Good Views, and Characterizations, Typical Jacksonesque Storyline

Rating: 8/10 (7 August 2013)

I pretty much have the entire story in memory, as it was the first of Tolkien's stories that I read,and enjoying it immensely, I've reread it numerous times. I'm also old enough to know that any movie adaptation is very unlikely to follow the original to the letter, so I was not expecting a word for word retelling. I also know that Peter Jackson likes to take wide liberties with original story lines (for what reason I'm not sure, I guess to please himself). Anyway, I saw the movie over the Christmas holidays in 3D IMAX but was not able to see it in 48fps to see if that was interesting. I enjoyed the story being told, but I was totally unimpressed by both the 3D and IMAX. Neither added a thing to the story. I was in the exact center about 7 rows up from the side to side aisle (about 15 rows back from the screen) and my glasses pretty much filled in from both sides. Some 3D was interesting but the 10 or 15 truly 3D moments were not effective in the least. Nor was the IMAX. Big screen, yes, effective, no.
Now the story. I thought the dwarfs that were allowed speaking lines were well portrayed, but Bomber for instance was just 'there'. We needed to meet them all, not just see the 'fat' one, for example. Only about 5 got good parts, Fili and Kili our Legolas stand-ins, Thorin, the old geezer, and maybe one or two others. Thorin is just a little too dignified for me. The original story was they were going to break into the dragon's lair and steal something little!!! (at best, the Arkenstone, just to show that they could do it). In this version, 13 dwarfs are going to reclaim the entire kingdom where before the dragon wiped out a huge dwarven army, but this time they have a burglar with them. Yeah. Sorry, doesn't hold up. The book Thorin was pretty much a jerk throughout, and at almost the end (spoiler) he was a real jerk. It's going to be hard expecting him to turn into one, as he's the Aragorn stand-in for the brooding, intense, but basically decent king without a throne.
I didn't mind Radagast tho he was made to look extremely foolish way too much (I could have done without the eyes crossing every other minute, and now that I think about it, his riding around on that rabbit sled reminds me of one of the early characters in Neverending Story, the overly dressed little person on his racing snail, just as silly looking), Saruman was almost in his late LOTR mode which means for the next 60 Middle-earth years, he was going to be a continual party-pooper (almost like he knew the Ring would be available very soon - nobody did at that moment. Maybe he already had the palantir and the 'necromancer' was using him already – not in the real story, but you know PJ).
The mini-White Council was OK and I thought Elrond was portrayed really well. The goblin King was as hideous as the original story made him out. Gollum was good, the continuing villain of Azog/Bolg was one of Jackson's unneeded characters, as the wild wolves would have been more than enough. The trolls were actually about what I expected, tho Bilbo's burglarizing was played down, and Gandalf's power was played up a little too much. The stone giants were well done if just a little over done, a few minutes less would have been just fine. Galadriel was OK. Gandalf was just like I expected. And Martin Freeman as Bilbo, I thought did a decent job of slowly moving from prim home-bodied Hobbit, to give more than a glimmer that he could think on his own. He just didn't start out as home-dwelling as the book Bilbo did, so his 'growth was a little more than I was expecting but it was fine although I'm not sure I can see Ian Holm coming out of that portrayal. At least this Bilbo wasn't portrayed as some 16 year old.
I wish more elves had been singing, Rivendell should have been still awash in elves at this time, but since it wasn't, it's going to be hard to have Elrond/them show up in the last act as some kind of cavalry (spoiler, he didn't in the book, but I expect him to because Jackson likes heavy handed presaging and Elrond on horseback looked dashing) . Speaking of which, the woodland King on his stag was sort of silly looking as was the extreme vegan diet of the elves. The dwarfs would have known about it and not acted surprised at lettuce leaves on the plate if it were true, (and you'd think the Elves as hosts would know the dietary desires of the dwarfs, but that's Jackson again) There are any number of text references to elves having feasts that include meat at times, and there would be a load of bread.
So, okay, I liked the movie as I thought the sets especially did a good job portraying the countryside between Bilbo's home and the other side of the Misty Mountains. The characterizations if not 'factual' were at least interesting, and the story line is staying as close as I had hoped. I'll be awaiting part 2, especially to see Orlando Bloom's role. I'd be more interested to see Strider the Ranger wander into a scene or two and then disappear. At least that would make just as much sense.