I remember listening to the 1968 BBC radio recording cassette tape when I was younger, yes I lived in a time where we listened to tapes not CDs. It was my favourite story tape, we, my sister and I listened to it so much that we wore it out! When The Lord of the Rings came out I was excited by disappointed that The Hobbit wasn't made first. I thought the same with The Chronicles of Narnia, why do they never make The Magicians Nephew? Its' the best one, after The Voyage of the Dawn Tredder of course. Anyway, after I saw the first LOTR film, I was hooked, obsessed with it. It was difficult to find people who loved it as much as me, especially as I went to an all girl's secondary school. They all read Heat magazine and I read Empire. But still, I couldn't get enough of Middle Earth adventures.
When The Hobbit was finally announced I wasn't sure if I was excited as it a part of my childhood. But they made Tintin and I loved that, they kind of ruined Narnia but I still have my BBC TV series so that's ok and The Great Gatsby looks amazing (ok that wasn't childhood but it's my favourite novel). In short I saw The Hobbit and LOVED IT!
Lord of the Rings fan, Tolkien fans, Middle Earth enthusiasts have been waiting since 2003 for The Hobbit to be made and at long last, its here. First off, the film is amazing BUT I do actually have a couple of qualms with it.
It's just like how we all remember Middle Earth where we left off in LOTR, except this time its not all about Elves, Men and Hobbits, its about Dwaves, who, let's face it were the most under used race in the first trilogy, but in this story, the first story, they are the main focus and it's hilarious. I think the fact that there are so many of them in one room/scenes together its amusing. The dwarves make the film and also distract from that one scene that I hated. It should have been cut out as it felt like a LOTR reunion. If you see the film, you'll know the one I mean, it features two characters that don't even feature in the book (The Hobbit that is).
All the Dwarves, Dwalin, Balin, Kili, Fili, Nori, Dori, Ori, Gloin, Oin, Bifur, Bofur, Bombur and Thorin Oakenshield are amazing, each has an obvious personality and each has their time on screen, except Bombur who doesn't speak in this film, just eats. Of course my favourite is Kili and Fili and I think the camera's favourite as they are the most seen on screen. Thorin (Richard Armitage) is perfect as the sullen, warrior determined to reclaim his kingdom from Smaug (who you don't see until the end) the Destroyer, the dragon. I should mention Martin Freeman who is great as Bilbo. After seeing his performance as one of my childhood character favourites, he really is the only person I can think of for the role.
My other qualm I can't go into the detail as it may spoil the film, but it involves a severely minor character and strange subplot that wasn't necessary, the film is a master peice without it. But I have a feeling its in there to pad out the films. By the way, whoever was getting excited anout there being three films, this included me at first, I have no idea what the hell is going to happen in the third one, as the end of the first is half way through the story anyway. There are glimpses of characters to come throughout the film, which was exciting and there is even a poster of Gandalf talking to a giant bear, that is the next film though, a fantastic character too.
The film is lighter, as it should be, than LOTR. This was afterall meant to be a children's story.
Anyone who tries to bait me and say 'the film was too long, it was rubbish' don't say it on here or anything associated with me or I will bite back and get angry. If you have a valid argument, have with me in person, that's much more cilvilised.
An amazing film, now its only another year to wait for the next installment.