(No spoilers!) Holy moly...I just got finished watching The Hobbit and it was fantastic! I immediately wanted to go rewatch it.
I'm going to be honest and say that when Jackson decided to extend The Hobbit to 3 films, I was worried. Not so much turning one small book into three films with all the extras, but more the length of each film (he's said that this one is the SHORTEST of the 3 and it's 2 hours and 49 minutes). He did a fantastic job with LotR and I wasn't worried about returning to Middle Earth or how it would look. I was worried he'd fall into the King Kong trap or the "they're so successful, they get free reign to do whatever they want and they make things overly long because of it" scenario (was not going to put dashes in between all those words!). I'm talking of the overly long King Kong. Sure, King Kong was a good film and well done, but Jackson was obviously given free reign to do whatever he wanted and didn't edit himself well enough. Stephenie Meyer was given similar reign during the later books in Twilight and you can tell the editing wasn't as tight. You can even make an argument for Harry Potter (what saved it is Rowling's writing gets better, whereas Meyer's kind of falls apart - personal opinion of course). I was worried The Hobbit would fall into the same thing...Good movie + poor editing = disappointment.
Well, I guess I shouldn't have doubted because I think the film was fantastic. It was so good, in fact, the last 15 minutes I kept worrying that the film was almost over. I could NOT tell at all that I had already been sitting there for 2.5 hours and the film was almost finished. I kept mentally trying to figure out if we were close to the end and every extra minute that went by I kept hoping I still had another hour. It was so good, I could have sat there for another 1-2 hours without worrying I had been there too long.
You fell back into Middle Earth like it was your favorite pair of jeans. It was comforting how they started the film (they tied it back to LotR really well) and it was really nice to see the old actors from LotR reprise their roles in The Hobbit. After rewatching the extended version of LotR the past 3 days, I thought I was being silly given the fact The Hobbit is sort of the prequel to LotR and why would you start with the end first? Turns out, it was a fantastic idea because of the way they started the film and it also got you back into the world. Things changed, but they kept the continuity really well considering it's been 11 years since Fellowship came out.
I adored the dwarves; I enjoyed the scenery; I enjoyed the soundtrack (that dwarf theme is amazing and I love it - good thing since it's reprised an awful lot through the film); I enjoyed the acting; I loved the make-up; etc, etc. The CG had its better moments than others. Rewatching LotR, you can see how CG has come along in 11 years. It still holds up well, but it wasn't *as* revolutionary as it was back then. With that said, the CG didn't really bother me at any point in The Hobbit, but I'm definitely more aware of it than when Fellowship came out so you notice it a little more. It was still excellent and many moments where you just can't tell. Gollum was, once again, phenomenal. Andy Serkis does a great job as him and the CG for him is great too.
This film, I will say, doesn't really have a "conclusion" to it. Sometimes (like in Harry Potter being split) you can get some sort of mini-story arch going through the various parts of a film when they're split up, but this one did not do that at all. It pretty much left you hanging. Left you hanging in a moment where you can catch your breath, but there really was no mini-story arch. Makes sense given it's just one book, but you do wonder sometimes if they'll force an arch and I don't think they did. Maybe it's part of the reason I wanted to sit longer, but I've sat through enough films where I wanted the pain to stop so I'm doubting it had anything to do with the lack of conclusion.
I did watch it in 2D. It was a conscious decision given the 3D is in high frame rate (HFR) and I'm hearing iffy things about the HFR. Sure, it's more frames per second, but that also means your eyes are processing more. My friend saw it in 3D and thought the 3D was amazing, but the HFR did make it feel like the movie was, at times, in fast forward mode and he never quite adjusted to the HFR. I'm sometimes prone to motion sickness in first person shooter (FPS) games so I wanted to watch The Hobbit, at least once, in 2D. I'd like to try and see it in 3D because I think it's a worthy film to watch in 3D (my last 3D film was 1.5-2 years ago?), but the HFR does concern me a little. I want to enjoy the film and not feel sick through it! At this rate, I'm not sure if I'll ever see it in 3D, but maybe. We'll see. I thought the 2D was just enjoyable as it was. I didn't feel the need to have to see it in 3D, but I also didn't see it in 3D. So...who knows.
I really have little to criticize the film about. Perhaps when I see it a second time I'll see some things that bother me, but my first impression of it was great and I want to see it again. I paid matinee for this first time and I'd be willing to pay evening price for it to see it again. It was truly that spectacular in my mind. I was gripped from the beginning to the end and now I need to hunt down the soundtrack (I own all 3 LotR soundtracks). It's going to be a very long year to wait for part 2 and an even longer 2 years before part 3. I'm now going to have to figure out which I liked better this year: The Avengers or The Hobbit. After today, Hobbit might be winning, but we'll see how I feel after another rewatch and I guarantee there WILL be another theater rewatch!
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