Film Review: The Hobbit (2012)

Hobbit Review!

There is a lot to cover so I'm not going to beat around the bush: this was a great movie, it was a ton of fun to watch and very well done, I enjoyed it immensely. Get it. Got it? Good. Also, there will be talk of 3D and the 48 FPS. Oh, and midnight showings are the best showings.

Acting: The acting was great. Bilbo is sufficiently Baggins-y in the first act and ends up much more Took-ish by the last, which is great. All the dwarves were just a lot of fun to watch, whether they were fighting or singing or making physical body-humor type gags they were all very interesting. You might now remember which one is which, but they work great as an ensemble cast and it’ll be great to see Bilbo work his way into that ensemble more in the next two films. Ian McKellen did a great job, as always, with Gandalf - especially since The Hobbit Gandalf is much younger than the Lord of the Rings Gandalf. Here, he is much more surly and spry to fit the role. Oh, and Radagast is probably my favorite character in the whole thing.

Music: A good deal of the soundtrack was reused from the LOTR trilogy and I'm sure I don't have to mention how good that soundtrack is. There are many scenes that play on the audiences' knowledge of the LOTR and certain tracks rise and fall in a way that reflects LOTR. We have a strong connection to that music already - we have scenes in our mind about what certain tracks mean - and it helps link the collective lore of Middle Earth together. I'll never forget the moments of revelation for Bilbo or the LOTR hobbits when the Shire theme swells up and reminds us of the peaceful homely hobbit holes that they all left in favor of hard adventure. My only real criticism is the singing: the book has a ton of music and song as a part of the charm, but it always felt out of place to me. They aren't musical numbers, but characters are still breaking out into song and it is just strange to have in a film. In a book, it makes sense as a storytelling device; in a film, you have other story devices to use. The singing just felt a bit forced to me the whole way through.

Direction and Cinematography: There was just so much cool stuff going on here and I can't do it justice on paper, but here goes. If you are familiar with LOTR, then you think you know exactly what to expect…well, for the most part you'd be right. Most of the techniques are the same or similar, all part of the overall style of the collective Middle Earth universe. Many scenes are shot in a way to reference the other films and build continuity. For example, Bilbo and Frodo have mirrored scenes when it comes to the ring. However, there are some key scenes that I thought stood out. Minor spoilers if you haven't read the book. The game of riddles in Gollum's cave is beautifully shot and edited with a great sense of timing. The mood and tone swings rapidly between cheerfully morbid and eerily threatening (partly due to the actors, but the scene all around as well) because the camera suddenly changes attitude to fit the feel. Also, the escape from the Goblin King was one of my favorite sequences in recent years. The whole escape was shot at a breakneck pace with Gandalf and the Dwarves sprinting through the vast and cavernous underground city fighting goblins the whole way. They vault across bridges and use some fabulous improvised weapons (a ladder, a tree, a giant boulder) and many parts of the sequence are shot to appear like a 2D side scrolling video game. Depth is tactfully removed to show the party sprinting in single file down passageways in a way that is reminiscent of Indiana Jones mine-cart scenes. Actually, there was whole lot of Indiana Jones references going on the whole time they were underground. It was beautiful. It was just such a treat to see a demonstration of the range of skill and technique that could be employed to make the sequence work and visually make sense in a fresh way; the sudden 2D shots amidst a rich 3D environment was just too cool.

Effects and Locations: Special effects were great as always. At this point Peter Jackson has a firm grasp of knowing what things should be CGI and what things should be real life effects. Some directors don't know and the effects look terrible as a result (cough, Phantom Menace, cough). Here, it all looks great. Additionally, the combination of real landscapes and CGI additions to the landscapes was flawless. I happen to know where certain things were fabricated because, well, I was there. Living a semester in New Zealand and getting to know the landscape gives me some special insight about the locations and I'll just say: Any time the landscape was fabricated (which was rare) it is almost impossible to tell. There may have been one or two times in the theater I struggled not to yell out: “GUYS, I’VE BEEN THERE!”

