Some of you have seen a version of this on FB

[tree_and_leaf]

As the last Tolkien fan in the world to have seen "The Hobbit 1", I wish to report my impressions, which are:

1. Martin Freeman and Richard Armitage are excellent as Bilbo and Thorin.

2. The dwarves are mostly good and not taken too far in the direction of comic relief, though I was worried in the Bag End scenes before Thorin appeared. Honourable mention to Ken Stott as a very likable Balin.

3. The depiction of Barry Humpries' Great Goblin as a distinctly different kind of orc to Azog was surprisingly effective in resolving/ bridging the differences between The Hobbit's goblins, who owe a heavy debt to George MacDonald, and the darker orcs of Lord of the Rings. I wasn't entirely convinced by the jowly prosthetics/ CGI, but that's a relatively minor point.

4. Jackson is getting as bad as George Lucas for self-indulgent lingering shots of Cool Stuff and completely implausible fight sequences.

5. I've no objection to backstory about the White Council appearing in the film, and it was particularly nice to see Christopher Lee reprising Sauruman, but Radagast and his bunny-driven sledge? Really? He's supposed to be Franciscan, not a complete loon... (and see above re: 'completely unbelievable fight/ chase sequences').

6. Excellent soundtrack, with good use of the Lord of the Rings leitmotivs, and a haunting new tune for the dwarves - and I did love the scene where they sing "Far Over Misty Mountains Cold" in Bag End.

I feel I enjoyed the evening and got my money's worth, but it's far too uneven to be called a good film, though there were aspects I did enjoy a lot.

Comments

[cloudsinvenice]

I didn't know that Radagast was meant to be Franciscan - now that really makes sense. :)

Jackson is getting as bad as George Lucas for self-indulgent lingering shots of Cool Stuff and completely implausible fight sequences.

I think the tipping point was that moment in King Kong when he staged the dinosaur equivalent of a multi-car pile-up and had them tumbling downhill, knocking each other over like dominos...

[tree_and_leaf]

Well, he wears brown and talks to animals :)

[em_h]

Yes, exactly. There's no way Tolkien did not mean that as a Franciscan echo.

I may be feeling a bit more than usually defensive because my spiritual director recently told me I should be a Third Order Franciscan, but yeah -- I'm going to take a very few bits from the movie and graft them on to the Radagast in my head, and that'll be much much better ...

[dejla]

I can always be won over by good settings -- while I watched it the first time, all I could think, as I thought about FotR -- oh, yes, it would be exactly like this.

So, in my uncritical eyes, it was exactly the film I wanted.

[miss_s_b]

Radagast may have been for the kids - my daughter certainly fell in love with him. Bunny sleigh and all.