The Hobbit (2012)

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As a huge fan of The Lord of the Rings trilogy (but having never read the books) I was incredibly excited when The Hobbit films were announced, also as I grew up with The Hobbit as a regular bedtime story I felt a connection with this part of Tolkien’s work. 

As with The Lord of the Rings Peter Jackson remains faithful to the story. However, due to such a short book being transformed into three long films, there are extensions made on the story which turn into key plot points. This may be a necessity but it is still somewhat annoying, if there was not enough story in The Hobbit for three films, don’t make three films. The added storylines just seem to show how greedy the film industry is. Luckily Jackson is such a fan of the story that the edits allow for the basic movements of the books narrative to be followed.

It looks spectacular (seem in IMAX 3D) and the extensive use of CGI doesn’t distract or detract from the beauty of it. Some of the characters do seem to have been excessively made up though. Lee Pace as Thranduil looks incredibly odd and inconsistent with many of the other elves shown in the film. It seems as though Thranduil and Galadriel are really focused on as perfect beings while other elves are overlooked, such as Elrond and Haldir. Similarly the dwarves range from stubbled and attractive Kili to almost excessively bearded and nosed Bifur. The need for contrast between so many similar characters leads to caricaturisation.

It is funny, it is exciting, it is heart-warming and a little scary. It fulfils the brief of every fantasy film and has the added magic of great directors, writer, special effects teams, etc. The fear was not that this would be a bad film but that it would not be able to stand proudly next to The Lord of the Rings trilogy. I feel that it can happily be acquainted with the other three Tolkien films while also standing alone as a good fantasy film. Looking forward to the next two!