*Vague Spoilers
I was looking forward to seeing The Hobbit: AnUnexpected Journey this week. It was okay. The Hobbit is currently sitting at 65% on Rotten Tomatoes and that’s about right. It wasn’t terrible, but it was definitely not the epic it was trying to be. The movie is 2 hours and 45 minutes long. The movie could have easily been a succinct 2 hours if they took out all the shots of them walking. It felt like every five minutes we had to watch them walk, and then walk some more and maybe run and ride on ponies, then walk a little more. It’s a journey, it’s right there in the title, we don’t need twenty shots of them walking the countryside. It’s pretty and everything, but could you just get to the trolls! Honestly, I spent the first half of the movie waiting for the troll scene.
I read the book and there’s a whole lot of stuff in the movie not in the book. Peter Jackson has done the reverse of what happens to most book to movie adaptations; he’s added stuff instead of taken away. Maybe that’s part of my problem and the problem of other people who have seen the movie, all the extra stuff is getting in the way of what I want to see. Also, the novel, The Hobbit was the first book, it wasn’t a “prequel,” so those scenes of foreboding about Sauron and all the badness in Mordor didn’t happen in the book. There was no round-table discussion of a darkness growing in the land. So much of the extra stuff just got in the way of me getting to see some trolls.
There was a lot of the movie that I did like… like the trolls! I thought that entire sequence was awesome. I loved the personalities of the dwarves. They are a unit, but they are individuals too. I loved the fight/battle scenes. They were fluid and fierce. The movie as a whole was beautiful. Every shot, every angle, every colour seemed to be chosen with care. The landscapes were natural and vibrant. The actor who played Bilbo was great. Ian McKellan as Gandalf was as good as ever.
In the end, I liked The Hobbit, but I felt it was overdone. Sticking to the source material would have made the movie more fun. I don’t want to get repetitive or go off on another rant. I’ll just say it was enjoyable and leave it as that.
* I got a little carried away with the movie posters. I really like them.
I was rather disappointed by The Hobbit. There were good bits. I liked Martin Freeman (Bilbo), and the dwarfs, and the songs.
ReplyDeleteI liked the scene with Gollum too, generally, although the ring seemed too significant for the Hobbit.
Need to write my review actually before I forget what I want to say.
I wasn't exactly disappointed. I knew what the rating was on Rotten Tomatoes before I saw the movie, so I went in knowing it was probably not going to blow me away.
DeleteThey scene with Gollum needed more riddles. I'm pretty sure it's a longer scene in the book.
That's what my boyfriend thought, and he knows the book better than me, it is one of his all time favourites. I remembered that scene was my favourite in the book, and it did seem a little short but I couldn't have said there were definitely more riddles.
DeleteYa, the riddle scene is not where they should have saved on time.
ReplyDelete