I’ve seen it twice, and now it’s time to sit down and get my head around what I actually thought of it.
A word of warning- this will NOT be a spoiler-free post.
Ok, so I’m going to do this in a pro-vs-con style thing- but first a summary.
This movie is not, and was not shot, to be LIKE LOTR. The Hobbit is stylistically different, both in shooting style and tone in most places. It’s a film for younger audiences, as the book was intended (but also with material for older, book-learned audiences [me, ahaha]). This contrast worked in a weird way for me- it combined snot and burp gags and the Goblin King singing a wee song, with heavier emphasis on backplot than I was expecting, and heartbreaking foreshadowing moments, as well as the White Council, which I think we will see more of in DOS. Many critics are saying that the movie isn’t as ‘epic’ or ‘fast paced’ as LOTR- and that’s because IT ISN’T! And that’s OK. For me, the time FLEW past, and I was thoroughly ready to carry on the adventure.
So- first the cons!
Some of the CGI work. I’m pretty sensitive to this, and some of the CGI work looked ‘less real’ than the real prosthetics used on LOTR. It’s come a long way, but it’s noticeable in some places, especially in 3D. That being said, this didn’t throw me off too much. I want to see it properly in the IMAX (with that quality but without 48FPS) to really judge. It could have been better, e.g. the wargs, Azog being the main ones. SURPRISINGLY, the goblins were well done! From seeing them on the trailers I was afraid these would be noticeably CGI, but I wasn’t put off by either them or the CGI created Goblin King.
No standout fight scenes. Had there been such, I assume the movie would have stretched into 3+ hours, but I wish we could have seen some cooler moves on display. Though Dori and his whacker-thing was so badass! Also, the comment about CGI again, you could notice the falls/jumps which were added in.
I suppose that because this is such a ‘small’ movie, compared to the epic battle scenes with thousands of CGI created people, it’s much easier to notice the digital effects; compared to LOTR, there are far fewer adversaries for Thorin and Co. to face- a pack of wargs, a rabble of goblins, 3 trolls, that’s about it. On a note- I really liked the troll’s look, CGI wise. As I said, the main one I had a problem with is Azog. For a moment, let’s compare him with prosthetically created Gothmog in ROTK. Gothmog looks much more realistic, and he was done (correct me if wrong) via facial prosthetics. I’m not sure how much prosthetics Manu had, but it seems obviously mostly CGI. I also enjoyed the look of the wargs better in LOTR (Weta didn’t like them).
Do you know what? 48FPS isn’t on my cons list. I did have SOME issues with it- as my friend put it, some shots looked too ‘swoopy’, and ‘videogamey’ but that was it. I LOVED the depth of field and the clarity. From a CGI perspective, it made no difference to the shots, apart from the closeup shots looking a bit ‘realer’ (earthier?) in 24FPS.
Aaaaaaand…. well, that’s it for cons that I can think of…. now onto PROS- of which there are MANY (making this film an overall WINNER!)
- Acting- brilliant. As said time and time again, Martin Freeman is a brilliant Boggins! Richard Armitage has become Thorin in my mind, and well- I sing the praises of them all.
- Characterisation- spot on with Thorin. Kudos to the glorious Mr. Armitage and PJ for getting this so damn right. From the arriving late at Bag End (wonderful addition), his relationship with the other dwarves and treatment of Baggins, and the heartbreaking foreshadowing with the Oakenshield (I can rave on about that all day), it was pretty damn perfect. The respect Thorin gains for Bilbo is especially heartbreaking for me. This is probably the last time before his death that Thorin will look at Bilbo in this way- as he starts to get more paranoid over Gandalf, and warier as the quest moves on towards the mountain, eventually losing his mind. The good feelings may rise up again in Dale, but I can’t see any sort of embrace like the sort he gave Baggins on Carrock. Also, I loved how Elrond was in this (I never expected to like him as much as I did!) and I found him a enjoyable addition. And so we move on to….
- Plot- I actually don’t have ANY comments about the plot. For me, everything fit fine, and had a great narrative. LOVED the emphasis on dwarven history- and I can’t wait for the Extended Editions to come out so we get more stuff (especially more character stuff). Even though I am a lore nerd when it comes to dwarven history (60k word book-centric fanfic holler), I’m far from an elitist. I liked the flow, and the pace felt fine.
Overall- an enjoyable film, and the amount of negative reviews it’s getting suck- and most of the reviewers I want to throw things at. Of course, everyone’s going to judge Weta for the CGI in the film- which is correct- they could have stepped it up, in my opinion- made the textures a little dirtier, seeing as they did Gollum perfectly again. But if I was going to give this film an OVERALL rating? I couldn’t. I NEED ALL OF THEM NOW! I’m pretty excited as the action grows in DoS and TaBA. I think that will silence critics who ‘want more action’ (they’re following the fucking plot guys, jeez!), and give Weta more things to work with rather than trying to make relatively small battle sequences look amazing. It’s no fault of the design- but maybe it could be transferred into film without the bells and whistles?
But for the book fan inside me, the three things that mattered were there- the plot, characterisation and acting. The film critics will critique the film, the oldschool fan… well- I’ll just sit here and sing along to the perfect rendition of ‘Blunt the Knives’.
Welcome to my Halls! 