An Unexpected Hobbit

Yep, I wents to sees it. At eight o'clock... in the morning! 'Cos no-one else (okay, not many) did the same, so it was a nice relaxed non-child-filled time. I'm also re-reading the book (and gotten past where the movie ends just before I went to see the movie), so have a better idea about what was going on than I normally would.

The main thing rereading the book taught me was... this book is a comedy! And that carries over to the movie, in a rather awkward way. You've got plenty of comedy moments with the dwarfs (such as the fight under the Misty Mountains [is there an 'actress' with... oh, yes, there is.]), but the previous movies have already established the universe as far more dark and foreboding, and Peter and co. and included a lot of extra material (sometimes from whole cloth) that fail to fit with that comedic atmosphere. There is then, understandably, a clash of tones. The movie errs on the side of serious, which makes the comedy moments stick out... like sore thumbs. Not to say they aren't amusing, but it is very much a case of 'LOOK, COMEDY!!!!'

And, of course, I saw it in 3D... in High Frame Rate. (And now have my own pair of 3D glasses). Um... I do have a few issues with it, and it reminds me of VidFIRE,  in that the motion in some shots really stands out and feels off to me. Also, the images are a little too clean, like they were shot in a more sterile environment. Basically... it doesn't feel filmic. Which it is supposed to be.

A few notes on the personae: Richard Armitage pulls off serious very well. Ian Holm's voice often reminded me of John Hurt. Andy Serkis stole the scenes as expected. Sylvester McCoy was full on Sylvester McCoy. Barry Humpries was... oh, so that explains that character. The dwarfs were... on screen (where are the blue, red and yellow hoods, dammit?!).

You'll note that I haven't talked about the plot, because most of you probably already know it. There is a lot more agency given to the characters than was in the book, and there's extra material I'll leave to Tolkein scholars / DVD extras to explain.

Also, you'll have already made up your mind to see it or not, so my opinion not so much. I would like to see it again, maybe in 2D or at least non-HFR just to see the difference, but otherwise I'm happy I saw it the way I did.

There is something other I want to talk about... in tomorrow's post...

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