Always a fan of P.J. but enough CGI already!

Rating: 8/10 (18 December 2012)

I LOVED Lord of the Rings. Each movie I saw several times in the theater. Once the extended versions came out, I watched every bit of them, even the commentaries. I was addicted. So unfortunately The Hobbit will be compared to those movies, can't be helped.
I was so excited for The Hobbit, it one of my favorite books from childhood. Overall I enjoyed the movie. I tend to not read any reviews because I just go with the goal of enjoying a good story. That way I don't have any expectations or someone's opinions in my head. So, yes, I enjoyed the movie but something kept nagging at me over the next few days. I went and saw it again, and I noticed I wasn't having that feeling like I did with LOTR, total addiction. So what was it? I liked the dwarfs, goofy characters, sure there's a lot of them but I still liked them. I connected with a few of them, mainly the ones that had more screen time. I personally like how the story connected to LOTR, so no problem with that. By the way, Kate Blanchett, beautiful!! Bilbo was great, but I'm a fan of Martin Freeman, so maybe I'm a little biased. To figure out what was bugging me, I threw in my DVD of LOTR when I got home. It didn't take long for me to find out what I didn't like about The Hobbit.
First, 3-D. What's the deal with using it? To me, it's distracting. I don't think it's necessary for telling a good story. It doesn't actually draw me into the movie more. Half the time it makes the move look fake. What I mean by fake is that my brain doesn't believe I could actually go to that world. In LOTR, Two Towers, Return of the King, I actually believed I could go to that world and be a part of it. Now here comes a 3-D version of Middle Earth and I don't believe it.
Second, CGI. Yes, it is necessary for some things. It was used in the first three movies but for some reason it was believable. I hated, HATED Azog! Why, please tell me why, a CGI character was used instead of someone wearing full hair, makeup, and prosthetics. Let's just say Lurtz could kick Azogs butt anytime, anywhere! At least based on how they looked on screen. With Lurtz (the main Uruk-Hai from LOTR) you saw the blood, the ooziness, the ickiness of who he was. The teeth, the eyes, the ability to pull an actual dagger from his thigh, was awesome! Now here comes the next big baddie, and he looks like a character from I Am Legend. A pale looking vampire thing. So not awesome. I didn't feel he was a threat at all, he just yelled a lot. I don't know if it's possible but is there any way a real actor could be put in his place for the rest of the movies? Now, we come to the goblins. It reminded me of a moment in one of the new Star Wars movies where I just thought I was watching a video game. Let's again compare to a familiar scene, the escape from Moria. In LOTR, the escape from Moria was and still is exciting. Sure at one point there were a bunch of Orcs surrounding the Fellowship but they looked believable. The goblins in The Hobbit made it look like I was watching a cartoon. The escape from the goblins was, well, annoying.Too many fake creatures.
So, overall, I enjoyed the move. I am apparently not a fan of 3-D or CGI or maybe I am not a fan when they aren't used well. I am excited to see the other movies coming up. Some people don't like that Peter Jackson added to the story but I don't mind. I love the history lessons and besides I was one of the odd people that actually read through the Appendices at the end of Return of the King. I like stories being expanded beyond what was written in the actual book.
And even though some of the technical things annoyed me, I will most likely go see this movie again. I haven't seen the high frame speed version yet, so gotta go!