Review of The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey (2012) by Lexsmithy — 27 Dec 2012

The film was truly spectacular in many cases, it brought many of the scenes that I had imagined in the book to life, and even refined my perspective on them. Initially the 48 fps was very strange, especially when Bilbo was pottering around his hole, but you got accustomed to it by the end of the film, and it worked really well, especially in the battle of Moria scene between Orks and Dwarves.

I was disappointed that the Orks were done entirely in CGI, because it'd be great to see them make a return from the LOTR trilogy, and I felt Radagast the Brown's subplot was detracting to the immersion with the main journey.

But these were petty complaints to a film I enjoyed greatly, the atmosphere was spot on, and the acting was excellent, Bilbo was done excellently by Martin Freeman. The Riddles in the Dark was easily the best part of the film and done pretty much perfectly (Extra credit to Andy Serkis for getting back into Gollum without trying to imitate how he played Gollum in LOTR).

Peter Jackson has done a great job in capturing the soul of the Hobbit. The only worrying element is how exactly they are going to do the next two films, considering that the second one will almost definitely centre around the trip through the Mirkwood, which is basically, in JRR Tolkien fashion, pages of walking.