The Hobbit

The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey

The time has come my friends!  I can now stop avoiding TV in fear of seeing a commercial and my panicked sprints from the theater when a preview came on are at an end.  The long-awaited The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey comes out today.  Ten years after The Fellowship of the Ring caused a Middle Earth mania we return once again to see how it all started.  In this prequel a young Bilbo Baggins is suddenly and unwillingly thrust into the middle of a century-old quest to free the legendary Dwarf kingdom of Erebor in the Lonely Mountain from a dragon named Smaug. 

Many beloved characters have returned with Bilbo, although the younger version is played by Martin Freeman and Gandalf the wizard (Ian McKellan) who orchestrates the mission.  A visit to Rivendell brings with it an appearance of Elrond, played again by Hugo Weaving, as well as a few other familiar faces.  Gollum steals an entire scene to himselves as Andy Serkis re-dons the motion capture suit as no one else ever could.   New characters include 13 dwarves, the leader of whom is Thorin Oakenshield, the last of the line of Durin, the rightful king of Erebor.  Thorin is played by Richard Armitage and somehow manages to display his chiseled profile to the camera as he stares into the middle distance nearly every time we see him ( not that I’m complaining…).

We also meet another wizard, Radagast the Brown portrayed by Sylvester McCoy.  I found his part of the story odd as none of his scenes actually appear in the book.  These scenes are alluded to or mentioned in various appendices here and there but adding them to the movie gives the writers a chance to do whatever they want with it. 

The entire tone of this film is very different from that of the Lord of the Rings trilogy.  The trilogy had a tone of heavy, dark beauty and a certain majesty which translated well form the books to the films.  This movie on the other hand takes the light, silly more comical tone from its corresponding book.  I was hoping for a darker movie with Guillermo Del Toro involved in the writing process, but I was not disappointed with the lighter version.  That being said, Director Peter Jackson has never shied away from  a good fight scene.  The trilogy was greatly lacking in Dwarf characters and culture.  This film makes up for any dwarf fans that felt forgotten with the trilogy.  A nice balance is struck  between the comical nature of the dwarves and the strength and dignity of their culture. 

The music is again amazing, although I did notice that all the musical themes were recycled from the trilogy with the exception of one added theme that represents the Dwarves and their mission.  As expected, the cinematography is rich and stunning  with lots of wide, panning shots of the company marching through the breathtaking beauty of Middle Earth.  The cast is well chosen and everyone played their parts well. 

I only really have two reasons for disappointment:

1.       It was evident that there was less money spent on this film.  The special effects were good, but not the painstaking, nearly flawless examples from the previous films.  The sets and costumes are visually stunning but do not draw you in as completely as before.  Other subtle cues like this keep the viewer from being as completely immersed as they might be expecting.  I just do not see this movie racking in the award noms that Lord of the Rings did.

2.       I was not completely happy with the writing of this movie.  I felt that some scenes that were important for story and character development were rushed while too much time was spent on things that don’t matter as much for example,  I didn’t like how Radagast was handled.  I thought it was a little too silly.  The dignity of the character was completely stripped away in favor of laughs, of which there are many involving this character.

All things considered, the wait for the midnight show was completely worth it and I thoroughly enjoyed this movie.  If you are a huge Lord of the Rings fan, please keep in mind that this is not meant to be a continuation of the last set of movies and must be taken as its own entity and you will like it better.  If you have never seen Lord of the Rings but want to enjoy a few laughs and some good fight scenes then definitely go to this one!  The theater is a must for this film as the visuals really are stunning.  I f however, you think all this fantasy stuff is stupid and annoying, this film will do nothing to change your mind and you can save the extra ten dollars for something else.  I don't expect it to bring any nominations this year.

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Enjoy!

Twilight: Breaking Dawn Part 2

We return once again to Forks and the supernatural drama we have all come to know and love.  That drama comes here to a tumultuous end.  In this final chapter of the Twilight saga, BellEdward and company must save their miracle child Renesmee from the Volturi, a vampire government of sorts that is half Vatican and half fascist military regime.  The Volturi think that Renesmee is an immortal child which is strictly forbidden and none are allowed to live.  The Cullens gather all of their friends from all over the world to help them protect the remarkable child of Bella and Edward.

The cast of characters is a little different this time.  We have all the staples with Bella and Charlie, the Cullens and Jacob’s wolf pack, but now we have Arabic vampires, Amazon warrior women, revolutionists and Transylvanian counts among many others.  The influx of new characters and new special abilities gives the movie more of a fun factor and makes it more bearable.  Nothing actually occurs in this movie until the final showdown with the Volturi, but that is no different than the other stories.  That being said, the final battle is pretty epic.  If you have seen a preview for this movie, 90% of the clips are from that scene.  It is exciting and well-filmed as well as having a few surprises for fans of the book.

I found this film a little tiresome.  It took a long time to get to the story and the majority of the dialog was tedious.  Add to that the fact that so many interesting characters were crammed in that nothing ended up happening with them.  Some of them seemed to have more to do with the story but we just never saw it.  I have always found the secondary characters in this saga much more interesting than the love triangle that is Edward, Bella and Jacob, and now we have even more interesting characters and they are more overshadowed by the main characters than before!

I think the bottom line here is that if you are a Twilight fan you will love this movie.  It has romance and danger and perpetual teenage angst along with the cheesy one-line comedy.  However, if you don’t like Twilight, this movie will do nothing to sway your allegiance.  I will say that I felt the ending worthy of the epic nature of this craze and that final battle does redeem the overall movie to be enjoyable even for me, so if a friend of girlfriend drags you to this movie, don’t despair; just hold out until the end!

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Enjoy!