An Unexpected Journey was, in a word, beautiful. The acting, the score, the cinematography was all very well done in my opinion. They never made a better casting decision than when they chose Martin Freeman as Bilbo. He becomes our dear hobbit in every way. At no point during the film did I think of Martin Freeman the actor, or John Watson from Sherlock (the only other role I've ever seen Freeman in). No, he was Bilbo Baggins to a T, and very believably a younger version of the Bilbo in The Lord of the Rings. The rest of the cast was stellar as well, I have no complaints with any of them.
The music... the music was breathtaking. There were hints and echos of The Lord of the Rings, but only just enough to connect the two. The score of The Hobbit was decidedly it's own, and full of new and wonderful themes. My favorite is The Misty Mountains theme. I loved that song in the book, I came up with my own melody for it, and I was so excited to hear Howard Shores vision for it, and to hear it incorporated into the rest of the soundtrack.
And the most important part.... the story. I've heard that some reviewers are saying that the film was too bloated and drawn out and Jackson shouldn't and didn't need to make it into three movies. I disagree with that. The filmmakers aren't just telling you the story of The Hobbit, they are continuing to tell us the story of Middle Earth. At no point did I feel that Jackson was dragging anything out and putting in fluffy filler. It was the story of The Hobbit, and it was everything that went on in the background that we didn't get to see on the pages of the book. For a film, it stayed wonderfully close to the book and many of my favorite lines were written in, nearly word for word.
In conclusion, I am very, very happy with how The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey turned out. It was all that I had hoped it to be, and I have a feeling I'll be returning to the theaters at least one more time, if not more...
I agree with you that Martin Freeman as Bilbo is brilliant--and I would also add Andy Serkis as Gollum and Richard Armitage as Thorin. It was nice to come home to Middle-earth after a decade and see the Shire and Rivendell again--and hear hints of the old scores!
ReplyDeleteI have to disagree, though, that everything Jackson added is in the books. Azog should have been killed in Moria by Dain and there is no reason for him to be tracking a single Dwarf all across Middle-earth. It works for an action movie, but the inclusion suggests that there was not enough action in the book already--a funny implication for a book that gets so much criticism for being episodic!
Even so, I really enjoyed the film and will probably see it again while it's still in theatres.
And I'm wondering: did you see it in 3D? If so, was it worth it?