The Hobbit

Saw the Hobbit. Where do I begin? It's a pretty good film, but it has some “issues.” The best parts are the continuity scenes. The opening scene with Frodo is awesome. Only to be outdone by the elves at Rivendale. Lady Galadrial is actually better in this film. The seen with Saurmon is cool. Elrond is good too, as is Gollum. The camera scenes are, at times, fabulous.

But he's the bad stuff. The lead dwarf actor kinda sucks. He doesn't look like a dwarf and his acting is one-dimensional. The character playing Bilbo looks the part, but the way he plays it isn't right. I see a real continuity gap between the Bilbo of this film and the one in LOR. Also, at times, the movie is cheesy. There are a few scenes that make you feel like it's a Disney flick – like the wizard who travels around in a forest being pulled on a sled by a special kind of bunny rabbit. The only thing missing from the scene is a tin man trying to find Dorothy. One of the film's problems is practical: how can you get psyched for a stupid treasure hunt and a dragon fight, when, in LOR, you've already been through the adventure that saved humankind and banished the physical manifestation of evil from the earth? (Actually, banished all metaphysics). The fact that the Hobbit was both a child's adventure and a precursor to the larger story is looming in the dynamic of film. And you can't really do anything about it. Still, I liked the movie. Grade: A- .