The Hobbit : 1 : An Unexpected Journey product reviews

This movie had far too much hype. After the success of the Lord of the Rings, Peter Jackson was certainly going to have trouble keeping to the standard that he has set. So when it was announced that this would not be a single movie, but be split into a trilogy, I knew that this would either be the greatest thing ever, or the worst.

Unfortunately, it is looking like its going to fall short. The first installment is rather an unadventurous one in my eyes. It does a satisfactory job in introducing the characters and the history, but there is little action to keep me truly interested. The end of the film had me disappointed as it looked like something interesting was finally going to happen, but no we have to wait another year.

Visually, it looks nice. There is a lot less blurring when the camera moves, which takes a while to get used to, but it is very much the style of environment that we have come to expect. There is too much CGI for my liking, but I suppose that is to be expected when the movie is about dwarves and hobbits.

My flatmate has it on DVD, but I couldn't bring myself to watch it again. Once was enough. At least until I can watch the entire trilogy at once.

When it comes to watching all the BIG movies that everyones talking about, I am always a bit behind. So it is of no surprise to me personally, that I only hired out the Hobbit finally yesterday. I am not sure why I myself had not seen it yet, because my entire family have. Anyway so now I have too. I expected big things from this movie if the LotR trilogy was anything to go by. My biggest concern however was that I would get bored and restless part way through (as I did for all LotR).

Unfortunately my fear of getting restless and bored was true. Not because the movie is boring. I just do not have the attention span personally to watch really long movies, and scenes that are long and drawn out, which could have been portrayed just as effectively in half the time do bug me lol Luckily though once these scenes were over I was once again able to enjoy the movie.

Another thing I was worried about was that the movie might be less than enjoyable because I had already seen the LotR trilogy. In my mind movies set before ones I have already seen can easily annoy me due to portraying stuff we already know. For example Gandalf has some pretty close calls, but the edge of the seat concern is not as huge as it could be because we know he does not die in any of these movies as hes in the later ones lol Speaking of Gandalf I did feel for 60 years younger he looked terribly terribly older and better make-up may have been beneficial.

These gripes aside The Hobbit is an awesome movie. Many times over the scenery made me marvel and gaspand feel super proud of little old NZ. I admit though I have read other reviews here on KIWIreviews and in doing so learnt that many scenes were shot or taken from different areas around NZ and then joined together, reading this made me super impressed. I would never have known this otherwise.

It was awesome to watch the movie though and learn about Bilbo Baggins and how he came to be part of this little group and even more awesome to learn how he found the ring. Hobbits rule and are so clever. I love Hobbiton and the homes are just so super cool. Id love a human sized Hobbit house lol. All in all an awesome movie. I didn't expect it to end as it dud, just hanging, but because it did, we went and hired the next one out lol

Ever since Lord of the Rings, I have been eagerly awaiting The Hobbit. When I heard it was being filmed and finally scheduled for release I was so excited.I have always enjoyed all of the books, but The Hobbit was my favourite. Firstly, I was so happy that Elijah Wood only had a small part in this movie, and that was just to tie it in to the Lord of the Rings trilogy, cause Frodo's character just gets on my nerves now.

Right from the start the scenery is just what you would expect. It's beautiful, it's gorgeous and man oh man wouldn't I love to wander through the forests, live in a hobbit hole etc. -sigh-

I love that Jackson used the original words written by Tolkein for the two songs that the dwarves sing whilst staying at Bilbo's home. They fit in perfectly, of course, and they sound fantastic, I would happily have those two on my music playlist and could listen to "Misty Mountains" on repeat, I am in love with this song, and am even listening to it as I write this review.

I think Martin Freeman did a perfect job as Bilbo. Naive when needed, but plucky when he has to be. He's on an adventure and his whole attitude about it makes him so loveable. Had I had the money I would have gone to this a second time in a heartbeat. As it is, I know without a doubt, that as soon as it comes out on DVD I WILL be adding this to my collection and watching it as soon as the kids are in bed.

I have been looking forward to The Hobbit being given the same treatment as LOTR since LOTR first was announced. The Hobbit being a prequel should have by rights, been made first. But it wasn't. I wondered how this would be addressed and I wasn't disappointed to see Frodo and the Shire brought back to life as Bilbo Baggins looks back on his past as well. I liked this, it made sense even though it was not strictly part of the book. In fact there are quite a few things in the film that aren't from the book, but then its a novel on the short side. Jackson is drawing from the LOTR appendices as well as the Hobbit to flesh out the story and give us a Hobbit trilogy. There is as always some creative license as well.

