Hello all
you people out there! I’m TheCinemaChick
and I’m here to take you on a magical quest, filled with danger, evil creatures
and wizards. Fear not, for a band of
determined dwarves will guide you through this land, only to face a monstrous
dragon who could burn you in a moment. Beware
of trolls, Orcs, goblins and Wargs as we journey back to a familiar place. Hobbits and Elves, we’re going back to Middle
Earth to explore what is sure to be a roaring success, The Hobbit.
Now, there’s
one thing I’d like to touch on before I dive into the main part of my review. When you go to the theater, there are several
options: 2D, 3D, XD, HFR. We all know
what the first three are, so let’s discuss high frame rate. Normal films are shot in 24 frames per second,
but Peter Jackson decided to shoot The Hobbit at 48 frames per second hence the
“high frame rate”. My showing was XD, 3D
and HFR, so it will be drastically different from what others saw. A lot of people have also been criticizing
this choice. Here’s my take on the whole
thing.
The higher
frame rate made things a lot smoother for me.
Every moment was so fluid, it was just amazing. However, there were times when it seemed like
the characters were moving faster than normal because…well, they probably are. Maybe it was the XD, but the picture quality was
absolutely breathtaking. Now, if you are
easily nauseated, prone to motion sickness or get easily dizzy, you might want
to skip this option. After the movie, I
was a little disoriented and off balance. Well, I’m always off balance, but you know
what I mean.
Oh, and to
the guy who was in such a major hurry that he found it necessary to push a
handicapped girl (i.e.-me) on the steps in a dark theater, I hope you trip and
land on Legos. I nearly fell when you
shoved me. You are just lucky I grabbed
the railing.
I digress.
The movie
itself was fantastic. It suffers from
the major flaw of the other “Lord of the Rings” films, which is that it takes
forever for the action to kick in. Granted,
the beginning was beautiful. It starts
off on Bilbo’s birthday (including an extended cameo from Elijah Wood as Frodo)
and works its way into the past. Martin
Freeman plays young Bilbo. If anyone
loves BBC programming as much as me, you know Freeman as John Watson from
Sherlock. For a while, that’s all I
could see After a while, I didn’t see
that anymore because he looks so much younger in this. He really captured the character well. Also from the BBC is Aidan Turner, better
known as Mitchell from Being Human. As
if that’s not cool enough, Benedict Cumberbatch is there too! He’s the Necromancer and Smaug!
Ian
McKellan returns as Gandalf the Grey and he is just as delightful as he was in
the trilogy. He’s got to be on of my
favorite actors around. Hugo Weaving,
Cate Blanchett and Christopher Lee also come back for this film. They have a minimal but pivotal role in the
film. Oh and King Thranduil, the Elf who
happens to be the father of Legolas is in the movie too. The cast was perfect for the film so I applaud
the filmmakers for that. And I can’t
forget that man who brought life to Radagast the Brown, Sylvester McCoy. He’s also from BBC fame since he used to play
The Doctor.
It’s hard
to comment on the fight scenes and all the action because what I saw is
different from how others saw it. The
higher frame rate made things made things much smoother, but also more fast
paced than anything else, which did make it a little hard to follow. Don’t get me wrong, I loved the HFR, but it
took me about 20 minutes to get used to it, then there were scenes that made me
very aware that I was watching it. I had
to remind myself that this was a little different from other movies. For the most part, ther HFR isn’t a problem,
except for those few moments where I was acutely aware of it.
Now, this
thing is three hours long, so wear your comfy clothes and use the bathroom
before you sit down to watch. I made the
mistake of buying a large soda to drink and trust me, I ran out of the theater.
The thing is, there’s nothing I would
take out to make it any shorter. I like
the story of how Erebor was invaded by the dragon, what the Dwarves did when
they had nowhere else to go and how Thorin became well…Thorin. It gives the audience a much better idea of
what everyone had to go through to get where they are later. Having read “The Hobbit” a few times before
and I guess I missed some of these things.
Unfortunately,
the next installment won’t be out for another year, so Tolkien fans will just
have to wait impatiently for “The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug” to be
released to the world. I know I can’t
wait for it, though, I’m very curious as to how the third film will go since it
was going to contain a lot of information from the appendices located in “The Return
of the King”. I like Peter Jackson, I
like what’s he done with the franchise and I look forward to see what he has in
store for the future.
“The Hobbit”
is an amazing film and needs to be seen. If you like Tolkien or fantasy films, you will
like this. It does a great job of
setting up a story and sticking to it without having numerous side plots. True, it is really long, but that’s part of
the fun of the movie. My main problem
was with the high frame rate because it was distracting at times and the fact
that there are fourteen main characters. It’s hard to tell some of the Dwarves apart
because they only show main ones. Like,
you’ll know who Kili is and you’ll know Thorin, Bombur and I think Gloin.
And if that’s
not enough reason to see it, how about having Richard Armitage singing the Misty Mountain
Seriously,
since it’s midnight release, this movie has already made roughly $95 million. It’s projected to make about $130 million this
weekend alone. I spent $21 today on
tickets alone (the XD 3D HFR is expensive).
I loved The
Hobbit. I’d like to see it again at
regular frame rate. High frame rate is
ok once you are used to it and makes the picture sharper and smoother. Though it is a little dizzying, I enjoyed
it. If you don’t believe me, ask Mumford
what he thinks about the film. Or ask
Kit Kat. You could even ask Fry.
The Hobbit
has made its way onto my Top 12 of 12 list, which I will be writing soon and
posting.
Go see The
Hobbit. You will not regret it.
I’m
TheCinemaChick and Thorin Oakenshield is mine!
I enjoyed your view. We have some small differences in opinion, but the same overall. I will have to write something on it's own about this.
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