A Long expected Masterpiece

Rating: 9/10 (4 January 2013)

*CONTAINS SPOILERS*
So, as with many of the reviewers's of the hobbit, I'm a massive LOTR fan and i have been waiting for the hobbit for many years. When it finally came round to the couple of days before the hobbit i was worried it wouldn't live up to expectation, as many critics were giving mixed reviews. Here's what i thought.....
First of all ill talk about the toning. the hobbit comes across as a more childlike story of middle earth and is less serious in some areas than LOTR however I was completely fine with this as this is how the book is written so Jackson decided to stick with the toning of the book (perfectly fine). I thought he managed a brilliant balance between satisfying people like me who wanted some good action scenes and some more serious areas with some more childlike areas to bring in a wider audience to middle earth. Many people who criticise the hobbit say: "its so far-fetched" or "too light hearted and not very intense". Well the fact that the hobbit is toned to slightly younger audience answers that perfectly. I think many people forget that about the hobbit and are constantly comparing it to the darker LOTR trilogy.Overall Jackson does a brilliant job of toning it to a slightly younger audience while still satisfying many LOTR fans like me. WELL DONE PETER JACKSON!
Next thing, i would like to point out is the soundtrack. now, we all love the soundtrack on LOTR and i was intrigued to see how the same composers would handle the hobbit. My personal opinion is they did a magnificent job. Howard shore and his company of musicians pulled off another beautiful soundtrack that sent chills down my spine every time i saw the dwarfish company travelling across the stunning New Zealand countryside. He also does a great job of mixing several LOTR tracks into the film to satisfy again, the LOTR addicts! What i admire about the music in this film is that it uses several soundtracks of the LOTR tune to remind us of the close relationship between the two but is cautious not to use loads of soundtracks from LOTR or to use the main, fellowship theme anywhere in the movie and although i adore the fellowship theme, i agree that this was a wise decision so it doesn't blend too much into LOTR, we have to remember the hobbit is an entirely different trilogy to LOTR. SO overall, another brilliant job with the sound tracking
Next the pacing. The pacing has been the big problem for many people and countless critics have complained about the movies drawn out-scenes. Overall, i didn't find this in hardly anywhere in the film and thought it was paced perfectly. I too, was sceptical on making 3 movies out of the hobbit. but after watching i can honestly say i had practically no problems with the pacing of the movie, with a few exceptions. First exception, is the scene where Dwalin is recounting the story of Azog vs Thorin where he chops off Azogs arm. The battle scene was brilliant and makes me soooo desperate to see the battle of the five armies come to the screen however i did feel that scene was more drawn out than it needed to be and was necessary to be the length it was. The only other example is at the start with the light hearted shire gossip between Bilbo and Frodo. while it was nice to see Elijah wood back as Frodo, it did seem unnecessary to go on for the time it did. Other than that, i thought it was absolutely fine.
However, as much as i Loved the experience of the hobbit, i did pick out some small criticisms during the film. First note, the CGI. i love CGI as much as the next film junkie, but in the hobbit some of the CGI and colour correction looked a bit too colourful which made the scenery look slightly fake. the best example of this is the last scene of the film where we see the thrush flying around the mountain and knocking on a shell casing. to me, that looked too animated and also when Jackson cut between panning CGI scenes of middle earth and CGI scenes, it sometimes was easy to tell the difference. But this was on a fairly small scale and isn't too noticeable in the film. Also, a couple of scenes in the 48fps looked a tad blurred and were hard to follow at the start as my eyes adjusted. after that though, the experience was fine and never once thought about the 48fps. On a side not for the 48fps, i did not hate the experience nor love the experience as i didn't really notice any difference, i had no problems though with the experience aside from that which i just mentioned.
General Summary So, i came into the cinema with big expectations and a longing to be reunited with middle earth and all my favourite characters. I felt Jackson reached my expectations and provided an excellent visual experience with lots of good and well made action scenes to more childlike humour and some middle earth drama. I take my hat off to you Peter Jackson, you made an awesome start to the trilogy. Fingers crossed for the next two films....