Definitely An Unexpected Journey

So after a couple days of digesting a movie a ginormous as The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey, I now feel confident enough to to justly review the movie.

Peter Jackson's retelling of the J.R.R. Tolkien's The Hobbit was definitely unexpected. Let's start with the good. The cinematography was absolutely gorgeous. Even in the regular frame rate, the picture was stunningly clear. The saturation was also a plus. It was a very pretty film to watch. Secondly, I love Martin Freeman. He IS Bilbo Baggins, right down to the core. His portrayal of the hobbit was just perfect. I truly believed he was Bilbo. The cast in general was just full of superb acting, though that's what you get when you stock your cast full of actors from the BBC. Ian McKellen was excellent as Gandalf as always. The dwarves were led by the talented Richard Armitage who played Thorin. The cast also included James Nesbitt as Bofur, Aidan Turner as Kili, and Stephen Hunter as Bombur.

So the acting was very good and the film was visually very appealing. The most crucial part of any film is the story. The story was not bad. It definitely felt like Tolkien since there was a lot of attention to detail but there were some elements that I just did not like. I appreciated the way Jackson opened up with Old Bilbo narrating the story and eventually revealing the story is being told to Frodo. I did not like Frodo's cameo. It felt very forced and like it was only there to appeal to the members in the audience who loved Frodo in The Lord of the Rings. I understood he was trying to reveal that Bilbo was writing his story on the day of his 111th birthday, the same day he leaves and Frodo's adventure begins, but something about it just did not feel right.

I also was not a fan of the Pale Orc having a bigger story arc in the movie then he did in the book. It seemed as though Jackson was trying to create more action and tension than there was in the first part of The Hobbit because he wanted it to be more action-y. This, took away from the feeling of a true Lord of the Rings feel. There did not seem to be as large of an emphasis on plot because when there was actual plot it moved very quickly. However, I did love that Jackson decided to expand Radagast's (Slyvester McCoy) story farther than what we read in the book. His storyline helped really enhance the plot and it was interesting to see another wizard beside Gandalf and Saruman, especially another good wizard.

The film was good but not great and thinking about it, I would say it is like The Two Towers for me considering that movie is really good but it is not my favorite (or I think) the best out of the trilogy. 

The Journey Begins

Tonight I am going to the midnight premiere of The Hobbit and I honestly couldn't be more excited. I love The Lord of the Rings; I own all of the extended editions and watch all of them at least twice a year. So needless to say I am a huge fan of the movies and the series.

I know there has been a lot of controversy surrounding the film about Jackson deciding to film the movie at 48 fps when the standard is 24 fps but honestly, this is because we are not used to a frame rate that high and it seems to be more popular with people my age. Regardless, I highly doubt it will stop me from loving the film. Jackson is a visionary and no one could translate Tolkien's world into film quite like him. So I have nothing but high expectations and high hope. I am sure I will not be let down.

So I've been kind of a hiatus

 School has been VERY hectic but I'm back now and ready to review more films. I think to dip my feet back into the water I'm going to be reviewing Wreck-It Ralph. Next week I'll be reviewing The Hobbit, but more on that later.

Wreck-It Ralph, which stars John C. Reilly, Jack McBrayer, Jane Lynch, and Sarah Silverman, is a very cute and endearing cartoon about a video game villain (Ralph) who no longer wishes to be bad. Writer and director, Rich Moore was able to find a pleasant balance between entertaining both the children and adults who viewed it. It is not often a children film achieves this. The film is a real treat for those who are old enough to remember 8-bit games since the main character's game is that style.

There were some parts of the movie that I really did not enjoy. Although, the animation was quite impressive and all the actors did phenomenal jobs with their voice work, there were just some parts that felt a bit odd or forced.  There was a brief moment when a cartoon version of Skrillex popped on screen  and I really did not enjoy it. It just seemed bizarre to me for him to appear on screen however I can see that maybe his cameo existed in order to appeal to the older audience members. I was also not a fan of the romance between Jane Lynch's character, Calhoun, and Jack McBrayer's character, Felix. Don't get me wrong, I love Jack McBrayer and Felix was such an adorable character, however the romance just felt wrong and very forced. It seemed as though Disney felt there needed to be a romance because it is a Disney movie. The romance was very underdeveloped, very rushed, and just overall threw off the theme of the film.

The film is one about accepting yourself for who you are and it doesn't matter if you are bad or good, as long as you are comfortable with yourself, that's all that matters. This is a very important and endearing message to send to children. It's time to start telling children it doesn't matter what you look like or who you are and that's good.