The Hobbit 2D: A Review

Er, not the 1970's one, the new one by Peter Jackson.

I had the honor and duty of seeing The Hobbit on its opening day last week. This was a massive ordeal for me, as I list The Hobbit as one of my favorite books, and Peter Jackson's The Lord of the Rings trilogy as three of my favorite movies. I will start off by saying, no, I did not see it in the three-dee. Sir Jackson is always trying to push things forward in his field, sure, but that doesn't mean I always have to agree with him. The 48 frames-per-second that the 3D version of the movie is shot in didn't really sit well with me, and I did not want it distracting me from my Hobbit-viewing experience.

Especially the view of their freakish, man-like hands.

I'll just go ahead and start with the things I disliked. It was very formuliac; it had talky bits followed by action bits followed by talky bits. Start. Stop. Start. Stop. Start. Stop. Plot, fight, plot, fight. The action seemed like a mindless way to segue into the next plot point and I feel like a lot of those action scenes were unnecessary. For example, the mountain giant rumble-tumble get-to-Bilbo's-feelings scene.
I also had a problem with one of the characters, specifically Jar Jar the Brown.

I honestly can't tell which is which.

Radagast the Brown's entire character consists of just a few lines spread out between The Hobbit and The Fellowship of the Ring. The books make little mention of his character and absolutely no mention of his rabbit-sled, hyperactive obsessive compulsive disorder, or stoner tendencies. Many compare the character to Radagast's prequel-partner Jar Jar Binks, and I tend to agree.

However, despite my gripes, I enjoyed the movie thoroughly. I liked it a bit more than Fellowship of the Ring, to be honest, mostly because of the overwhelming sense of foreboding was just crushing in FotR. The atmosphere was drawing, the songs were well done, Martin Freeman and Andy Serkis were especially amazing in their roles, and the movie left off with me wanting to see the next one. All in all I give the movie an 8/10.

Keep fanatic
Aaron