🍂 Movie Monday: Sept. 18th, 2017
Review of The Hobbit: The Unexpected Journey
Watched September 16th, 2017 🍂
🎞️🎞️🎞️🎞️🎞️
I have loved the original Lord of the Rings trilogy since I was a child and I have been wanting to watch The Hobbit trilogy for quite awhile. On Saturday, I finally watched the first movie in the trilogy and I enjoyed it. I did read the book when I was around twelve or thirteen but do not remember much besides major plot points. So basically, I went into this movie not sure of what to expect. I'm sure that this series is not accurate as adaptations, but as a prequel to The Lord of the Rings movies, I enjoyed this. The movie opens with Bilbo Baggins, who is approaching his 111th birthday. He is writing down his story of what happened during his adventures in The Hobbit and is telling his nephew, Frodo of what has occurred. These scenes take place directly before what occurs in The Fellowship of the Ring. Then we go from a visual of him blowing in his pipe at his older age, to him blowing in his pipe as a young hobbit (at the age of 50). I enjoyed this little visual. Bilbo has a conversation with the wizard Gandalf, who tricks Bilbo into hosting a party for a group of thirteen dwarfs. He slowly finds out that Gandalf has convinced these dwarfs that he will work with them as their burglar. The dwarfs have a plan to go to the Lonely Mountain and take it back for the dwarfs.
In the beginning of the movie, we get the backstory of the dragon, Smaug coming to the Lonely Mountain, which the dwarfs owned. He takes the mountain and all of their gold. Thorin, the grandson of the king of the dwarfs wants to take back his land and has gathered the thirteen dwarfs to accomplish this. Bilbo is reluctant about taking a part in the adventure. Hobbits are not known for wanting adventure. The dwarfs stay in Bilbo's house for the night and leave early the next morning before Bilbo even wakes. Bilbo decides to go on the adventure running after them.
One of the enjoyable aspects of this movie is the humor. This is based on a novel that was much lighter in tone than The Lord of the Rings trilogy and it's obvious. There are darker scenes but a humorous tone takes up a good portion of the movie. I loved this movie's humor and to me, it's hilarious a good portion of the time. My favorite character is Smeagol/ Gollum. Gollum has been corrupted by a ring that becomes very important in The Lord of the Rings trilogy. It was funny to see his interactions with Bilbo and just his characteristics again. I have always enjoyed Gollum, even though he used to really creep me out when I was a child (side note: I used to be able to imitate him pretty well).
Also, Martin Freeman was a great pick for Bilbo. From what I remember of the book, he played Bilbo perfectly. His mannerisms compared to the dwarfs is enjoyable to watch. He brings a lot to the character and was a joy to see. Then we have Sir Ian McKellan reprising his role as Gandalf. I remember when I first heard that they were making these movies and I could not wait to see him as Gandalf again. He was and will always be one of my top favorite older wizards (along with Dumbledore and Merlin).
Overall, I really enjoyed what they did with this movie. I'm not going to judge it as an adaptation because I really do not remember enough of the novel to do this. As a movie that is meant to be a prequel of one of my favorite movie trilogies of all time, I loved it. I will be watching the rest of the movies soon and cannot wait. It took me too long to watch this movie series and I will make sure to rectify this soon. I recommend this movie for fantasy lovers and anyone who has watched The Lord of the Rings movies and loved them. I believe you will enjoy this movie.
No comments:
Post a Comment