Today, Elquinjena and I went and saw the much-anticipated prequel to The Lord of the Rings trilogy.. “The Hobbit”.
I suppose I should say “Spoiler Alert”.. but, come on, this is an old story – you know it, I know it.. here we go.
The Synopsis..
A younger and more reluctant Hobbit, Bilbo Baggins, sets out on a “unexpected journey” to the Lonely Mountain with a spirited group of Dwarves to reclaim a their stolen mountain home from a dragon named Smaug.
Early reviews from screenings, last month in New Zealand, claimed that audience members were actually brought to nausia and feelings related to motion sickness – this we blamed, mostly, on the new style in which director, Peter Jackson, has this movie shot. The standard is 24 frames per second. It’s been this way for years and it’s what we’re used to. Any slower and the action seems choppy.. like a webcam – any faster and it seems more like television or home movies – unprofessional. In fact, most television shows have adopted the 24fps standard to compete with hollywood.
We did not experience any of the reported effects.. possibly because we didn’t see the movie in 3D.. but, we could understand were some people could have issues, a few of the action scenes honestly looked like someone threw the camera down the path after the actors. We understand this was to portray a chaotic view following the action.. but still.
The acting was great and we saw a lot of cameos from the LoTR trilogy, as well there should be. (we look forward to seeing Legolas in the next installment). The Special effects were very good, as was to be expected with the same production crew.
However, I did have some issues with some of the comedy being written in (Spoiler). For example, when the Goblin King makes his final stand against Gandalph, he says something to the effect of “There’s nothing to can do about it!”.. Gandalph runs him through with Gambring (The Foe Hammer), to which the Goblin King says “That’ll do it..”. It just seemed very cheesy and a cheap laugh.
So, for those who have read the book, or seen the old cartoon.. “The Hobbit: Unexpected Journey” follows the adventure from the beginning of the story, until the party reaches Mirkwood Forest. I’m honestly not sure how they’re gonna stretch the rest of the story into 2 more movies.