The movie itself was breath-takingly beautiful. This is something we have come to expect from Jackson. It has all the elements that made LOTR great. It is a masterpiece, though I can guarantee the man himself is not 100% pleased with it. I understand that he is never satisfied even in the final edit. Still, that perfectionism serves him well and allows him to bring us these epic tales. The film is also shot in 48 frames a second. Usually film is 24 frames a second, but they went with double that in order to smooth the images further. Plus it makes for great 3D apparently. I wouldn't know because I only saw it in 2D but what I saw was impressive in any case.

Last night after watching the film, I opened up my copy of the Hobbit and had a quick read through some of it. I was pleasantly surprised to see how many of the scenes had come right from the book, dialogue, songs and all. Right down to the pipe smoking and games. It's not essential to follow the book so closely, but it shows that Jackson was committed to doing right by the book and by Tolkien himself. I found this first film to be much lighter in style to LOTR. There was more slapstick, more fun and more music. This gave it a jaunty feeling, which I enjoyed. That said I don't believe this is a family film. There are some scary bits in it and its long! So I wouldn't take my 5 year old.

Having had the pleasure of being an extra in the first three "Lord of the Rings" movies, I was dead-keen to see one where none of the magic had been spoiled by the gritty, and grotty, reality of filming a movie. Nothing saps the joy like seeing a scene and being reminded of the 14 hours of standing in the rain freezing cold, that it took to shoot those precious 3 seconds of footage. I am very pleased to say that seeing this ONLY from the 'right' side of the camera did wonders for my enjoyment of it.

Having seen Martin Freeman only in his role as Dr Watson in the modernised interpretation of "Sherlock" with Benedict Cumberbatch , I was very taken with his offering of a younger, less cynical Bilbo Baggins. His somewhat reluctant acceptance of his fate, but willingness to see it through no matter the odds, really brough depth to a character who was really only roughly glimpsed in the first three movies. However it was wonderful to see all the other familiar faces from the previous titles coming back again - Elijah Wood, Cate Blanchett, Sir Ian McKellen, Hugo Weaving and Christopher Lee... though I must admit, I found that knowing what Saruman the White was to become, I found his portrayal quite creepy in this title.

As expected, the movie showed off a lot of really wonderful scenery, but what really blew me away was how well Weta Digital did their job of splicing scenery -both real from all over the country, and virtually-created - into a seamless panorama that fooled the eye as well as one could wish. I suspect that had I seen this in 3d I would have been doubly impressed. The special effects were up to the peak standards we have come to expect these days, especially from our own award-winning, internationally-famous digital magic studios in Wellington. They have set the bar so high, it is always impressive to see them nudging it a little higher with each offering.

Overall, the movie was brilliant, and with my posterior resting comfortably in the Hoyts cinema at Te Awa, there was little to do but sit back, relax and enjoy the show. Even in regular old-school 2D this movie was impressive to watch, but one thing will nag at me until next year... the story basically went from "Hi Bilbo, we need you..." through "the big scary journey to the Lonely Mountain"... and ended with "Well, we're almost at the door..." so unless there is a LOT of really full-on action between where the party is now and the doorway to the Dwarven Stronghold's door, I am curious to see how Peter Jackson is going to stretch this out into 2 more movies! There's only a "sneak down tunnels" and "fight the dragon" left to go! The anticipation and tension is almost thrilling!

What more could I say, The Hobbit brought to life the land of Middle Earth once again, this time focusing on Bilbo Baggins' journey and how things became in LotR. I loved how we got to find out how Bilbo came by the ring of Golem and loved the little game that saved his life (smart little hobbits). The music was well chosen and the song that they sang around the fire early in the movie before the journey, was both amazing and heartfelt. The only thing I didn't like was the smoking around the fire as can always send a wrong message to the young kids, especially when Gandalf gives Radagast a puff and has a calm and mellow look on his face.

The one thing that I found funny which I guess most parents can relate their child to would be when the dwarfs were in the elfish city and the elves were trying to prevent them from completing their goal, they decide to not tell anyone and go anyway, without waiting for an answer. I also love the action that followed through the way through the movie the only disappointing part was with being 3D nothing really leaps off the screen at you, however it did give you a 3D environment of the depth in the movie.

Overall the visual effects were amazing, the soundtrack was perfect and the scenery and action was amazing. I would love to see this movie again and can't wait for the rest of the series to come out.