On December 14, The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey was released into theatres across America. As a prequel to the Lord of the Rings and the first part of a trilogy, The Hobbit tells the story of Bilbo Baggins (played by Martin Freeman) and his unexpected journey with the wandering wizard, Gandalf (played by Sir Ian McKellan) and a band of dwarves fighting to get back their home. Directed by Peter Jackson, The Hobbit manages to bring to the screen many qualities that haven’t been seen on the silver screen for a long time.
With beautiful Computer Generated Imagery, The Hobbit manages to capture its audience and take them along on their journey. Tunneling caves, lonely mountains, and underground lakes are shown with pristine quality that is often lacking in today’s movie industry. The Hobbit sets itself apart from other movies with vibrant colors, wide angle shots of the scenery, and close ups of the many characters. Each character is fully articulate and lip-synced in order to look completely natural.
The Hobbit is more of a relaxed tale even though it does have its somber moments. While The Lord of the Rings consisted mainly of dramatic fight scenes, The Hobbit manages to find a sense of humor. It wasn’t exactly hilarious but it was still able to make the audience chuckle from the sheer ridiculousness of our band of heroes and the many situations they find themselves in.
While many of the characters are simply impossible to relate to in this day and age, there are a few that manage to capture the audience in a way that has been lost in the recent string of terrible fantasy movies that have been released. With Bilbo Baggins being the star of the show, his constant self-doubt and random bursts of courage makes him the hero that many people today want to see.
Even though The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey is only part one of a three part series, it does not vary far from the book when it comes to the story line. For the fans that have already read the book they will not be disappointed. Some will even be excited to hear direct quotes.
Overall, The Hobbit is a brilliant movie. The perfect combination of humor, action, scenery, and CGI make it one of the best movies of the year.
Grade: A+