Review of The Hobbit: An Unexpected Adventure

I watched the Hobbit last night with my husband, mum, brother and sister. It was AMAZING. If you’re a fantasy fan or just enjoy a rollicking good movie, then you won’t be disappointed. The visuals were breathtaking (as my mum put it, “I liked the scenery.” lol) and the haunting soundtrack (“Song of the Lonely Mountain”) really gets into your bones. The characters ranged from a company of dwarves to a very scary giant pale orc. You’ll also see an assortment of ethereal elves, some familiar, and some new. It was really cool to see Lee Pace from Pushing Daisies as the Elf King Thranduil (Legolas’ dad). Bret (Flight of The Concords) also made another appearance as an elf.

Moving away from the elves – this first part of the Hobbit gives us much more backstory to the dwarves. In the introductory scene where we see the gorgeous dwarven city of Erebor, I was astounded to see how similar the architure was to Skyrim’s depiction of dwarven ruins. Is there some kind of unspoken understanding that dwarves are just architecturally gifted?

Speaking of dwarves, we only really met Gimli in LOTR. It’s refreshing to see a much larger cast of dwarves, each one very different to the other. The dwarf king, Thorin Oakenshield, is one intense, brooding fella, while the rest of them are the table-thumping, jovial sort.

As far as protagonists go, Bilbo Baggins is one of the most endearing. You’ll see plenty of character growth from the start of the movie to the end. I’ll always like the narrative of an accidental hero!

Random note: Watch out for the rabbit-sled when you see the Hobbit. I’ve never seen rabbits being used in a fantasy novel/movie before, and it works!