The movies : there and back again

The Hobbit is an M rated, terrific action fillum, with super scenery & funny noses. There's no yukky kissy bits, & in fact not too much in the way of nuisance girlys at all. The axe swinging yields minimal guts, & the goodies all survive, so it's suitable for boys aged 10+.

But that's not what you really wanted to know. The crux of any hobbit movie review is how it compares to the book - or to be more precise, one third of the book.

So how do you create almost 3 hours of screen entertainment from just 99 book pages (in my edition) without alienating the fandorks? By making mountains out of mole hills (or hobbit hills as the case may be). A whole lot of cornflour went into this recipe - albeit tasty Tolkien cornflour. The battle of the stone giants (encompassing some 2 paragraphs in the book) was an entire scene of the movie, & a much more literal take on the incident was taken than the metaphorical one that I pictured when reading. Radagast the brown wizard featured in the movie, as did Azog, the goblin who allegedly killed Thorin's grandad. There were a few cinema mutterings about not recalling those aspects on the book pages, but they weren't producer created characters, merely "embellishments" derived from Tolkien snippets. Annoyingly, the bits which made least sense were all such "embellishments" (don't get me started on the rabbit sled or the miraculous dwarf mountain escape). Neither Saruman, Frodo, or Galadriel feature in the book, but they were slotted into the movie to ensure a backwards segue from LoTR.

In fact, the entire movie seems to be a LoTR prequel rather than a stand-alone story (and why not, some may say, when LoTR was so financially & culturally successful). The Hobbit paperback is a children's adventure story, with a conversational & lyrical tone. The dwarves are comical creatures, the elves whimsical, and the writing witty. LoTR in print is an epic saga for older audiences, a life and death battle for mankind. The Hobbit movie emulates the darker & more serious vibe of LoTR, & ensures the viewers are reminded of the association between the Hobbit & LoTR.

Ticks go to location, make-up, costuming & music. All top notch.

We saw the 2D version to avoid head fuzziness, but wouldn't mind seeing the 3D to compare.

The viewer sees lots more of Bag End, & the gorgeously round front door. A tour of the NZ Hobbiton set is on my wish list - I'll add it to the da Vinci code tour of Europe as soon as a windfall comes along.

What of the spunks? I hear you ask. Well, there's Saruman, Gandalf & RadagastBirdpoo, wizards of 1000 plus years. Elvish Elrond is of a similar vintage. The dwarves are stocky, bearded fellows, and ten of the 13 wear bulbous craniums, foreheads, & honkers. The other 3, however, have abandoned rubber bits in the name of easyontheeyness - an essential feature for all movie heroes. Google pics of Thorin, Kili & Fili.

Fave part of the movie was the quotes taken directly from the book. Pure joy for the loyalists.

Not so joyous was the closing scene, where the camera zooms in to Smaug's eye, which snaps open, reminiscent of Breaking Dawn A, & a cliched teaser for the next instalment which made even the most ardent viewer cringe.

All in all, a must see movie. Loved it (mostly) & looking forward to Bilbo 2.
9.5/10