The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey

I need to get a few things off my chest, when I first heard about this movie, I was a little excited.  Then, I heard they were going to split the book into three movies and I got a little annoyed.  I also started seeing how so many of the actors from LOTR were coming back and that bothered me as well.  It all seemed like the studio wanted to make another billion dollars and they would add as much stuff into this film as needed.

That being said, I still wanted to see this trilogy.  I went in with moderate expectations.  Peter Jackson did not let me down, but there plenty of things that bothered me.  Some of the additions were quite welcome and some of them were stupid.  And because I am lazy, you get my thoughts in bullet point form!

-Ugh, the beginning was…slow.  Seriously, stop with the damn party already.  I was uninterested in Bilbo’s party when I read LOTR and I am equally uninterested now.  This opening would have been better with an old Bilbo doing a voiceover and seeing him writing his story.  Then begin with Bilbo being visited by Gandalf.

-This movie was directed by Peter Jackson and it felt like the other LOTR movies (obviously).  This is a good thing, if that day ever comes when I sit at home and watch all six movies, I want it to be seamless.  So glad they did not use a different director, or different actor for Gandalf…

-It was definitely great to see Gollum again and Andy Serkis was amazing as usual.  Hell, Martin Freeman was great as Bilbo, and their battle of riddles was quite fantastic.

-Azog the Defiler…I realize this character was not in the book, but he was a great addition.  A giant orc who killed Thorin’s grandfather outside of Moria, when the dwarves tried to take that place over.  Azog was menacing and bad-ass enough to give the chases scenes a little more power.

-What the hell was the point of having the stupid council meeting?  Was it really just to bring back Saruman and Galadriel?  I feel like they just wanted to make a little mention of things that happened in LOTR.

-It was also awesome that they never gave a shot of Smaug, which made his awakening at the end so cool.  Definitely cannot wait to see them battle against a dragon.

Those were just some of my thoughts on the film.  I enjoyed it, and it made me want to reread The Hobbit.