An unexpected pleasure

Rating: 6/10 (26 March 2014)

I will start this by reminding folk I do not read the books although I did read The Hobbit at school I remember little about it. I enjoyed the LOTR trilogy to some degree but also agree with the whole theory that it was just a long walk. When it was announced that The Hobbit would be made into three movies even though it was just one book I feared that his was just a license to print money and would be very stretched. Having watched it I still feel it's going to be stretched a great deal. Having said all that I did enjoy the film. It has a great cast, mainly driven by UK actors. Freeman is a good choice for our younger Bilbo and Nesbit & Stott lend a nice familiarity to their dwarf characters with Armitage bringing his trademark scowl to Thorin. Again though it is another walking movie across middle-earth, ramblers must love these films. It is however bright and breezy, a lot lighter than the Rings movies. Even so it still has it's harrowing events of which there are a few. I was a bit disappointed with some of the effects mainly the scenes between the smaller & larger characters but in other places they are particularly stunning. Most will know the story as Thorin and his followers set out to reclaim their home mountain. Bilbo Baggins is reluctantly dragged along as the group's "burgular". It's a good romp and it only remains to be seen how stretched it gets should two and three also come in at over 160 minutes.