A journey to remember...

Rating: 9/10 (31 December 2012)

What a journey it has been It is a great film no doubt, took me back to my early days when I first watched Lord of the Rings with my father though he was not here with me today sadly. This film has got to be judged on multiple levels, but overall it produces quite unique and very much unforgettable experience.
Let my start from the not so great things, 3D as everybody would expect by now, was atrocious and does not add anything to the picture itself, well maybe except one scene when butterfly flies away and gets almost in your way; that was very pleasant and would not be possible without 3D. Despite that, it is just a gimmick and not worth the money.
Secondly, the plot is not the greatest achievement of mankind, definitely not due to Peter Jackson's fault. I have read The Hobbit long time ago yet it felt like it follows the main plot well enough, it is just that J.R.R. Tolkien – despite being a master of his craft – did not put the most cohesive and believable story together for The Hobbit. Still it very enjoyable but for me it lacks all the dark and gloomy bits that are so well presented in The Game of Thrones for instance, they just add to the story and make it all feel almost real. Well, The Hobbit is not real, no matter how you cut it. If any fantasy can be or at least feel real that is I have seen it done better. Perhaps it is due to the fact that I am so over high fantasy and I am leaning towards dark one, and have been doing so ever since I started playing WarHammer. Though, it has got to be said that for a high fantasy story, The Hobbit is the best there is.
On the other hand, I cannot stress that enough how HFR (High Frame Rate) adds value to the movie. It looks so much nicer and changes the way we see it. I sincerely hope; despite many negative reviews from the ever so highly self-proclaimed film critics, it will become a new standard in the cinemas as it is definitely the way to go. I have been using similar, though artificial way of enhancing the frame rate of films at home, and I love it! What is more, one can only wonder how beautiful New Zealand must be; as yet again the landscape scenes are truly remarkable. The quality of the picture presented, is also the best I have even witnessed. It looks vivid, lively, and most importantly –believable; something you fairly rarely can see in the cinema lately. With that respect, it is a true masterpiece and has got no equals.
The cast has done a great job and pretty much everybody delivered what was expected of them. Saruman is cold and pretends to be stupid. Gandalf is wise and witty. Bilbo is afraid of his own shadow yet turns out to be the brave one. In a nutshell, they succeeded. The only letdown is the company of Dwarfs, each and every one of them did very well yet it is difficult to have any attachment to either of them. Not enough character development as we do not get to know them well enough to simply care about them. Again, I believe it is not due to Jackson's fault; as if recall correctly, in the book you do not really get enough information about all of them either. However, I am pretty sure that you get a bit more than it the film. This comes as a surprise to me, considering that it is just one book and it will be dragged out to be a trilogy. They definitely could have spent a bit more time to tell us who the Dwarfs are as individuals. By the time we get to see them for the first time, we are well acquainted with what they are fighting for but it is not enough in my opinion. They are just not unique enough for the audience to actually care if one of them gets hurt or not; which was not the case in the book whatsoever.
All in all, though it might not read like that; I actually liked the film very much. Yet again it has dwarfed every other film this year, very much like Lord of the Rings did in its time. It certainly takes you on an adventure that will continue on for years to come. It gives us much easier to understand story than Tolkien's most famous book, yet it is compelling enough to leave the audience hunger for more. It is only a third of the story, and yet it is concise and could probably be an individual one and still be a satisfactory experience. Well done to everyone who made this, for the lack of better word - experience - possible.