Movie Review: The Hobbit

The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey

Directed by Peter Jackson

Starring Martin Freeman, Ian McKellen, Cate Blanchett

Rating: B+

     While I enjoyed this movie I believe the director and producers made it in order to give some eye candy to fans of the Lord of the Rings franchise. I know the stories are related, but it seems to me that someone who hadn't seen or read The Lord of the Rings would not get some parts of this movie or it would take them longer to catch on. There is character cross over, including Lady Galadriel whose mystical powers are revealed in a much more obvious and transparent way in LOR. The orcs and other evil creatures are the same. However, other characters in this movie are similar, but new. The dwarfs are a source of comic relief at times, especially when Bombur catches a sausage that is thrown his way and the bench he is sitting on folds under his weight. Each dwarf looks different from the next and his his own character traits.The trolls are disgusting creatures that appear a bit dim witted.
     This movie finished much sooner than I was anticipating. I expected more build up to the end and more struggles for the characters throughout. That's why when the movie ended after their seemingly first real struggle I was a little startled. I had to look at my watch to see how long we'd been in there. While there wasn't as much plot complexity as I was expecting the fact that I had to look at my watch is a good sign because it shows the movie was engaging and not boring and I did not feel like I had been sitting in the theater for nearly three hours.
     In addition to this movie being the first in the series of Hobbit movies, it is also trail blazing because it is the first to use HFR (high frame rate). I hadn't heard of such a thing before looking up movie times. Upon further investigation, I found that a standard Hollywood movie is filmed at 24 frames per second. This movie was filmed at 48 frames per second. That in itself is exciting and a reason to go see the movie. I viewed The Hobbit in 3-D, HFR and the picture was clear, vivid, and detailed. I would be interested in seeing a side-by-side comparison of a movie that is HFR and one that is not. While I thought the movie had spectacular resolution I'm not sure if I thought that just because I had not seen this particular movie before. I do not have any complaints on HFR, however there was a lot going on in this movie. The picture was so sharp and with the 3-D there were things flying at me by the minute!