GUYS. HAY U GAIZ.
I finally got to see The Hobbit tonight! I'm now sleep-deprived and exhausted but I HAVE to write something of a review because, well, that's what I do. However, being the sensitive person that I am I'll save the review for after the break, and if you haven't seen it yet and don't want to be disappointed in any way by 'spoilers' then don't read any further. Please and thank you.
Now, on to the review!
The movie itself starts off with old Bilbo (Ian Holm) doing an epic voice-over of how the dwarves used to be a mighty race, and how they lost their treasure to the dragon Smaug. Lots of material pulled from the Appendices here, just to give some shape to why the dwarves are on their quest and where they've come from. Young Thorin is pretty BA, and we get a few shots of Thranduil the Elven-king of Greenwood (other known as Mirkwood)--riding a stag, no less. He's pretty cool too.
Speaking of a few shots, SMAUG. Holy crapoly, just SMAUG. We never get to see him in his entirety, just to build people up for movie number two, but he's freakin' enormous from the bits that we do get to see. Lots of fire and havoc and wreckage abounds, yay! And it's sad that the dwarves lose their fortress of Erebor and such...but as far as an opening it's pretty epic.
Then the timeline goes back to the 'present', which is the day of Bilbo's birthday party from the beginning of Fellowship of the Ring. Frodo is back (Elijah Wood at 31 is still as blue-eyed and adorable as he was at 18 *pinches his cheek*), and Bilbo narrates a bit from his book with the iconic 'in a hole in the ground there lived a hobbit'. Gah. I had a huge grin on my face the whole time.
The timeline zaps 'back' to 60 years before, when Bilbo was Martin Freeman!
Martin Freeman is spot-on as Bilbo. (I'm trying to pretend that I don't like him just because he also plays John Watson, but I love him in that role so I can't help myself.) He has great facial expressions, is very comfortable-looking and acting, has more than a touch of OCD--he's just wonderful. The opening bit between Bilbo and Gandalf is just wonderful, because it's taken line for line from the book and it pleased my bookish little nerd-self to no end. *happy sigh* And Gandalf scratches the rune into Bilbo's door! I was practically screaming at that point simply because I was hoping beyond hope they'd stick that in. Yee.
The dwarves come on the scene a bit later, trash Bilbo's house, send him into conniption fits...it's great. Much is explained about their quest and their purpose, Thorin expresses his doubts about Bilbo's abilities, and it seems as though he's not going to go with them, blah blah. The bit where he DOES decide to go I wasn't completely happy with--whereas in the book Gandalf has to come and practically boot him out the door, in this he's wandering around Bag End and all of its clean, empty, quietness and suddenly decided on a whim to race out his door. It still works, but not exactly how I imagined it.
Let me try to condense the rest: the Shire is beautiful as usual, I love every bit of it. The troll bit was a little different (i.e. more gross) than I originally imagined. There's a plot thread that has to do with the white orc Azog chasing them all over the place (he's the orc that killed Thorin's father in the prologue) that seemed like it was stuck in there for story-fluffing--I know he comes back for the battle of the five armies in the 3rd movie, but still. It seemed a bit much. Radagast the Brown is...definitely a character. He's got a bunny-sled and eats too many mushrooms, that should just about say it all right there. XD
Rivendell is gorgeous. I like how they went in the back way because Thorin wants nothing to do with the elves at all, and Gandalf has to trick him to go there at all. Then there's the White Council, with Saruman, Galadriel, Elrond, and Gandalf all talking together about what they're going to do about the rising evils. Whereas Galadriel always seemed to me to be this simple (yet stunningly beautiful) elf-woman in the books (and Fellowship), she's very touched-up here and...a bit contrived, for lack of a better word. She seemed so regal and simple in Fellowship, but here's she's so overly gorgeous. I dunno.
There's a bit in the books when they're crossing the Misty Mountains that describes a 'thunder-battle' with stone giants, so of course there's a huge sequence with them. It was BIG, man.
Goblin-town is very...ah...big. Whenever I read the book I think 'caves' and 'tunnels' and things like that, not huge networks of spindly bridges spanning caverns. Aesthetics, I suppose. And then there was the goblin king. Good Lord. I have no words, except that he was definitely a weak point in the entire film. The voice wasn't anything like the other goblins, he had this massive goiter thing on his throat that was just weird, and he didn't sound/act anything like any of the goblins I've ever seen in any of the films. Neh.
Riddles in the Dark was spot. on. Andy Serkis as Gollum was fantastic--he seemed even more unstable, more capricious than ever before. The shifts between Gollum and Smeagol were flawless, and I have to say that his look has improved, digitally speaking. And the dialogue was hilarious. Gah. But when he says 'what has it got in its pocketses?' I can see the pity that one has to feel towards him. (Plus I would have definitely run away in a heartbeat if that face was after me. O.o) There's a bit where Bilbo is invisible, and he can strike Gollum down in order to get past him and out of the goblin caves. But he pauses, and you see Gollum's face looking all desperate and pitiful. But I think the moment when Gollum loses his 'precious' and is searching for it is infinitely more desperate and pitiful than when he's looking around afterwards. But that's just me.
Out of the fire and into the frying pan! The dwarves, Gandalf, and Bilbo all run up the trees and are trying to get away from the wargs and Azog's orcs. Thorin tries to fight Azog, gets terribly beat up in the ensuing fight, Bilbo tries to rescue him, it's tough straights, and then the eagles come to rescue them. Gandalf 'summons' them with a moth, the same way he did in Fellowship, and while it's not something that was mentioned in the books it works to tie the movies together. The movie ends right after they get rescued by the eagles and they're looking off into the distance at the Lonely Mountain. At this point we get a glimpse of the dwarven treasure, and we get to see Smaug's eye open from his slumber. I would just like to say right now that he's got gorgeous dragon eyes, and I can't WAIT to hear Benedict Cumberbatch voice him for next year's part. Gah.
Overall, I loved it. It certainly felt like an extended version, though--there were several scenes of exposition that made me want to skip forward a little bit to the actual storyline. The only part I didn't like was how Bilbo seemed like a secondary character to Thorin after a while. There would be a good 20 minutes without a line from Bilbo, but lots and lots of backstory about the dwarves and such. I know that that's an important part...but I missed seeing Bilbo. The scenes that he did dominate were superb, of course. I love his facial expressions and hobbit-ness.
With that, I shall go to bed. It's almost 12:30 and I'm very tired. But I loved the movie as a whole and I'm looking forward to seeing it several more times throughout the next few weeks.
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