Nearly as good as The Lord of the Rings

Rating: 8/10 (13 December 2012)

The Hobbit I is a very good movie. All the characters are well played, the story and the attention to details are amazing, as are the effects, the costumes, the music - in short: the whole atmosphere; more often than not one is drawn irresistibly into the fantastic world of Middle Earth and into a group of dwarfs, a sorcerer and a hobbit, on their way to a long lost place called home. There are one or two scenes that make you wonder if it would not have been wiser to shorten them - but in the end, you sit there, stare at the end-credits and want more. It is a very good movie that raises the expectations for the next one to come, like The Lord of the Rings did, more than 10 years ago. There it is - the inevitable comparison to The Lord of the Rings. At some points during The Hobbit you just can't resist it: There is a camera-dive - but it is not awe-inspiring like the one down Isengart; there is a gigantic kingdom under the earth - but it is not as breathtaking as the halls of Moria; there are fabulous characters - but one is not captivated by them as one was with the fellowship of the ring; there are vile enemies and there is a lurking danger - but it won't freeze your blood like a dark rider. And after all, that feels exactly right. The Hobbit is not The Lord of the Rings. It was written earlier, written for children; it is a very good book, but not Tolkien's masterpiece. The movie kind of captures that. Aht that is an accomplishment in itself. And, by the way, like the book, the movie is funny.