9/10
2012
A Peter Jackson Film
Protagonist(s): Martin Freeman, Ian McKellen, Hugo Weaving, Sylvester McCoy, Richard Armitage
Antagonist(s): Andy Serkis, Manu Bennett, Barry Humphries
(I have not included the names of all the dwarfs due to space concerns in my labels)
Run-time: 2 hours 49 minutes
When Bilbo Baggins (Martin Freeman) sat down to relax with a smoke outside his hobbit hole one fine morning he had no idea of the perils and discomforts he would soon endure.
What bothers me the most about this film is that the plot takes place before the trilogy which preceded it. Much like Mr Lucas, Mr Jackson seems to have fallen into the trap of making a prequel film series. And to make matters worse he seems to have decided to include more details from the book than he did in the previous attempt, resulting in a trilogy from a single book. While I appreciate the added detail, shuffled and added from other sources, I feel the same should have been done to the previous three films.
There has been taken a few design liberties where characters and creatures are concerned, and more dialogue has been included than exists in the book.
The plot is excellent. The effects are excellent. The comedy is excellent. The acting talent is excellent. The added urgency of events which took place outside though in parallel with the book pads on to the time the film would normally have taken. Overall, excellent.
I recommend this film for any who enjoyed the 'Lord of the Rings' trilogy, and hope that the key characters and locations in the next films do not suffer the fate of Tom Bombadil, or the Barrow-downs.
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