My hobbit review (long and full of spoilers)
(the tldr; version: Liked but didn't love it, 6.5 out of 10)
Saw “The Hobbit” on Sunday at a 5:25 pm showing, only about 20 people in the theater (7 of whom were my family). The attendance was disappointing, but not surprising given my area. Deliberately chose to do 2D.
Before giving my thoughts, a bit on my mindset. LOTR was a life-changing read for me, and the movies were life-changing in their own way: a wonderful surprise after going into them with trepidation and low expectations, a gateway into communities like this, and an affirmation of my Tolkien geekiness. The Hobbit is nothing the same: a much less important book to me, and a sometimes wearying amount of hype leading up to this movie. The Hobbit is a different book, and so the movie from it will never be as important to me as the LOTR book and movies. So, different mindset going in, and something to take into account with each point below.
Thoughts:
Martin Freeman as Bilbo: A wonderful comic actor, did some great work. I still keep seeing him as Martin though, or as Watson. A couple of times, I thought, “Ooh, an Ian Holm mannerism.” Don’t get me wrong, I think his performance was good. I’m just going to have to see him as Bilbo as many times as I’ve already watched him as Watson in Sherlock before the character becomes separate from the actor. (As a matter of fact, I watched Richenbach Fall again last night, and dreamed about it.)
The framing device seemed unnecessary to me. As much as I loved seeing Elijah as Frodo again, I didn’t need the 10 minutes it took. The Dale and Erebor prologues, however, I liked. A new place and new information, and a chance to tease about the dragon design.
Loved the “Good Morning” sequence. I think my favorite parts are always going to be when something comes directly out of the book. This is what seeing a well-loved book adapted to film means to me. Thus, didn’t love the “Unexpected Party” quite as much. I don’t see the dwarves as having food fights, or performing acrobatics with the plates. Loved the singing, liked Balin; however, everything else there went on about twice as long as needed. I would have liked a something a little more obvious on what made Bilbo change his mind and run out of the door.
The troll sequence was entertaining. Bilbo as “reluctantly brave” starts to come out well, and it sets up his cleverness. Liked Bilbo not really wanting a sword. Could have done without the troll snot. Just as with the dwarves throwing food, it seemed like a 10 year old boy’s joke.
Don’t like Azog. He looks fake. Don’t like that they subtitle his speech - in the LOTR movies, the orcs speak English, even amongst themselves, and nobody ever complained. Don’t like the addition to the plot - more on that below. Having the dwarves as little dots running endlessly through grassland chased by other black dots in wide shots got really boring really fast. Having Radagast be totally unable to understand what “leading them away” means was annoying.
Radagast is too silly for me. Saruman calls him a fool, and I agree. Gandalf doesn’t, but he doesn’t really defend him either, and the whole thing makes me squirm. I really hated the drug implications: you can mellow him out on a puff of weed, and addle him with mushrooms. The Istari are powerful beings and deserve a little more respect. The bunny sled is an example. Radagast could have befriended any creature, so the fact that bunnies pull his sled is only a gag.
Loved seeing Rivendell again. It’s very clear Bilbo is enchanted by the place and wants to stay. The lighter, more sympathetic Elrond is a joy to behold. I never liked Elrond in the LOTR movies. I always attributed it to Weaving’s performance, but perhaps it was the lines like “Men are Weak” that were the real problem. This Elrond I can see being described as “kind a summer.” Other than Aragorn’s relationship with Arwen, it’s hard to understand what will make him so bitter over the next 60 years. He’s perfectly willing to help the dwarves here, but later on he’s going to deride them for holing up in the kingdom he’s now helping them regain (and I'm sure he knows that is what he is doing).
If the scene with Galadriel and Saruman is the White Council, I generally liked it, but I thought more of the wise would be there? Nothing was decided, and at some point they will decide to go to Dol Guilder, so maybe more is to come? It does set up a dynamic between Saruman and Galadriel, but I thought it moved a little slow. Galadriel even paces slowly. Perhaps all councils are like that.
The battle of the stone giants was cool, but again twice as long as it needed to be. This is my least favorite type of scene. I am far more character-driven than action-driven, and would rather watch any other emotion being played out than frozen terror.
