Christmas came early :)

Rating: 10/10 (16 December 2012)

The Hobbit movie review- Expectedly good :)
The year has been sad till date- recessions, fiscal cliffs, unemployment, inflation, and the Mayan predicted doomsday 5 days away. but tell you what, all that does not matter anymore- i am spectacularly happy grinning ear to ear, because The Hobbit not only makes me forget it all and look forward to a better year, even Christmas came early for me, thank you Peter Jackson.
Naysayers be damned but if there was one complaint i had with the Lotr trilogy, it was that large tracts from the book went missing in the film in addition to key figures like Tom Bombadil and Glorifindel- if Potter could stretch to 8 movies, am sure there was enough in Tolkien's magical universe to spawn more than 3 films. it was deep, dark and complicated enough. The Hobbit though is a shorter, less heavy handed and less epically epic adventure- essentially a children's fairy tale involving a group of dwarfs along with a wizard and a hobbit on a treasure hunt, and the beauty of this is that nothing gets omitted from the book, and all the characters are well fleshed out.
"Bilbo Baggins, I'm looking for someone to share in an adventure"- After a 10 minute prologue which effortlessly sets up the world and sucks us in to the story, the movie takes from where the Fellowship of the Rings started, and then goes back 60 years when a young non adventure seeking and home loving Bilbo Baggins is forced by Gandalf to join 13 dwarfs on a quest to recover their lost kingdom Erebor, which was taken over by a fearsome dragon, Smaug who is best described as " a furnace with wings". Led by the warrior dwarf Thorin, the Aragon of this story, who is brave but does not often makes the soundest of decisions, this ragged bunch has to battle through every creature abounding Middle Earth including trolls, orcs, goblins, wargs, and rock giants on their quest. At the same time, this is where the fated "one ring to rule them all" appears- there is evil brewing in the East, Sauron is rising and the elders are choosing to disbelieve. And Gollum is scene stealing- yes sir, Andy Serkis as the schizophrenic Gollum is back and his scene stealing cameo where he engages Bilbo in a game of riddles and loses his "precious" is worth the price of admission- both tense, and funny.
The WETA digital folks have again delivered a stunning film- the imagery, photography and digital work is worth of JRR's imagination. Howard Shore gives another goose pimpling score, and New Zealand never looked so beautiful, like ever. Peter Jackson again proves that only he can do justice to us Tolkeinites- this is a winning formula of expanding prose to stunning cinematic visual, executed with great Ã©lan once again. The star cast is largely excellent, guest appearances by Christopher Lee, Elijah Wood, and Hugo Weaving as rock solid, while Ian McKellen, though he looks like he can barely stand, completely owns the character of Gandalf, in addition to an excellent Martin Freeman as Bilbo. Swathes of dwarf make-up cannot take away the beauty of Richard Armitrage as Thorin, and like Sauron in the Fellowship, all we see of Smaug is one fiery eye.
Orcs, battles and plenty of back-story- The Hobbit is mesmerizing in its own way then- it successfully transports you to Middle Earth, the scale and context are not as universe shattering as they will be later on, but then the tale is a lot more innocent and intimate. No grand stand battles, but more edge of the seat excitement. The script is funny, there treatment is familiar- and the result? More of the same that we have always loved. Great family fun and looking forward to the next two parts. Thanks again, Peter Jackson! 10/10