Movie Review: The Hobbit

We went to a matinee today, and about 40 people showed up to see the movie. That one reason we love this particular theater. Plus these theater goers aren't the sort who answer their phones during the movie.

The movie (sadly) didn't really move me. Part of that was that I'd heard things beforehand. They weren't spoilers, but they were the kind of things that, once pointed out, were over-the-top noticeable...

1) Sexy Thorin. Seriously, he looked like a Guess Jeans ad for most of the movie. My husband thinks they were going for 'brooding', not 'pouty', but I saw what I saw...I was warned about this, so it was all the more obvious to my eyes.

2) Dwarf Mitchell. I just kept seeing Mitchell, no matter how much hair they added. Not that I don't think Mitchell's cute....but I know he's a vampire, so seeing him as a dwarf is just wrong.

3) The -shaggy- suits on the horses were my own personal pet peeve. Seriously? You couldn't find shaggy horses, you had to sew them suits of fake hair? Every time one of them walked past, I was wondering whether they had zippers.

ETA: A quick research trip onto the internet shows that this was due to the 'size' perspective issues....so that icelandic ponies were used in some shots, and in other shots they dressed up regular horses in 'pony' outfits. Yeah...

4) The over-the-top Rube Goldbergism. My limit was exceeded long before they escaped that mountain.

5) Too long for my tastes.

However, I'm sure that the movie will move some people to go see it over and over and over again....so I'm not the only voice you should be listening to. Go see it yourself, and make up your mind then.

BTW: When did Hollywood become so desperate for stories that they made a full length movie out of Jack and the Beanstalk? Seriously people? Wow.

Tags: movie basket

( 8 comments — Leave a comment )

asakiyume

2012-12-27 10:31 pm (UTC)

I saw your note on FB that there were only two people in the theater and remarked to husband that maybe today was the day to go see it, if he wanted to (I'm not particularly interested because I don't particularly like the Hobbit story, and this isn't even all of it).

And yeah, what IS it with the lack of ideas out there. Sheesh!

j_cheney

2012-12-27 10:41 pm (UTC)

Yeah....we generally avoid crowds, so we go to neighborhood theaters rather than the big fancy mall theaters. It turned out to be about 40, all told, which is a decent size matinee crowd for this theater.

texanfan

2012-12-27 11:55 pm (UTC)

I'm afraid I was underwhelmed as well. Among other things, there are just too many dwarves for me to care especially about most of them. There simply isn't any sane way for me to get to know and care about that many characters in the space of a movie. I swear, the third time Gandalf counted them to make sure he had them all I started chuckling.

2012-12-28 12:12 am (UTC)

True...I couldn't put names to more than 3 of them.

alaneer

2012-12-28 01:08 am (UTC)

We also went to see it during matinee hours; less people around. I liked the film well enough, but I always go in knowing that films will be hollywoodized.

I hadn't even noticed that those were not real ponies. Guess I wasn't paying much attention.

2012-12-28 01:36 am (UTC)

The horse pants don't fit all that well through the backsides, so it was obvious in a couple of spots....if you're looking at the horses and nothing else. ;o)

Kyle White

2012-12-28 03:38 am (UTC)

I, too, missed the horse pants. I suppose I was too busy thinking "What the #@%! That's Lord of the Rings subject matter, not The Hobbit".

I read that Tolkien attempted to rewrite The Hobbit to make it 'fit' better as a prologue to the Lord of the Rings, but stopped when he realized he was ruining a good story. As it typically does, Hollywood couldn't stop themselves and ruined a good story.

I'm already boycotting films 2 and 3. They won't get my money.

2012-12-30 10:19 pm (UTC)

We'll probably go see them...but I doubt that we'll buy DVDs. And I remember The Hobbit as bing much more light and charming than this version!

j_cheney

In the Void

Movie Review: The Hobbit