I went to see The Hobbit this past week with my family.
I have been a fan of The Hobbit, as well as The Lord of the Rings Trilogy since I first stumbled across those dusty paperbacks in 1983 at a used book store in Blacksburg, Virginia. They looked like a fantastic escape from the drudgery of my coursework. And they were. I was immediately swept into the land of Middle Earth, and spent the entire weekend reading the books. Unfortunately, I missed out on some homework I should have been doing instead. BUT, a lifetime love of Fantasy Fiction and especially of Middle Earth was born.
I went in to see The Hobbit with mixed emotions. I wasn't sure how I felt about Tolkien's beloved work being broken into three distinct movies, in three distinct sections. The Hobbit is not as dark of a book as the Lord of the Rings. It was written as a children's novel, and I wasn't sure how well the story could be pulled off in three parts.
While the movie is not absolutely true to the book, it does keep within the guidelines of the book. The movie breaks at the point where the Eagles rescue the company from the goblins on the slopes of the Misty Mountains.
I did enjoy how the history from the other Tolkien Books- from The Simarillion to the Appendices of all 4 of the Hobbit based books is weaved into the story. I enjoyed the foreshadowing. I loved the singing of the Dwarves as they met together in Bilbo's house. It was an enjoyable romp.
I was fortunate to see the movie in 3D, and I'm glad that I did. The movie took on an ethereal, other world quality with the 3D graphics that I'm not certain would have carried over into a 2D screening. There were several parts of the movie that looked as if they had been specifically orchestrated for the 3D film.
One word of advice, though. If you have a child/friend/significant other who yells at the screen when the movie veers away from the book, or when the movie doesn't follow the text in the book exactly, you will want to make certain you see this movie in an off time. (I only say this because my 20 year old son had conniption fits over the scene in the Misty Mountains with the Goblins.)
All in all, excellent movie!