3D: I saw this film in 3D and it was great. The 3D was not used for terrify-the-audience-with-things-flying-at-them gimmicks, rather the 3D was all about giving the film a fantastic sense of depth. When you have huge and beautiful landscapes and enormous caverns and cities, 3D is a great way to experience it all. There was the occasional gimmick - arrows being shot directly at you in 3D, for example - but usually it is used for monumental moments like Bilbo's interactions with the ring. With rare exception, if something is coming at you in 3D it is not to scare you. For some reason though, there was a need to have Bilbo’s buttons popp off at us in 3D during his escape scene. But, whatever. Also, the 3D glasses are SWEET and shaped to imitate the key to the mountain. And they come in a sweet little pouch, which to be honest, could easily be a dice pouch. The Hobbit's PR department knows their audience too well.

48 Frames per Second: This was a hot button topic for a lot of people when it was announced, so let me explain. Our eyes are trained to see screens at 24 frames per second (fps) and film has always been at 23.97fps. It is what we're used to and what looks best to our eyes. 48fps, double that, is uncanny. We are not used to seeing humans move on a screen at 48fps. Sure, most video games these days play at 60fps so it isn't too far fetched, but those are animated graphics, not real people. Seeing a higher fps on people looks too much like real life for our brains to be comfortable. We simply are not used to it, so many people hate it. I hate it. I cannot stand watching a show in 48fps because, to me, it hits the Uncanny Valley, where things look so much like real life that it is just unsettling. Our minds want to reject the fact that something mechanical, like a TV, can replicate reality so well. Now, that said, at first this was jarring and entirely unsettling, but after about 15 minutes I got used to it. The thing is: this is a fantasy setting, not a real life setting, so the 48fps does a brilliant job a representing an alternate reality - not my own reality, so it appears less uncanny. There is definitely an adjustment period where you have to get used to it all, but after that it is fine. Just like when the jump-cut was introduced in early cinema, 48fps is just something that is a little jarring to get used to but I wouldn't be surprised if it became the norm.

Plot and Lore: The plot of the film does NOT follow the book exactly. There are some minor lateral changes and a number of things that are added into the plot for the sake of lore. The lore of the dwarves is shown in great detail to give the viewer a greater sense of the overall history of the characters and of Middle Earth. Most of the changes to the plot are fairly minor and are simply contrivances to introduce more lore that was left out in the original text but are within Tolkien's universe. These things mainly revolve around the Necromancer - a villainous character briefly mentioned in the book but plays a large role in world. The changes, as I mentioned, are lateral: everything that is supposed to happen, does. All the main plot points are there, just some things are shifted sideways to make room for those additional lore related events. I am very glad that this will be a trilogy because there really is so much content to show.

Overall: This is a very fun movie and I would highly recommend it. There are a number of fantastic and memorable moments, great action, great physical body humor, and a very strong cast. Sure, there are some contrivances to make reference to the LOTR trilogy, but never in a bad way. You have to remember that this crew and Peter Jackson have the whole LOTR under their belts already. They know how to craft a film and use that huge budget to the best possible effect. Everything is deliberate and well thought out. When you watch this film, you are comforted by the fact that this master storyteller knows exactly what he is doing and you are more than willing to just let yourself enjoy the story.

Favorite moment? In the Goblin City, the dwarves approach a bridge teeming with goblins. Dwalin, at the front, lets out a monosyllabic grunt. SOMEHOW the other dwarves know that this means “Hey guys, lets pick up this tree and use it like a windshield wiper to sweep these goblins off the bridge.” And then, that happens. I just thought it was hysterical that he just barks a non-word, and everyone is just like “Dude, we know exactly that that means we gotta just do the most badass thing we possibly can right now. We got your back. Let’s do this.”

9/10

- Jay