The Hobbit dwarfs critic’s expecations

When the credits began to roll, I couldn’t help but let out a groan of disappointment. I had spent the last three hours at the theatre watching Peter Jackson’s The Hobbit, and the one thing that kept running through my head was that I now had to wait for who knew how many months to watch the second movie. I groaned again.

As an avid fan of The Lord of the Rings trilogy and the novel The Hobbit, I had huge expectations for this movie. I am simultaneously its biggest fan and critic. Therefore, I must say that I was quite impressed with Jackson’s rendition of J.R.R. Tolkien’s book. Although not as epic as The Lord of the Rings, The Hobbit was humorous, witty, exciting, thought-provoking, and just the right amount of cheesy.

Firstly, the film is beautifully rendered. The controversial filming of the movie in 48 frames per second (fps) and 3D proved to benefit the film more than detract from it. Everything was crisp, clean, and sharp. The magnificent landscapes of New Zealand where the movie was filmed are extremely detailed and gorgeously enhanced, and the 3D added a dimension to the movie that made everything look much more real. The special effects were also very well done, which is to be expected from the 3-time Oscar winning special effects team of The Lord of the Rings.

The acting was superb. The main cast of 15, which include Martin Freeman, Richard Armitage, and Ian McKellan, gave life to the book characters and made one forget that they are not real people, or more specifically, real dwarves, hobbits, and wizards. Each had their own unique personalities and little quirks that made them thoroughly entertaining and fun to watch.

I was also very impressed by the movie’s trueness to the book. Although there were obviously some different things within the movie, there was enough to make it similar to the book that readers should not be extremely peeved by the differences. Much of the dialogue was word for word from the book and, in my opinion, was much more entertaining to watch than to read. The funny banter between Bilbo and Gandalf and the tense riddling game of Bilbo and Gollum were especially memorable.

There is so much more I could say about the movie, but there’s not a whole lot of room to do that. So I will simply end by saying this: Watch The Hobbit. I guarantee that you will not be disappointed.