Immy's Review: The Hobbit - The Unexpected Journey

The Hobbit – The Unexpected Journey

Directed: Peter Jackson

Starring: Martin Freeman, Ian McKellan, Richard Armitage, James Nesbitt, Elijah Wood, Cate Blanchett, Christopher Lee, Sylvester McCoy

Genre: Action, Adventure, Fantasy

Stars: 4.8/5

I begin with saying, that The Hobbit is a film for any fan of the Lord of the Rings trilogy. The story is about a young Bilbo Baggins and his adventure with Dwarves to reclaim their homeland, Erebor.

Now I have never read the book, so unlike my husband I don’t know every fact there has ever been known to man about the story. Saying that, it seems that may be a blessing as many people I know have said it’s incredibly hard to follow. (However, I may give it a go, one day.)

Before writing my review, I looked around on the Internet at various other writers, everyone has an opinion - many very positive, but also a few being disappointed over the depth of the plot. 

After watching the Trailer, I did wonder if it’d be worth a watch as it did look pretty identical to The Lord of the Rings but, I am a big fan of The Lord of the Rings films; so after been given the chance to go to the cinema (with subtitles) it was all rather exciting. I felt as a deaf person, if I hadn’t viewed the film with subtitles I would never had understood the tale as well as I did. For a book that is supposedly difficult to follow, I found it surprisingly easy – this may have something to do with the rating and the clever breaking down of the intricate tale by directors and script writers, however I did find this film really heavy at times, (It definitely isn’t your film if you loose concentration easily or easily bored) as there were lots of information that you learnt that connected you back to The Lord of the Rings trilogy. Which was fantastic – it made the whole story that much easier to relate and understand. I found the whole part of the Old Bilbo Baggins wasn’t easy to comprehend in the trilogy, as we didn’t know his involvement fully (unless you've read The Hobbit previously), so he simply came across as a grumpy old man who was infatuated with the ring. So going back to the start where Bilbo was kind and inspirational, made a lasting impression. It finally started making sense how you imagined he felt and why he grew into what became an obsessed character. It also became clear as to why the Elves and Dwarves didn’t get on, and the dark history between them.

There were times where there was lots of humour. (Yes, it wasn’t all doom and gloom, as you’d imagine.) The humour did come across in the first scenes, as young Bilbo was wandering around his house, reading maps, books, oh and not forgetting the constant smoking of his pipe! Also the scene's showing Gandalf's and Bilbo's relationship were worthy of a few chuckles. It became entertaining more-so when the Dwarves entered Bilbo’s home. There were lots of scenes that were very fairy-tale – the beautiful hills, mountains, the relaxed way of life in The Shire, and Rivendell. (But we see more of this in the Fellowship of the Ring.) However it did become very flippant in parts where it was light-hearted that suddenly turned sinister, like in the first scenes with the Dwarves, they were, happily singing, sitting around a large wooden table, eating and uproarious laughing. It gave the whole happy view of Snow White and the Seven Dwarves – yet it became very dark with deep singing as they are spread out in front of the fire. It was very eye and mind boggling saying the least.

Now, I have to say the thing that really stuck out to me was the graphics. They were amazing. I have seen so many films in my time but these were so bang up to date, that the creatures look so life like; you’d think they were real! I mean we’ve all been to a film where you can obviously see it’s been green screened and it’s totally out of tune with the background – but here, it was perfect. (Yes, I admit in several screen shots I was trying to pick out the CGI mishaps – but failed.) 

The thing I always find really fascinating about The Lord of the Rings films is how the buildings are all model built that are just upscale, I mean you don’t ever realise how good our technology is for our films today compared to 5 years ago, until you watch something like this. The make up and costume again is breathtaking as you know it’s all been done over years to such a high quality! I never know how they begin to start on a project that massive. It shows that with long and strategic planning, it really does make it all worthwhile.

The only thing that stopped me giving the film that 0.2 off the fifth star, was the length of the film – it felt like it went on forever (It really wasn't helped by the length of advert time there was!) and what with there being 2 other films to come, It does make you think if it’ll be over stretched, especially with The Hobbit being a reasonably average thickness book. But we’ll have to wait to watch the next one to see if that is the case.

In all, this film really impressed me after watching the Trailer and I’m pleased that it did and to be honest, I’m already looking forward to the second part, and the third.

It’s definitely an enjoyable and remarkable film to start 2013 off with – a truly memorable film!