Its been 9 long years since the last installment of The Lord Of The Rings movies. I personally was a huge fan of these films back in the day, I went to see every movie while they were still in theaters and bought the extended edition of each movie as well. These films were such an obsession of mine, I couldn't get enough. I even read all of the books before watching the films. So when I heard that Peter Jackson had begun working on The Hobbit, I was filled with a strange mixture of excitement and nervousness. Would he be able to capture the same feel and balance of action, terror, and happiness that I loved about The Lord of the Rings? Would he lean too heavily on Computer Generated Graphics like the Wachowski brothers with the second and third Matrix movies? Would he sell out to make it 3D just to sell more expensive tickets? Okay, so I was more nervous than I was excited. However, after watching The Hobbit, I have some good news for all of you die hard fans like myself.
The Story
The Hobbit is the story of Biblo Baggins, a quiet, unassuming Hobbit who never goes on any adventures and lives a solitary life in the Shire. One day a Wizard named Gandalf comes to visit Bilbo, and gets him involved in a quest with 13 Dwarves. What follows is the adventure of a lifetime. I won't go into many more details for fear of spoiling it for you, but just know that a lot will happen on this 3 hour journey. You will see familiar faces and familiar places, but the adventure is all new.
The 3D Effect
Before I go on to talk about the graphics, the writing, the action and so forth, I want to talk to a little bit about the 3D quality. When I planned on seeing The Hobbit, I absolutely did not want to see it in 3D, however, due to timing I didn't have an option. I generally dont like seeing films in 3D because a lot of the fast paced action sequences become blurry and hard to focus on. This is largely due to the fact that 3D films are played at 24 FPS (frames per second), which is significantly slower than what most of us have become accustomed to (not to mention that movies are filmed with much faster moments than they used to). Knowing that The Hobbit would be ripe with action and sweeping camera shots, I didn't want to have my viewing experience ruined by blurry battles and landscapes. Luckly, I remembered an article we wrote back in November about how The Hobbit would be the first 3D film that was shot with HFR 3D technology allowing for 48 FPS. So I took my chances with the 3D version, and I do not regret it. All the action sequences were sharp and detailed. There was only one moment that got blurry during a sweeping camera shot through a fiery cavern, but other than that everything was superb. The 3D moments weren't gimmicky either. Every moment in the movie seemed natural and flowed nicely. This is embarrassing to say, but there was a moment when I actually tried to dodge something coming out of the screen because, for a moment, I thought I was going to get hit. So I am very pleased to say that you dont need to be afraid of the 3D version as it is the best 3D I have ever seen.
The Action
That being said, lets talk about the actual story and characters. I often wondered if a story about a Hobbit, a Wizard, and 13 Dwarves could ever be conveyed in a way that wasn't childish and weak. Sadly, most of the dwarves do seem rather pointless and add nothing to the story as a whole. But, in Jackson's defense, there really isn't anything that anyone could have done about this since most of the dwarves were meant to be funny in the book. However, the dwarves that are meant to have real character are spectacularly done. Half the time you will forget that these are half sized men. The performance of Bilbo by Martin Freeman was surprisingly good. Im used to seeing him as a comedian since he is most famous for his parts in The Hitchhicker's Guide to the Galaxy, Hot Fuzz, and Love, Actually. However, his performance was so convincing that I honestly didn't even recognise him until my Wife pointed it out to me (and that never happens!). The performances by the returning faces were great as always. The most notible character of the entire film was Gollum, played by Andy Serkis. Andy's performance was so spectacular that it gave me chills. His interpretation of Gollum is every bit as demented, creepy, and tortured as my mental image of Gollum from the books. Gollum really steals the show.
The CG
The past 9 years have seen some spectacular advancement in CG technology and The Hobbit uses it masterfully. I was afraid that Peter Jackson would favor the CG far too heavily and become lazy about having the actors do some of the fight scenes. I think back to the difference between Star Wars Episode VI and Star Wars Episode I, and we all know how that turned out for us fans. I also think back to the difference between The Matrix and The Matrix: Reloaded (I was so dissappointed that they didn't take the time to actually film certain sequences and instead went for fully CG fight sequences that looked terrible {looked inexcusable, actually}). Happily, this was not the case with The Hobbit. There was only one moment where I could obviously see that they were using CG and I thought to myself, "They would have actually filmed that in The Lord of the Rings." But, it was a very small moment so it didn't take me out of the experience. The facial animations for Gollum and the Great Goblin were insanely detailed, and all of the magic effects were better than ever. Overall, the extra power that CG has gained over the years was used effectively to do nothing but enhance the film without holding it back in any manor.
The Verdict
Going to see The Hobbit in 3D at the theater was a great decision. I have no regrets about buying 2 tickets for $15 a piece with a giant bucket of popcorn and an oversized drink. The movie theater made maximum profit off of me for the evening, and I couldn't care less. I left the theater fully satisfied after going on an epic adventure to far off lands. I forgot all of my woes and fully accepted the reality that was on display in front of me. In the end, isn't that all we can ever hope to achieve from a trip to the movies?
It is for all this that I give
The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey a 9.5 out of 10
Written by Dexter Jaekel
Editor-in-Chief of TheTechFixation.com
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