The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey - A Review

4 Stars - Pretty Decent

So it took me a while to get around to seeing the Hobbit, and I must say I rather liked it. I had some problems with it... but overall a pretty good film.

The Hobbit is a wonderful little book, and there's the first problem, it's a little book... not really enough for three films, which leads to a fair bit of stuff not in the book being added. Some of which works, like Radagast the Brown and a meeting at Rivendel between Gandalf, Saruman, Galadriel and Elrond, which are setting up Gandalf's quest to fight the necromancer later in the story. However the addition of the Pale Orc as a rival for Thorin feels a bit unneeded.

Acting wise this is a strong cast, with wonderful performances from Martin Freeman, Ian McKellan, Andy Serkis and loads of others.

The film looks beautiful, with vast sweeping landscapes and impressive sets, however, I saw it in the 3D 48fps version, which made things look a bit more like sets and made any fast movements look like they were fast forward... so I'd like to see it in 2D.

The final thing worth mentioning is the score, which is very nice, with the Misty Mountain song the Dwarves sing underscoring several high action moments and a few musical call backs to Lord Of The Rings here and there.

Just Look How Pretty It Is

In short, a pretty good film, but some things could have been better.