The gang is back

Rating: 6/10 (10 December 2014)

In 2012, Peter Jackson (with his wife Fran Walsh) returned to Middle-earth. 10 years after the Lord-of-the-Rings films he brought back many of the original actors including McKellen, Weaving, Holm, Lee and Serkis. Elijah "Frodo Baggins" Wood is also back for a short scene early on. The main criticism about the Hobbit trilogy early on was that he packed a not-too-long book into another three films instead of just making one film about it. Obviously, the main reason is money as these films would without a doubt be seen by lots of people.
The first film runs for roughly 3 hours (in the extended version) and is thus shorter than all the three "Lord of the Rings"-movies. "The Return of the King" even lasted for over 4 hours. This here is the story of Bilbo Baggins who is played by Martin Freeman. I am not too big of a fan of the critically acclaimed television series "Sherlock", but I can't deny Freeman is a good actor, probably better than Wood, although you have to hold in Wood's favor that he was considerably younger than Freeman, pretty much half his age. I really liked the beginning here with the juicy green Shire and all the dwarfs invading Bilbo's home. This story was the strongest in my opinion before the journey actually began. The final scene with the dragon's eye was a good one too and made you curious for the second Hobbit movie. Thorin and Bilbo have a nice final scene together.
Just like with the "Lord of the Rings" movie, a large part of the cast consists of fairly unknown actors, such as Richard Armitage in one of the most crucial roles. I guess Jackson wanted to make sure that the center of the film is the journey, the story and not individual performances. This movie builds a lot on the "Lord of the Rings" films. There's references everywhere in an attempt to get people who liked the movies back then into theaters again. For example, we also find out how Bilbo got the Ring from Gollum. Visually, it is a feast. The good creatures, but especially the bad ones are so much fun thanks to all the creative work that made them appear the way they finally look. Story-wise I managed to enjoy it as well, even if it is not exactly my favorite genre. If you like fantasy films, the first "Hobbit" movie is almost a must-see.