Little Hairy Creatures That Live in the Ground

Little Hairy Creatures That Live in the Ground

(A review of The Hobbit)

I couldn't possibly start a pop culture blog unless a Tolkien topic was first on the menu and so here it is, a dish served lukewarm: my view on the newest franchise Tolkien production, The Hobbit.

Sitting in the movie theatre, listening to that oh so familiar music from Lord of the Rings, and watching the standard Tolkien font of gold appear across the screen brought back a flood of happy memories from a decade ago. The angst and frustration of having to wait so many years to see this production was eased as the voice of Ian Holm flooded my ears. I wasn't expecting to get the same emotion from this movie as I did from the more famous trilogy, but it did seem like an old friend that has the same appearance but slightly changed over the years (as so many of us have) had come to visit.

I felt a great tinge of happiness overwhelm me as a jollier version of Gandalf appeared, despite his aged appearance and the realistic anachronism of him being sixty years younger from his appearance in the trilogy, I did fine accepting Ian McKellen (as every Tolkien fan was meant to). While dwarves are not my cup of tea as far as mythical characters, I found many of them to be extremely entertaining to watch as well as, strangely, hot: hello Richard Armitage. The storyline needed some flourishing and Jackson did a great job pulling from the appendices to add suspense as well as embellishing certain sections of the book, like the storm rock giants.

The idea of it being made into a trilogy did not bother me at all. I like dragging it out--gives me something to look forward to for the next two winters. However, the length of the movie, three hours, was a bit too much. There's only so much goblin fights I can watch, but thank you Jackson for the parts with Gollum. Gotta love that sneaky little booger. It made my heart warm to hear that squeal-voice say "And if we's win we gets to eats it whole." Although, that may not have been the reaction the director was looking for?

The cameos of the characters from the trilogy were welcome, but the attention wasn't needed. We have more than our share of new characters to think about right now. I did love how Jackson shows the differences in cultures between Tolkien's worlds, especially in the dinner scenes. The hobbit hole is full of meats, and cheeses, and taters :). Good old home cooking. The dwarves focus is on meat as seen in the elf dinner that is full of greens vegetables. I can see now why the Elves are so skinny. Overall, this movie was not as thrilling as the Lord of the Rings, but I knew that was going to be close to impossible to create. I did have a good time, however, and appreciate the detail. Well done, Jackson!