On Sunday, Kelly and I left the kids with their grandparents for a few hours and escaped to see The Hobbit at the local theater1. It was playing in 3D/48fps and that is how we saw it. The theater was at a large, outdoor shopping mall here in southwestern Florida and while the mall was packed with holiday shoppers, the movie theater was empty. I mean empty. Indeed, until the previews were over the movie was beginning, Kelly and I were the only two people in the theater. I think there ended up being a grand total of 6 people.
Not to bury the lead: I loved the movie.
Then again, I expected to. I really enjoyed Peter Jackson’s Lord of the Rings trilogy and had no reason to doubt that I wouldn’t enjoy this one. I went into it not having read The Hobbit in more than 30 years, and with the understanding that, like the Lord of the Rings trilogy, it was an adaptation of the book, not a strict canonical rendition. What this amounted to in reality was that I couldn’t begin to tell you how the movie differed from the book. Except for the very beginning, of course, which I liked and thought was well-done and a good way to introduce the new movie.
I’ve read complaints online that the movie was slow to start, that they didn’t get out of the Shire for the first hour or so. It was a while before the band of adventurers left the Shire, but that didn’t bother me at all. I enjoyed the story throughout, and found the humor both whimsical and amusing. It was a little tricky keeping track of all of the dwarves, but even that faded into the background of the larger story.
Indeed, I found the movie to be thoroughly entertaining and enjoyable, a good start to this new trilogy. It was the first movie I’ve seen in 3D and even the addition of 3D turned out to be an aid to storytelling as opposed to a distraction from it.
The most disappointing aspect of the movie is that I have to wait an entire year to see the next part. But I can forgive Peter Jackson for that. Besides, at my age, with two little kids running me ragged, the year seems to zip right by. It will all pass in a flash and before you know it you’ll be reading about the 24-hour-long Tolkien marathons people will be making.
- This was my first time to a movie theater since April of this year. I really don’t get out to movies very often. ↩
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I enjoyed the movie overall, but I thought it was way too gory for a book that was aimed at children. I know LOTR was written for older readers, butI read Hobbit many times to my little boy. He spent half the movie covering his eyes because every battle had beheadings.
I appreciated that Jackson pulled from other sources in order to give more backstory, like Radagast and the scene about meeting with the wizards, but IMO I think y this is one of those instances where less is more. W lost the point of view of Bilbo and the dwarves. They didn’t know the rest of the story.
I did like the movie overall, but I was disappointed by those aspects of it.
I loved the film too. We’re you aware of the difference the HFR (48fps) made. I haven’t seem it in that format, but am considering it.
Same conclusion: have to wait for a year to get the next part.
I hope we’ll get the Bluray extended version with the (extensive!) documentary before that.