Movie Review: The Hobbit

 

It probably doesn't surprise many people that I went through a Lord of the Rings phase a few years ago. (Hello, geek!). Unfortunately, I didn't know many people who shared this same interest so when I spent hours learning "Concerning Hobbits" on the piano, there was nobody to appreciate my noble endeavour. *sadface* Fast forward a few years and my fanaticism had died down. I still reckon the LOTR movies is one of the best trilogies ever made (and every time I hear the Concerning Hobbits theme song, I'm filled with a bittersweet sense of nostalgia) but I'm not one to complain just because The Hobbit seemed very different in tone and plot from the other three movies.

 

 

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Tian told me she came across a 3/10 rating for The Hobbit in a newspaper. (Even though that the IMDB rating is about 8.5/10). After watching the movie, I reckon the critic who gave the 3/10 rating was either a nitpicky Tolkien fan or expecting something of the same standard as the third LOTR movie (which won like 11 Academy Awards or something). Yes, the movie did drag a bit in some places and yes, I reckon the decision to split the book into three movies instead of two was totally uneccessary but none of that warrants a 3/10 rating. The actions scenes were epic, the plot was heartwarming and of course, I got me some Gandalf (and bonus! A hot dwarf as well!)

 

 

Even the excess eyebrow fuzz couldn't fully disguise the Mr Sexy-Face lurking just beneath that beard.

 

I'm not going to outline the plot because a lot of you guys either watched it with me or have seen it already. I will say though that that scene with all the dwarves singing "Misty Mountain Cold" in Bilbo's house gave me chills. (I posted it above if anyone's interested or just wants to relive it). I also loved the Gollum scenes even though inside I was mentally screaming at Bilbo to run him through with the sword - seriously, that would have saved Frodo about 3 movies worth of trouble. Actually, there were so many what-ifs going through my head while I was watching the movie that I'm sure all the LOTR fans in the audience were also thinking of. E.g. What if Bilbo had never picked up the ring? What if he had killed Gollum when he had the chance? What if Gandalf had just pushed Saruman off the cliff while in Rivendell? What if they had just decided to take the Eagle Express all the way to Lonely Mountain instead of hiking through all the glorious but difficult New Zealand terrain. Seriously Gandalf. Uneccessary much?

 

 

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I loved the cameos from characters of previous films. It was so strange seeing Frodo pre-adventure. I was mentally comparing him to the Frodo at the end of Return of the King. Smiling, carefree Frodo... does not compute.

 

 

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The Hobbit really is different from the other three films though and I feel like I should clarify this. For one thing, they used tons of CGI in this movie. Like TONS. It was literally slapping me in the face every few seconds. I felt like Peter Jackson wanted to make use of all the technology that was unavailable to him 11 years ago. At times, the CGI usage was a good thing and contributed to the epic-ness factor but at other times, I felt like the movie lost some of its heart and realism that the previous three had because of all the special effects. CGI came at the expense of story, personal involvement and connection to the film. Also, the quest in the The Hobbit didn't have the same sense of urgency or importance as the one in the 3 LOTR movies and I think it was because in the latter, the whole fate of Middle Earth was at stake whereas the former was basically about reclaiming one lost kingdom. It was all very self-contained and isolated whereas the previous movies encompassed their whole world and all the different races.  

 

 

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Apart from those things, I still think The Hobbit does a great job of standing by itself as a great film. I went to watch it with some friends, and my sister and I were maybe the only ones there who had seen the whole trilogy. Everyone else's unfamiliary of the series didn't impact on their enjoyment of The Hobbit and I think that's a really big factor of its success. I really hope that after watching The Hobbit, many people who were previously leery of LOTR are inspired to pick up the first three movies to see what all the fuss was about. And even if they were left feeling a bit lukewarm by The Hobbit (which is really unlikely), they should still check out the previous films because they are all really different.

 

I'll leave you guys with an awesome version of "Misty Mountains Cold" I found on YouTube whilst searching up The Hobbit stuff. Click eet. You know you want to...