The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey

IMDB
First time viewed: Yes
Current Release: Yes
Watched With: Mum, Naomi, Tyler, Paul, Jess, Jim, Marcus, Aaron

Hard to talk about the film through all the noise made about the high frame rate. Even within our own group it was very divisive. I'm still deciding what I thought about it. I'll have to go see it again first. Some parts I liked though, Some part I didn't as much. I think everyone has the wrong Idea about it though, I would worry less about there being more frames and more that Jackson had to shoot that frame rate with such a large shutter angle so the cut down to 24 looks normal. I think if he was able to shoot at 48 without all that motion blur that makes it look like it's in fast forward at the beginning, it could still look a bit more filmic. Anyway I got used to it after a while, and I thought the 3d blended all the CG creatures in with live action magnificently.

A film of many beginnings. After everything I heard and knowing Jackson's penchant for embellishment I had expected the dwarfs arrival at bad end to go one twice as long as it actually did. And once they were on the road, I was back in middle earth and loving it, could have happily stayed there for another 3 hours. But that's just me, everyone else had a problem with the length.

Yeah, Radagast feels superfluous but I guess they had to introduce their added necromancer plot that pads out the other films somehow. And that's the annoying thing about his film, you get tiny glimpses of everything that's to come but the only closure in film one is a rather forced point of wether or not Thorin believes in Bilbo. Perhaps Fellowship being our introduction to the whole world made it more satisfying but even so I think it had a stronger ending.

The real problem is the stakes in the Hobbit are not nearly as consequential or immediate as Lord of the Rings. Maybe that will change with the Necromancer plot in later films but for now it's just some fun action and some more fantastic world to explore.

Lee Pace! Only in a few shots, but man, that guy's getting around now, jumping from franchise to franchise. And we got more of Flight of the Concords' Bret McKenzie as an elf. Barry Humphries as the goblin king was quite fun too. It's cool the got Christopher Lee in there. Was he shot with the others or on greenscreen and inserted in? I'll have to find out. Same goes for Ian Holm.

They outdid the fellowship shot of Gandalf and Bilbo in the hobbit hole, selling the scale differences. That was always my favourite fx shot where the pass each other the hat and cane. The intro shot in this film is much longer and far more complicated what with all the dwarfs running around. And in 3D. But  it really sells the scale differences. Amazing. I'll watch the film again just to see that shot.