The first in the trilogy of the greatest show on Middle-earth backs us up to where Oscar winning director Peter Jackson all began. The problem is if you tend to turn to the book instead of the film, it’s a children’s read, which is fine, and preferred, since – as my audience knows – I tend to nod off in anything with the words “Lord” and” Rings” in the same sentence anyway. But Hobbit moves at a fast child’s pace, more humorous and non-stop challenges that will eventually lead to his “Lord of the Rings” world. That film went on to win 11 Oscars including best picure, best director and best screenplay.
In the Hobbit based on the book by J. R. R. Tolkien, Bilbo Baggins (Martin Freeman) begins his simple life close to home, middle aged and with a grungy childlike appetite. He’s a bit of a curmudgeon. Eventually Bilbo will end up in a hole beneath the Lonely Mountain with a band of brother dwarfs dining and strategizing together all led by Gandalf (Ian McKellen)… a sort of Jesus at the Last Supper. Their mission is to take them thru the Wild with Orcs and Goblins, etc. until they can reclaim the Dwarf Kingdom of Erebor from the fearsome Dragon Smaug. Okay, yawn. Whatever. This is a movie for those nerds who stand outside at 12 midnight in a long cold ticket line. I barely could sit thru the New York FIlm Critics screening!
Cate Blanchett is back as Galadriel. Iam Holm returns as Old Bilbo and Elijah Wood as Frodo. When the adventure begins, so does the 3D which serves as an annoying crutch, forcing the wars and dragons upon us and into our laps. Do we really want a grungy hobbit in our lap? That said, the scene of Bilbo and Gollum arguing it out by means of riddles in the dark is more a great work of Tolkien’s literature than Jackson’s 3D.
If inclined for escape and fantasy, this is it, but I’d take Harry Potter over Lord of the Rings anytime. But Bilbo Baggins isn’t in it for the magic of the Rings or the sword fights, he’s in it to apparently turn the mirror on his soul. ♔ ♕ ♚