For example, I thought Bilbo's scene with Bofur in the cave was wonderful. For the first time I felt connected with one of the dwarves. Perfectly placed to examine how Bilbo feels about himself at this stage in his development, how Thorin sees him, how the dwarves are beginning to see him. Deciding to leave now contrasts nicely with his later explanation of why he decides to stay.
Goblin Town: ugh. Way, way, way too long, too frantic, too gimmicky. As above, my least favorite type of scene. The little orc scribe in the hanging basket was just the type of gimmick Lucas would have put in a Star Wars prequel. There was nothing believable about all 13 dwarves plus Gandalf being able to survive and escape, all together, from 10,000 goblins. (And don't tell me "It's a fantasy, it's not supposed to be believable." When it becomes too in-credible, I'm pulled right out of the experience.) Having the dead body of the Great Goblin fall on them at the end was straight out of a Road Runner cartoon. The Great Goblin looked fake, it all looked computer generated and several times I found myself thinking, “yep, they shot it that way for the 3D.” But once you put the dwarves in that environment, you are locked into a stupendous production to get them out: no way for Gandalf to just kill the great goblin with a flash and everyone to just escape in the darkness.
In contrast, "Riddles in the Dark" was masterful. I liked seeing how the Ring was lost, showing what is implied in the book, that Gollum lost it while squeezing a nasty squeaker. The interaction between Bilbo and Gollum was exquisite. It wasn’t until after that I realized a number of riddles had been omitted, and rightly so. Doing them all would have made the scene too long. Bilbo’s expression as he watches Gandalf and the dwarves pass by in front of him, but he can’t get there, is wonderful. His moment of pity, where he looks into Gollum’s eyes and sees such expressive misery, well, I just don’t have any more adjectives to describe how perfect it was, both Freeman and Serkis deserve all the cookies for that scene alone. And that excellence continues as Bilbo overhears Thorin’s derision of him while hidden by the Ring. His growth is palpable, the emotion on his face is so clear, his answer to Thorin perfect.
Then the company is chased yet again by Azog’s orcs. And they spend more time running around. Yawn. I know the scenery is beautiful in New Zealand, but I really hate this plot addition. The goblins from the mountains could have chased them just as well. The only thing good was Bilbo killing his first warg, as a reason to barely make it into the tree, although that wasn’t important since Dori didn’t have to get down and help him. That said, if you accept Azog as Thorin’s personal enemy, then Thorin leaving his tree to meet him is inevitable. Hotheaded, short-sighted, and doomed, but inevitable. Bilbo being the only one of the company to come to his aid is too much of a stretch for me. Bilbo is not an action hero. He uses his cunning, wits, and a slowly growing sense of self as his tools. He uses the Ring to bolster these attributes. It is so much more in character for Bilbo to fumble and not know how to use his sword, than it is for him to go charging the biggest warg. If he's doing this now, how will he be so impressed by killing spiders in Mirkwood that he names his sword? And I don't really think Thorin needs another enemy to make the peril/action sequences/character arc more suspenseful. He's got random baddies like trolls and goblins throughout the story, plus Smaug and a number of armies against him by the end, not to mention he's got to conquer his own personal demons, which are interior. He doesn't need another special villian for this or the next movie.
"I do believe the worst is behind us" made me laugh. They've forgotten they have a live dragon to deal with. Never leave one out of your calculations. The eye opening was a thrilling detail. I loved we have to wait for the reveal of what the rest of him looks like.
I think the movie stands alone well enough. I did get a lot of questions from my group about “was that in the book?” My two cents, without having seen the entire three movie project: I am liking less and less the decision to make three movies out of this. There were tons of places that could have been edited to make a tighter movie, including trimming extraneous added plot, overlong action sequences and some draggy spots. If this had been done in order to create a two-movie package, I think I probably would have liked the resulting movie better.
My overall rating would have to be a 6.5 out of 10: plusses for Middle Earth, Freeman’s performance, McKellen and Serkis, a few good moments for Thorin and the Dwarves. Minuses for pacing, overall length, Radagast, action sequences. I’m definitely going to see it again, to see if it will grow on me, but I didn’t walk out of there with the same giddy excitement as after seeing FOTR for the first time, though I didn't expect to. LOTR remains my first and true love, and nothing PJ does or doesn't do here is going to change that. Again, see expectations above, your mileage may vary.