Unexpected Journey Review

WARNING SPOILERS **

 

There has been many reviews on this film so far. Sadly I was not able to see it at the 48 frames per second as I had hoped. The moment was a little odd seeing as have been waiting for this film for so long. I had been waiting so long that it felt unreal that I was going to see it. Even if I saw everyone with their special Hobbit 3D glasses and coke cups.

The movie starts off in the shire with Bilbo at his desk, writing his book. And Frodo is running around the house getting things ready for Bilbo's 111th birthday. It starts on the day Biblo plan to leave the Shire to go see the lonely mountain again. Which makes sense for him to re-live the memories of that adventure.

As the story begins it's amazing to step back into Middle Earth, as if 10 years had not gone by. This film had moments that made me re-live the Fellowship of the Ring.At least you'll feel that way by the end when you realise it'll be another 365 days until we see part II.

The beginning shows the fall of Erebor. Which was really well done. I always made the great hall so small when I read the books, but seeing the grand scale of the Dwarvish kingdom was great. There's little of Smaug. We see a tail, an eye..but they're keeping him in the shadows until part two, the Desolation of Smaug.

There is allot of one liners and jokes in this film. Tolkien had started off writing it as a children's story so the movies reflects that. Gandalf isn't as serious in this film. Which was great for Ian McKellen who really prefers Gandalf the grey over Gandalf the white. I do believe the movies will get darker as the series continues. The book sure did.

Radagast (the Brown Wizard) is great in this. Played by former Dr Who actor Sylvestor Mccoy, we get to see Gandalf and him interact. Radagast is very odd since he lived most of his life, 2000 years of it, alone in the woods with his animals. I enjoyed this character allot. He had bird poo in his hair and a chariot of rabbits who can outrun Wargs.

Azog has a bigger role in this movie than I thought he would. There's bad blood between Thorin and Azog. Since that Ocr killed Thorins grandfather, and in the movie Thorin chops off Azog's arm (but fails to kill him) this was a unique addition to the film. In the books, Dain Iron foot kills Azaog. So it'll be interesting to see which road PJ took with this. This was a bit strange. I'm sure purist, more than me I mean, will be blogging about this. Dain will be played by Billy Connolly.

The songs Tolkien wrote for the  Hobbit were kept. There's the famous 'That's what Bilbo Baggins hates' sung by the dwarves while cleaning the kitchen and the Goblin king sing the famous 'grind their bones' song in the gobling cave. This was really cool. I was wondering if they would keep them.

The riddle in the dark chapter was really well done. Gollum looks amazing in 3D. Simply on of the best computer generated character in film history to date. This very famous chapter was really well done and Tolkien would of been proud. The Eagles that save the company from harm, the chapter Out of the frying pan and into the fire, was really sharp. I got goose bumps thinking are we going to see the king of the Eagles talk? but sadly the winged heroes didn't feel much like talking it would seem.

The sound track....I was paying close attention to what Howard Shore had come up with. There was allot of themes from the Lord of the Rings that made it into the Hobbit. The songs have been re-worked and changed a bit, bit the ring still has it's theme.The Shire, Rivendel all seem familiar because the the themes work hand in hand with the visuals of the film. It's like we never left.


I, like millions of others, will go see this movie several more times in the theatre before the end. Peter Jackson and the Weta team did it again. I hope it breaks Box office records, and I can`t wait until the Extended DVD`s to come out.

The start of the next film should be when they find Beorn's house. I'm excited to see that.

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