The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey 
Directed by Peter Jackson
The Hobbit #1
Dec 14 2012
“I loved every single minute of the film!” ~Under the Covers
Do we have any Lord of the Rings fans in the house? I am a HUGE fan and feel I have bragging rights as I loved LOTRs and The Hobbit before Peter Jackson got his genius hands on it and transformed them in to my favourite films of all time. Now, I am not saying that I didn’t yawn my way through the LOTRs book a bit, they are essentially three books of people walking with very little character building but with reams and reams of world building/landscape description, but I still loved it. The Hobbit; however, is different it’s an adventure story with a very unlikely main character and is exciting and fun and I was hoping the film would be the same.
AND IT WAS! I loved every single minute of the film! The casting was brilliant I though Martin Freeman made a very convincing Bilbo Baggins and Richard Armitage did a fantastic job of playing the displaced Dwarven king Thorin Oakenshield; really breathing life into his character. Ian McKellan once again played Gandalf just as well as he did LOTRs and he is forever cemented in my mind as THE Gandalf. What we also had was a motley crew of dwarves and although there were alot of them, they all somehow managed to display different personalities and were the source of most of the humour in the film. 
But, The Hobbit is a children’s book so don’t go in expecting another LOTRs although the style and the setting is the same, the story doesn’t have the epic depth and despair of LOTRs, this isn’t about saving the world but helping the Dwarves take back their home. The other point is that there is much less to work with with The Hobbit, they have stretched one small book in to three films rather then three long books in to three films, so as you can imagine they have a lot of space to fill which they do with extended action scenes and adding extra bits that weren’t necessarily in the books. But, one scene that I know fans will love is the game of riddles between Bilbo and Gollum, I thought it was brilliantly done, it managed to be tense but funny, with Gollum being both vile and murderous and yet somehow a creature to be pitied.
I loved this film, it was beautifully shot, had an outstanding cast of both new characters and more familiar ones, and although it isn’t as epic as LOTRs, it was at times moving, funny and nailbiting, I fully intend to see it again!
I’m a Lord Of The Rings fan too…thanks for the great review Suz!
Thanks Timitra 🙂 You need to go see The Hobbit, hopefully you will like it as much as I did 🙂
Suz
Thanks for the great review! I’m definitely wanting to see this movie 🙂
It was Erin! You definitely have to see it ASAP! 🙂
Suz
I just came from the movie and it was awesome! I would have done the book in 2 movies, not 3, but it does look good and I missed LOTR very much so… not really a bad thing 🙂
Ian played and amazing Gandalf! I don’t think anyone could do him better!
I just went to see it again Aly! It was just as amazing and my crush on Richard Armitage has doubled lol!
I agree though I would have done The Hobbit in two films not three, I just hope they gathered enough material to make the next two films just as good!
Suz
I’m a LOTR fan but I’m a bit more of a purist so I have issues with Jackson’s film adaptations – he really liked the Gollum character and I have issues with that….lol
Gollum wasn’t that much of a character in the books I didn’t think….I might still give this a shot though since I did see the other films
Thanks for the review. I’m not a big Hobbit fan but you make it sound intriguing.
Suz, I first read the Hobbit and then the LOTR trilogy in high school in the mid ’70s…. I live in Wellington , NZ , and attended the World Premiere festivities (alas, not the invitation only showing). It was lots of fun, and I have my souvenir Gandalf hat, which kept the sun from burning me, as it was a gorgeous summery day. I haven’t seen the movie yet…probably see it tomorrow in HFR3d with my husband and then will see it again without him in 2d so I can appreciate the nuances more than the action experience. My daughters boyfriend worked on the film making props and other design elements so we have been fairly immersed here.
Thanks for the review!
My 12 year old son is going to see this with his classmates–as they are reading it in LA.
However, I’ll think I’ll pass.
I think I may be the only human that hasn’t even seen LOTR, and I even own the DVD–how strange am I?
Wait…don’t answer that, lol.
Did love your review though; makes me almost want to go see it…almost 🙂
Thanks for the great review, I’m a huge Lord of the Rings fan, we don’t get here in Australia until Boxing Day, but will be checking it out when it opens. 🙂
The Hobbit still works, sometimes beautifully, but more as the first chapter in a larger story than an actual standalone film. Nice review.