It is an unexpected journey, but an exhilarating one

Rating: 10/10 (18 December 2012)

I have been foaming at the mouth, waiting very impatiently for the release of this movie. Like most here, I am an avid Tolkien fan. It's hard to sometimes separate the fiction from fact when I feel like I know these characters as well as I know myself.
Peter Jackson has proved with LoTR that he knows Tolkien's work intimately and he treated the material with care and love, labouring over details, producing a masterpiece and additional materials that really is every fangirl's (or boys) dream.
I went into The Hobbit with very little idea apart from knowledge of the book and who had been cast in some of the lead roles. This was on purpose. I really didn't want to spoil anything for myself, and I wanted to invariably avoid anyone else's opinion on what the movie SHOULD be or IS before having actually seen it.
Let me tell you, anyone who claims that The Hobbit is "too much of the same" or "not distinct enough" from LoTR would be right. But that's the point isn't it? This is THE SAME WORLD. This is some of THE SAME CHARACTERS. And really, it's glorious.
After almost a decade since RoTK, I sat in the cinema with the goofiest grin. The movie opens with snippets of the Trilogy's amazing score, dispersed among new pieces of music. It makes you feel nostalgic, sweeps you back into Middle Earth seamlessly and leaves you feeling like you're back among old friends.
I didn't expect to see Elijah Wood as Frodo. It was a wonderful surprise. To have The Hobbit segue so neatly right where the FoTR begins is fantastic. Here and there, to be able to piece together places, names, characters and see the groundwork for events you know plays out in the LoTR trilogy just blows your mind.
Viggo Mortensen was cast in one of the most iconic roles in fiction. And it has immortalised him as Aragorn, the King of Men forever. He had an on screen presence that commanded attention and made us believe he was capable of being the King he was destined to be – even before he was ready to assume the mantle.
Richard Armitage is that person in The Hobbit. As Thorin Oakenshield he has commands your eyes and ears, taking over every frame, making you search for him whenever he is in the throng of Dwarvish companions. He is magnetic, he is magnificent and dare I say the sexiest Dwarf to grace our screens – ever.
Like Viggo, Richard also sings. The deep, dark baritone works perfectly with what I assume is the Trilogy's main theme. He is magnificent. And the score is breathtakingly beautiful. Howard Shore deserves serious accolades.
Martin Freeman imbues Bilbo with bewilderment and uncertainty, but a stout heart. The chemistry between the cast is just as it was with LoTR. They complement one another in all the right ways. The brotherhood, the companionship evident.
Everything about The Hobbit feels familiar. And yet it's just as exciting as the trilogy that came before it. I would caution against expecting a reinvention of the wheel. This is a world created in such detail, why would you want a new spin on it? Instead, we get to revisit this wondrous place, this eternal Middle Earth. And we get to partake in a new adventure.
It is an unexpected journey, but an exhilarating one.