Film Review | The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey

For me personally 'The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey' was the most anticipated film of 2012. I am a massive fan of the Lord of the Rings Trilogy (Books & Films) and having re read 'The Hobbit' for the millionth time during the summer of 2012 it is needless to say that I was very excited for it. And the first thing I should say is that I was definitely not disappointed and would also go as far to say that it is the best film I saw last year (closely followed by 'The Avengers' & 'The Dark Knight rises'.)  So as I enjoyed it so much I thought that I would share my thoughts with you and review it.

*I have tried not to include too many spoilers but if you still haven't seen the film I would recommend seeing it before reading this post.*

First of all I want to start with the actors & the characters, and where better to start than with the Hobbit himself, Mr Bilbo Baggins. I think that Martin Freeman's portrayal of Bilbo Baggins was absolutely spot on and that he was indeed the perfect choice for the role. When I first found out that he had been cast as the role, I won't lie I was speculative but he definitely won me over. He added wonderful comedic moments and portrayed the part  of the hobbit from the books very well. I also think that his and Sir Ian Holm's (who played Bilbo in the lord of the rings films) portrayals had strong parallels and you could see the likeness of character between the two which definitely helped in making the audience believe that they were different portrayals of the same character. I think that the fact that Martin Freeman was able to offer those similarities helped to make it more believable and enjoyable.

Sir Ian Mckellan's portrayal of Gandalf is one that I will always enjoy, I think he really brings the written character to life. He offers a sense of wisdom to the film and even though he is much older than he was in the Lord of the Rings he managed to portray a younger Gandalf very well. I remain to believe that Gandalf is one of my favorite characters, largely because of Mckellen's portrayal he offers comedy, emotion, wisdom, likability and even though he is portraying a wizard I feel that he makes the character a well rounded and believable character. Plus Gandalf is seen to show his power more in this film in my opinion and who doesn't love abit of fire controlling and eagle conjuring?

The Dwarves make this film so great, I won't go into detail about all of them as otherwise we would be here all day. As a company they offer so much to the film: comedy, a sense of adventure, they bring out the best in Bilbo, and they make a wonderful choir ;) (they sing in the film in case you weren't aware.) I think each of the actors managed to make their particular character stand out and made them all very unique and enjoyable in their own way. I think another major clap of the hands needs to go to the hair/makeup/prosthetic's and costume people as they all looked so awesome and dwarf like and it also looked so realistic.

I really liked the beginning of the film in which older Bilbo & Frodo (Elijah Wood) return to in away introduce it. I really liked that as it brought all the films round into a loop and it was so nice to see the two characters together after so long. (I won't lie I got abit teary eyed.) Even though it obviously wasn't in the book, I really liked that they added it in as it was a nice way to link it all together and probably made overly obsessive fans like me really happy.

The only thing about the film that I actually didn't like is that near the beginning I felt it dragged a little, I still really enjoyed it but I felt that it kind of took a while to get going, but saying that I felt that it stuck to the story really well and I suppose in order to make the most out of the introduction bits that they had to drag it out abit.

I think it would be a crime to end this review without talking about the gorgeous scenery. The scenery was one of my favorite things about Lord of the Rings and now I feel the same about The Hobbit, the views are absolutely breathtaking and has made me want to go to New Zealand even more now (thanks for that Peter Jackson.) While I'm on the subject of Peter Jackson I really have only five words to say: Peter Jackson I salute you! Another amazingly directed film he really has such a wonderful talent and when it comes these films you can see how passionate he is about it in the film and it pays off so well. Another amazing film.

So overall I absolutely loved it and couldn't find a fault even if I wanted to. I can't wait for it to come out on DVD and would very much like December of this year to hurry up as I am so excited about the second part.

Thanks for reading my thoughts on the film, sorry that its slightly biased towards the positives but in my personal opinion it was amazing and I'm just saying what I think. If you haven't seen the film (although I doubt you'd still be reading after the warning) I would definitely 100% recommend it! It is absolutely incredible.

(This is an overall review I am tempted to do a second slightly more in depth review after I have seen it again. Would this be something you would be interested in?)

Have you seen the film? Did you enjoy it? If you have read the book how did you think it compared?

Speak Soon
Charlotte x