'The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey' is an amazing movie to say the least. Peter Jackson has yet again pulled off an excellent film that every Tolkien fan should see, and maybe even the ones that aren't fans...yet. He stays very close to the book 'The Hobbit' and crafts it into a cinematic masterpiece. Just as J.R.R. Tolkien masterfully crafted his book.
I love how the movie starts, right where 'The Lord of the Rings' begins. As we see Bilbo Baggins 60 years earlier, he is just as Tolkien saw him. A happy hobbit, contented with just the way things were. When his journey begins, with his unexpected party, we are sucked into the world of Middle-Earth. The husky dwarves come barreling in (they will be "barreling" in other movies to come as well) ready for their meeting with their burglar. All of the dwarves played their parts so well, its hard to see them as human. Each cast member really embraced their character fully. A highlight of the unexpected party were the dwarvish songs. Thoroughly enjoyable. As the movie continues, we are drawn further into the world of hobbits, dwarves, and wizards. Each scene is breath taking as it shows the majestic New Zealand country side.
Every detail of the movie cannot be written in merely 5000 characters, but I will continue on with my personal highlights of the movie.
Once again, Howard Shore does an amazing job with the music score, and I enjoyed how it tied in with 'The Lord of the Rings' sound track.
My favorite scene of the movie was "Riddles in the Dark". Andy Serkis is the perfect match for the part of Gollum. I couldn't imagine it any other way. The two faced little creature has always been a favorite of mine, even though it has been a love/hate relationship the whole time. His cave is dark, wet and gloomy, and yet it is beautiful in a eery kind of way. It seemed to have been luminescent, perhaps with the sheer evil of the ring.
Another favorite was Rivendale and the White Council. It was kind of hard to watch knowing the intentions of Sauroman, but with that said, everything was to love about each member, and the beauty of it all.
As the movie came to a close, with all the battle scenes, evil creatures, dwarves, wizards, and hobbits swirling in my mind, I was completely awe struck. Ending with the ever so clever teaser to the next movie, just as Smaug opened his golden eye, I leaned back in my chair and sighed a sigh of contentedness.
To some it all up, I end with this: "In a hole in the ground there lived a hobbit."

Review Home • Submit a Review