A great return to Middle Earth

Rating: 8/10 (17 December 2012)

First things first, The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey does not meet that ridiculously good standards of any of the Lord of the Rings films. But it is still awesome in its own way, and frankly I would have been surprised if it was as good as any of the LotR films. Whereas LotR was on an epic scale, this film is on a much smaller scale compared to the impending doom of all of Middle Earth. But that isn't a detraction from this film at all, The Hobbit AUJ is a great film in it's own right and deserves the good reviews it's been getting. The humour of the film is done brilliantly, genuinely funny in parts, especially in the sequence with Gollum. A lot of people have said the pacing of the first hour is slow and could easily have been cut down, it could have been I suppose but I enjoyed getting to know the dwarfs and Bilbo. Okay they sing a song whilst washing up, but that sequence shows us how they work as a team and the bond of the dwarven company, and also brings a sense of fun - which is perfect as it's adapted from a children's book, so there should be humour and lighter moments in it. One of the things that wasn't so great about the film was definitely the CGI, particularly on Azog the pale orc and that baby hedgehog. I was quite disappointed with that, as in LotR they used makeup and prosthetics on the Urukhai, etc, so they could have gone down the same route in this film, especially as they did the big bad guys so well that way in LotR. Another thing was that I wasn't sure why exactly Radagast was around and felt he could have been taken out with no problem, same with the appearance of Frodo (especially now Elijah Wood's voice has deepened noticeably, which jars as Frodo isn't meant to have aged.) But, the action sequences were exciting and enthralling, particularly the rush through the goblins' lair. Martin Freeman made an amazing Bilbo (possibly the best thing about the film), the scene with Gollum was utterly brilliant and although you don't get to know each and every dwarf very well, Peter Jackson still manages to make you fall for their quest and puts you firmly on side with them so you really want them to succeed. Can't wait for the next two films, and eventually one day a marathon weekend of all three Hobbit films followed by LotR the next day!