Smeagol is relieved, precious. The Hobbit is delightful!
The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey is delightful, precious! Yesss it is too long—there’s a 20-minute history of the dwarves of Erebor, and that’s even before we hear “In a hole in the ground there lived a hobbit.” There are many flashbacks. There are musical numbers. There is plenty of eating. There is more facial hair than is present in the entire Rings trilogy.
With The Lord of the Rings the problem was how to compress so much into ten hours of movies, so the songs were dropped and entire scenes and characters removed (We can live without barrow wights). The problem here is how to stretch a fairly short children’s book into three movies, so every sequence is padded with information from Tolkien’s many chronicles, histories and appendices. For instance when Thorin Oakenshield is introduced, we get a flashback battle scene explaining where he got his name. Too much information—not a problem for Tolkien fans.
Bilbo Baggins had gotten too attached to his mother’s doilies.
And yet The Hobbit has not a whiff of the cynicism and marketing tie-in prostitution that corroded the soul of that other fantasy series we once loved. It helps that Peter Jackson and his veteran LOTR team could turn to Professor Tolkien’s vast body of work for everything they needed.
Each scene is crafted with so much care, detail and Tolkien geek love, we forgive its excesses. Martin Freeman is brilliant as Bilbo Baggins, Ian McKellen renders it impossible to imagine anyone else as Gandalf, and Richard Armitage’s Thorin may be the second dwarf sex symbol of our time (Peter Dinklage’s Tyrion Lannister is the first, and he was written by a Tolkien devotee). Upon hearing Christopher Lee’s unmistakable voice we cried, “He’s alive! He’s aliiiive!” Once again Andy Serkis makes us wonder why we feel bad for that malign creature Gollum.
Mission leader Thorin Oakenshield
The Hobbit is long, but it is not slow: there is so much to take in, you may not notice the hours go by. (Middle Earth is so gorgeous we want to book passage to New Zealand.) The rollicking dwarf comedy may remind you of Time Bandits, the woodland scenes of Legend (No!), but the battle scenes are pure Peter Jackson. There’s no one we’d rather go on a dangerous adventure with.
Note: We watched The Hobbit in 2D because we hate wearing 3D glasses over our own spectacles. Much has been written about the movie being shot at 48 frames per second. All we can say is: It’s clear.
We lovesss you, Peter Jackson. The only way we could love you more is if you cast the New Zealand All Blacksses as human warriors in the final battle. Ooh there’s an idea.
Answers to questions you might be asking, unless you wandered onto this site purely by accident >>>
December 13th, 2012 at 20:54
About that intro: I always thought that the elves were the ones with the pretty palaces, but this movie proved me wrong. That intro was so good – much of LOTR forgot to show us how rich and powerful the dwarves were, and how they were good craftsmen and builders. Ereborn was beautiful, Moria was really a tomb. And they answered the question, “are there lady dwarves?”
(And I never thought I needed to see a smug Lee Pace riding an elk. Ikaw na teh.)
I thought Martin Freeman was just playing Martin Freeman during the first few scenes – I enjoyed his performance, but I couldn’t tell if he’s playing Arthur Dent/Jim/John Watson. But when he was in the cave with Gollum and after, wow, he IS Bilbo Baggins.
Didn’t notice that it was 3 hours long! Dammit, I wanted more!
December 13th, 2012 at 23:51
I have no complaintsss about the information overload. More precioussss, more! Givesss it all to usss…
So that’s what Radagast the Brown looks like. He does have some loose screws but he is a powerful wizard in his own way. And the way he talked about his rabbits…
I must confess that I turned into one of those annoying moviegoers who talk while the movie is going on. I suddenly remembered passages from the appendices of LOTR as well as snippets from The Silmarillion that I could not help but over-explain things to my seat mate.
There were embellishments of course but they managed to reflect the light and playful tone of the book as well as its dark undertones. As Gandalf himself said “All good stories deserve embellishment”.
Elves seem waifish to me now(they don’t eat chips!), As for dwarves… Well!
P.S. For no apparent reason, my eyes got a little misty as the movie progressed.
December 14th, 2012 at 04:07
I have actually never read the main trilogy, or seen the films. Gasp, a heathen!
I have read The Hobbit, though, and will gladly go see this.
December 14th, 2012 at 15:23
It’s still jarring to see Richard Armitage outside the context of BBC’s Spooks. I still remember his wayward MI-5 agent character much more.
December 14th, 2012 at 16:34
Now I’m excited! Watching in 2D tonight and in 3D tomorrow night in IMAX.
And yes, from the trailers at least, some of ’em dwarves are gorgeous… I guess Gimli got the short end of the stick (ermm no pun intended) in the looks department!
