Thoughts on The Hobbit (Part 1)

Having fond memories of the book, I went to see the latest Middle Earth theatrical installment. I have enjoyed the previous films, even if some of my favorite bits were relegated to the Extended editions where I would have liked them to have been longer. I liked this one too.

I saw it in IMAX 3D at 48 FPS, and wish I could compare it to the same without the 3D, but that was rarely noticeable. Having dealt with headaches at previous long 3D showings such as Avatar, I was prepared to deal with the same, but it didn't happen during this movie. The worst of it was during the 3D previews, where the Jurassic Park 3D conversion gave me a practically instant headache and made my eyes water. I think I'll pass on it when it comes out. The extended Star Trek: Into Darkness preview was better, and the headache was quickly gone. I didn't particularly notice the visibility of props and such that other reviewers have mentioned in the 48 frame rate presentation, although I was too caught up in the story to look after the first bit. The images seemed very clear, almost hyperrealistic at times compared to the standard "movie" look, although having seen the beautiful cinematography in Skyfall on the same screen recently, I would put it down more to the IMAX resolution than the 48 FPS. I think what the 48 FPS really did was make the 3D presentation tolerable. I may try to see it again in a regular 2D presentation to compare.

Below this I'll be going into some spoilery observations on book vs movie, so come back later if you haven't seen it yet.



I liked how they brought in events that were happening "outside" of the Hobbit book itself, and referenced in other Tolkien works. While the orc patrols and Azog were definitely not part of the original story during this section, they do fit in quite nicely and link other things past and future in without changing things too much. I can't remember without rereading the book if Azog was actually mentioned in the end section, and the battle outside of Moria is definitely from Lord of the Rings appendices and such. I was somewhat disappointed that having shown that battle, they did not really hint at the threat of Durin's Bane preventing the dwarves from entering Moria at that point, as it was explicitly mentioned in that book.

The Misty Mountains sequence in the pass and goblin caverns more or less followed the book, although a number of details were altered. I don't really remember any clear description of the stone giants out in the pass, and their depiction here seems a bit over the top. I think the sequence of Bilbo's movements and getting to Gollum was a bit altered from the book also. While the Riddle Game had the expected riddles, the surrounding action again was a bit altered. The Company's fight through the caverns and outside was pretty well done. One of the bits that was missing was the goblins singing to the dwarves caught in the trees, but it didn't really fit with the grimmer orcs and goblins from the movies, so I was not terribly surprised. They did keep the dwarves singing at Bag End though.

I was pleased to see Galadriel with the "external" events tie-in, and Radagast was amusing (the delightful Sylvester McCoy, aka the Seventh Doctor). One of my disappointments with the Hobbit as a whole has always been the lack of women in the story, not that it was much better in the Lord of the Rings trilogy. It would be nice to see the story of Beren and Luthien done in a movie, it's probably the most suitable part of the Silmarillion volume about the First Age, as well as one of the few Tolkien stories with a woman as a major character.  Luthien rocked, to put it mildly.

Overall this is the Hobbit as a Lord of the Rings movie prequel rather than the more whimsical children's story of the book, but it seemed appropriate, and it was well done.