The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey (Peter Jackson, 2012)

I failed to feel excited about it when it came out in the cinemas, but I nonetheless thought I should watch it. Not sure why, as I’m not a huge fan of the LOTR films (I loved the first one, but felt disappointed with the other two, especially the last one). I guess I just love dragons and all that. In short: I ended up watching it.

Well, it feels strange to be disappointed when your expectations are already low, but the first hour is awful. It’s something between Asterix and Avatar. The effects are rather unconvincing (from the shocking size-shifting Gandalf to the computer game aesthetics -the dwarves’ mine was atrocious!) and I would lie if I said I didn’t find it painful.  At points it felt like it wasn’t real action at all, even when the actors were on the screen. The worst bit for me though were the dwarves. Such a strange mixture of cheap and cheesy humour and violence. The character design was all over the place: if they were serious they looked like human fantasy warriors, if they were just comedy acts they looked like the wee guys in Willow. I did laugh at the appalling acting skills of their prince, though.

Anyway, the second half is much better. Not good, but at least enjoyable, particularly the scene on the trees and the stone giants. And I loved that conversation with Saruman and Galadriel.

Oh, and why a trilogy? Storywise, I mean. I understand they want the cash, but still…

All in all, I am glad I never went to the cinema to watch it.

Rating: 6/10