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Those that know me, know how much I dislike most of the Lord of the Rings trilogy. My complaints have always centered around how the movie is not like the book.
So why in the world do I like the The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey? It doesn't always follow the book, and goodness knows it deviates by extra padding thrown in from the Lord of the Rings appendices. In that respect, I expect we'll see even more made up stuff in the next two movies, but that's not germane to the discussion here.
I read Lord of the Rings first, and The Hobbit second. The Hobbit is a kiddo book and I really disliked it. It was light and breezy and fun and I was looking for the serious tone I had come to expect from the LotR trilogy. I was pretty sure I was going to hate The Hobbit movie too, but how wrong I was!
First off, we have singing in The Hobbit. Not a lot of singing, but enough singing to echo the book. It was a gutsy move by Jackson to start the whole shebang off with dwarf plate tossing and singing about "That's what Bilbo Baggins hates!" It's silly, it's goofy, and it captures the flavor of the book. I can't tell you how much I appreciate Martin Freeman's Bilbo…prissy, used to his creature comforts, but handy in a pinch. The actor pretty much nails the part.
Jackson walks a fine line between comical and serious, and I appreciate the virtuosity that it entails. I really liked the movie, but I didn't have the emotional investment that I did with Lord of the Rings.
The CGI is better in this movie too. My husband and I, both avid birders, noticed it in the eagles. They flew naturally, and the feather placement was correct, and the way they landed was consistent with the natural world. It was also a real treat to see how an inhabited mountain full of dwarves or orcs might look. We also got a few dragon fly bys; that is, quick glimpses of Smaug. If I have one complaint, it's that the fight scenes were often muddled. I know that happens in real life, but I think we all want our movie fight scenes a bit more ordered.
Having seen the movie twice, once in regular 2D and once in the high definition frame rate 3D, I'd have to say that I preferred the high def version. The high definition version made some of the fight scenes far more clear, and the detail was stunning. In my opinion, the only time the high def 3D fails is when a character is in the foreground and the background is waaaaay in the background with no middle ground. It looks kind of cheesy. Seeing the movie a second time helped me with dwarf recognition and I caught things I didn't notice with the first viewing. I expect it's going to be a movie so laden with detail that I'll be able to watch it again and again.
I rarely go out to the movies to see the same movie twice. The Hobbit was good enough that I wanted to see it again.
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