Movie Review: The Hobbit
I’m a big fan of The Hobbit. Having talked to a lot of people who say that it’s too long and boring, that it’s slow, I say how is that any different from the other Lord of the Rings movies? I like all the films in the series, but they are all long and can be slow at times, so I’m not sure what people were expecting. Yes, the idea of stretching out The Hobbit into three movies seems a bit extreme considering it’s not a huge book and none of the other Lord of the Rings movies got the same treatment, but there was nothing in the Hobbit that felt unnecessary to me. Director Peter Jackson is drawing not just from The Hobbit novel, but from other Tolkien works as well, so there’s plenty of material.
Casting Martin Freeman, probably best known as Tim from the original “The Office” television series in England, was a great move. He has impressed me in everything I’ve seen him in, including The Office, Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, and England’s Sherlock. I liked him better then any of the other hobbit characters in the other movies, and they do a great job of connecting the Hobbit to the other films.
As always, Ian McKellen is great as Gandalf and the movie is pretty much non-stop action from start to finish. The special effects are as good as anything I’ve seen, it’s beautifully shot, and I believe lived up to it’s hype. The Hobbit is one of the few movies I’ve seen this year that didn’t disappoint.