December 14th, 2012 at 18:25
Martin Freeman was brilliant as Frodo. The mannerisms, the facial expressions, gestures, were all perfect. He delivered his lines impeccably, which I thought was crucial because Jackson hinged a lot of the scenes on comedy.
I watched The Hobbit on IMAX 3D which was unfortunately not HFR (48fps). Now I can’t wait to watch it again on HFR this time.
This review is a must read to those who aren’t sold on the idea yet:
http://www.slashfilm.com/high-frame-rate-and-the-hobbit-the-allure-of-middle-earth-is-crystal-clear-at-48fps/
December 15th, 2012 at 12:33
Anything yet on D’Kilabots Pogi Brothers Weh!?
Haha, muahness from Pasig Cirehhh!
December 17th, 2012 at 03:17
I took my 7-year-old and 37-year old to see The Hobbit in the cinema today. I thought it would be a little too dark for my 7-year-old but she absolutely loved it. I was summarily informed that I have to take her to the next two movies or suffer dire consequences. She asked to look up the lyrics of Over the Mountain Cold and is humming it as I type.
December 17th, 2012 at 16:07
There are only a limited number of theaters with HFR w/ Dolby Atmos per major city. Unfortunately, Manila is not one of them. Here’s the complete list:
http://www.theonering.net/torwp/2012/11/21/64780-complete-listing-of-theaters-showing-hobbit-hfr-3d-imax-3d-imax-dolby-atmos/
I just came from one of the 3 in my city. I’m not sure what to feel about it. It is the highest resolution images I’ve ever seen and, coupled with 3D Imax, it made the images truly stunning and life-like. The birds and butterflies were especially magnificent, they looked like they were flying through the theater. But most of the indoor shots looked cliniical. It took away some of the magic of “cinema” as we knew it. It sometimes felt like I was watching a movie shot with a video camera…you know…the kind you see in high-def porn….LOL
Because I stupidly entered the wrong theater (you can enter any theater after you get through the gate of the movie complex here in the US), I caught the last 15 mins of the movie first and missed the first part…LOL…which means I missed the history of the dwarfs. So I guess I will have to watch it again, which I planned on doing anyway, this time probably in 2D. And I’ll come earlier next time so I’m not rushing and entering the wrong theater.
December 18th, 2012 at 03:35
I am not sure about Dolby Atmos, but as of last week, here are the theaters with HFR 3D screenings of The Hobbit:
SM:
North Edsa cinema 1, Megamall cinema 3, MOA cinema 4, Southmall cinema 1
Warner Bros Phils lists the following establishments (no specific cinema number):
Glorietta 4, Greenbelt 3, Greenhills, Robinsons Ermita, Robinsons Galleria, SM Cebu, SM Mall of Asia, SM Megamall and SM North Edsa
Will definitely try to squeeze another screening into my sched this week. The fanboy in me won’t be at peace until I watched the movie the way Jackson intended it to be watched :D
December 18th, 2012 at 03:36
EDIT: Updated list from the Warner Bros Philippines facebook page:
Glorietta 4 Cinema 3, Greenbelt 3 Cinema 2, Greenhills Promenade Cinema 5, Robinsons Galleria Cinema 4, Robinsons Midtown Cinema 2, SM Cebu Cinema 3, SM Mall of Asia Cinema 4, SM Megamall Cinema 3, SM North Edsa Cinema 7 and SM Southmall Cinema 1
January 10th, 2013 at 08:39
Hi, Jessica, I know this entry/post is almost a month old, but this is really the most appropriate one for me to share this with.
Not sure if you’ve read this interview with Christopher Tolkien about his disdain for the movies, but if not, I thought you might be interested to see it.
http://www.worldcrunch.com/culture-society/my-father-039-s-quot-eviscerated-quot-work-son-of-hobbit-scribe-j.r.r.-tolkien-finally-speaks-out/hobbit-silmarillion-lord-of-rings/c3s10299/#.UO4A04lesrj
January 10th, 2013 at 11:19
allancarreon: Naku, mahilig talagang man-demanda yan. Nagtataka nga kami kung bakit hindi niya inihabla ang Hobbit House, yung bar sa Malate na ang mga waiter ay unano.
January 10th, 2013 at 17:12
Hahaha narinig ko na rin dati na medyo mashoray si Christopher Tolkien pagdating sa works ng tatay nya, pero ‘di ko alam ang extent until nabasa ko ‘to.
Haven’t been to Hobbit House in Malate (but have heard of it many times and been meaning to check it out), pero they have one in Boracay na napuntahan ko. Happiness. Ahehe.