The Hobbit

"3 stars out of 4"

You might be wondering why I don't write reviews about newly released movies. I have watched a lot of new movies recently, however since all of them were before I started this blog and I don't remember the details enough to write a complete review about, I would have to wait for a time to see them again to write in the blog.

One of the movies I watched a few weeks back was Peter Jackson's The Hobbit. I am a big fan of The Lord of the Rings Trilogy. Unfortunately, I never got to read any of Tolkien's books. The main reason was probably the fact that these books were not available in Iran. I remember The Hobbit was translated into Farsi and published after the LOTR movies were released and my brother had bought it but I never got around to read it. Tolkien was a brilliant man. To create a whole world and languages and characters is something that only an exceptional talent like his would be able to make. As you might know, many other authors have got many of their ideas from the LOTR books, namely J.K.Rowling and Harry Potter books (a book from my generation!). Anyway, these films were fantastic. I have watched these movies many many many times, with detail and bought the DVDs with the behind the scenes...and as if it wasn't enough, I went to the LOTR marathon back in December (during the weekend before the exams...I know I'm crazy, don't remind me!) and sat in a dark theater for about 12 hours and boy! What an experience. Watching it at home on a TV is one thing and watching it on the big screen is another. I have not had enough! I am definitely going to watch them again...probably a few months later when I have more time and I've put the experience behind me! (though it was amazing and I had a big stupid grin on my face the whole time, you can imagine what sitting in a theater for that long does to you and it is associated with LOTR in your mind so you need time to recover!)

Back to The Hobbit. It was better than what I expected. I was ready to be let down because the LOTR trilogy was so great that it's hard to live up to it (you compare it to LOTR unconsciously for many legitimate reasons! the author, the characters, and more importantly the director were the same). It wasn't as good as LOTR of course but definitely a film that the LOTR fans will love (if they have reasonable expectations. I am old enough to have met people that are not easy to please). The movie is long, but it kinda has to be, doesn't it, when you decide to make 3 movies out of a teeny book?! For example, the scene at the beginning of the movie where the dwarves are gathered in Bilbo's kitchen and are singing and eating, runs for long and is not that vital for the course of the movie! And I couldn't help but think, what a vision the director has! I can't imagine anyone else being able to have such imagination and at the same time knowledge of the books to make the best movie out of it. The part where they are chased by the orcs in the cave, and every scene is portrayed with such detail, I was just thinking to myself all that time that this couldn't have been possible if it wasn't for the director. I haven't read the book but I don't think Tolkien had pictured that scene with such detail. It was all Jackson.

I am now going to share a link that Roger Ebert had shared in his blog today. He writes there about one of the...well it's not a gaffe...but it's just a general wondering, that had caught my attention when I saw the movie as well: Why couldn't the eagles have just taken them to their destination instead of dropping them off not even close to their destination and especially at a mountain top?!! This one I think is Tolkien! He could have either not included the eagles or could have had some other kind of creature rescue them that at the same time was unable to go all the way to their destination!!

Anywho! I wish I could've written a better piece but as I said I don't remember all the details. Maybe I'll write about LOTR when I see them again but then again, maybe not! Because it wouldn't be the same as seeing them for the first time, many things might be overlooked for I have seen them over and over, during the past few years. We'll see what happens!

I don't know how many stars I want to give to this movie. Definitely not a 4! It was a good movie but not a four star movie. It was 3 I guess. I think 3.5 wouldn't be fair to many other movies that are much better than this. Yeah...I think 3 is fair!

Here's the link:

http://blogs.suntimes.com/foreignc/2013/01/out-of-the-frying-pan-and-into-more-orcs.html