as tragic as he is dangerous. There is even a great amount of really brilliant humor in that scene and it honestly was what got me through the whole film(that and the amazing goblin killing scene which is just spectacularly bizzare).
Finally a special topic, the legnth of the damn film, for to discuss the hobbit without talking about the timing is impossible. It was the single longest film I have ever been to that I really enjoyed. I mean i really really liked this film and am a big fan of the franchise and particurally the hobbit book , but it got towards the end when i was just horrified to learn I had another 30 minutes after Gollum left to go. When you are 50 minutes into a film and the blasted unexpected journey has yet to occur something has gone wrong in editing. I really liked all the stuff in the Shire but most of that belonged on extended addition versions and I think that first part may well have dampened many peoples view on the rest of the film, which is a pity as all in all its a really wonderful film.
Final Word: good god my review is nearly as long as the bloody film, sorry. I thought this film was a good addition to the series and didnt damage them which was a serious worry for some (george lucas you are gone but not forgotten). I think the editing team needs to be replaced sharpish and that the envelope needs to be pushed more because the warm fuzzy feeling of being back in middle earth lasts ownly so long. The hobbit has its flaws but all in all is really worth a watch.
8/10
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