The Hobbit

[Angrist]

It's 4:30 AM and I just got back from The Hobo: An Unexpected Journey.

Spoiler free impressions:
It's pretty much what I expected. It takes its time, which isn't as bad as some reviewers make it sound like. It adds some action here and there, but let's be honest... the book didn't have much action in the first part.
The world feels great. It gives this familiar feeling but is new enough to surprise and amaze.
It's not LotR, but I felt like it wasn't trying to compete with that. It has a lot more... cute fantasy in it, like talking animals and Goblins in all forms and sizes.

Spoiler impressions:
The movie starts off with a totally unexpected history of the Lonely Mountain. It's great to see the culture the Dwarves had there! And there's a sneak peak of Smaug, which looks like will be an awesome Dragon.

The Hobbiton scenes put me in a dilemma. On one hand it's great to see the lovely and quiet life of Bilbo and how he meets the Dwarves... on the other hand it gets a bit slow and you just wish them to start already. Not too sure about that one.

The addition of Radagast the Brown is bold. I feel they're really walking a thin line here, making him such a weirdo. The same with the singing Goblins.

I understand the addition of an Orc 'arch enemy'. That they took Azog (who is referenced in the book, but died decennia ago) makes sense. But we all know how it's going to end... He'll die in movie 3, after doing some damage. A bit cliché and I wonder if the movie really needed it.

Why all the fighting all the time? I know they're trying to please a big public here, but in the end it was just annoying. "We haven't fought anything in 20 minutes, quickly charge into those Orcs that we previously thought were too many to fight!" Also, when did Bilbo become such a good swordsman?

The White Council vs Necromancer stuff doesn't bother me yet. As expected it distracts a bit from the main story, but that's about it.

That's all I can think of right now. I appreciate all the extra story elements they added, like the rivalry between Dwarves and Elves. I'm looking forward to Part 2.

I'll watch the high framerate version early next week.

[Professor S]

Originally Posted by Angrist

Spoiler free impressions:
It's pretty much what I expected. It takes its time, which isn't as bad as some reviewers make it sound like. It adds some action here and there, but let's be honest... the book didn't have much action in the first part.
The world feels great. It gives this familiar feeling but is new enough to surprise and amaze.
It's not LotR, but I felt like it wasn't trying to compete with that. It has a lot more... cute fantasy in it, like talking animals and Goblins in all forms and sizes.

From what I've seen most reviewers objections are based on the fact that The Hobbit isn't LotR... and it isn't. That's why it's called The Hobbit. Middle Earth is a much safer place during the time of The Hobbit. To be honest, I think the reviews of this movie have been some of the worst I've seen to date. Reviewers seem completely unable to review this movie on it's own terms.

Hell, the one I read from Slate starts out with how much the reviewer dislikes the fantasy genre...

[Vampyr]

I'm glad to hear you enjoyed it. I'm not really expecting it to be much like LotR...I just want another romp through Middle Earth.

Only about 26 hours left for me.