The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey (2012)

Now I havent read the Hobbit but from what I understand its a short single book. Quite why Peter Jackson has decided to turn it into three films is a mystery. I understand why he did it with the Lord of the Rings because each book has a lot in it but The Hobbit? Anyway the film is one that I have been slowly waiting for a while. The story sees Bilbo Baggins go on a journey with Dwarves to the Lonely Mountain.

Martin Freeman plays Bilbo Baggins and if I’m honest then I must say that I am not a fan of Freeman’s as I just don’t think he is a strong actor. However saying that I don’t think he did that bad in this. However Ian McKellen does steal the limelight a lot but that’s just because he is Ian McKellen. For me the most interesting piece of casting is that of Sylvester McCoy as I am a Doctor Who fan and was just waiting for him to be on screen and I cant tell you how happy I was that it wasn’t just a cameo role but quite a significant one. Other interesting pieces of casting was James Nesbitt as Bofur and Richard Armitage as Thorin. But it was Andy Serkis as Gollum that I think everyone was looking forward to seeing. He was quite comical in this film but there weren’t glimpses of the LOTR version which is when I think the film was at its best. Serkis is fantastic because he manages to produce an incredible performance everytime and even 10 years after The Two Towers was released it is impressive how the character can still make people marvel at him.
 
I liked how the film tries to set things up for the Lord of the Rings films there was a scene where a sword from Mordor appears in front of Saruman and he has a look of someone who was being turned. There are also nice appearances of Hugo Weaving as Elrond and Cate Blanchett as Galadriel. Also I liked the scene where there are the rock creatures and they are throwing rocks at each other. It was the first time since I saw the wall blow up in The Two Towers that I went ‘wow’. It was an impressive scene and shows that Peter Jackson can direct impressive set pieces.

I rather enjoyed The Hobbit, I don’t think you can compare this to the Lord of the Rings trilogy because this is aimed at a slightly younger audience. I thought that they managed to pad the story out well enough but I wonder just what they are going to do in the next two films. The plot for this film was good and the whole thing felt like a slightly less grown up version of the LOTR films.

 

The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring (2001)

It’s hard to believe that its been 11 years since Fellowship of the Ring was released. When I went to see this at the cinemas, I was like a good chunk of the audience that had never read the books. So I wasn’t one of those that would be able to see what they had missed out. This is the extended edition with plenty of stuff added in. The original film was always good but what’s great about an extended edition is that it can pad things out a bit and despite not really adding anything new to the overall story its always good to have these bits instead of being in the deleted scenes part of the DVD.

The story itself is one that doesn’t really have much of a key scene such as Two Towers, but what it does have is the time to show us each character and what purpose they play. Elijah Wood is ok as Frodo but every other face he pulls is like he’s just pooped in his pants. Sean Astin is quite good as Sam but the bromance is what gets in the way. Billy Boyd & Dominic Monaghan are a good double act and have some funny scenes together, especially at Bilbo’s birthday party. Orlando Bloom is just plain annoying, Viggo Mortensen puts in his best performance of the trilogy in this one. But it is Ian McKellen who steals the film. Everytime he was on the screen I was loving the film and just wished that he would be in it more. When I first saw his ‘death’ I was gutted thinking that it was the last we would see of him.

The Fellowship is a really solid film that sets the trilogy up nicely. Its quite easy to make fun of the bromance that happens between Frodo and Sam but it doesn’t detract from what is otherwise a fine film. At 178 minutes it doesn’t rush itself at any point and that’s good. The actors range from ok to fantastic but it is such an ensemble film that you could get away with a mediocre performance because there wouldn’t be time to notice.