The Hobbit (1977)

I have been sent back until my task is done here in Middle-Earth.

 I must admit I enjoyed this more than I thought I would. Released in 1977 as a TV movie from good ol' Rankin & Bass, The Hobbit is a very humble production and a decent adaptation of Mr. Tolkien's story. Since I've covered the bigger budgeted grander trilogy, to see it in an entirely new light was a real treat for me and I very much appreciate it from the standpoint of the time when it came out. Of course it would look shoddy and lacking in story compared to three movies and even those were a notch bloated, so no I am firmly not in the camp of disliking this. The movie is almost an hour and twenty minutes long so I'll more take this opportunity to disclose what actually made it into the film. Of course Bilbo Baggins is recruited by the wandering wizard Gandalf to aid in the quest of Thorin Oakenshield to reclaim a treasure stolen by the fierce dragon Smaug. To my delight this adaptation includes a good deal of songs as is customary to the world of Tolkien and to hear recognizable tunes in a more folky style made me smile and is prevalent throughout. The eagles are present and actually given the chance to speak this time so point for this movie staying truer to the book. The battle of five armies is briefly touched on like in the book with Bilbo staying out of the madness. Mirkwood is present with spiders and wood elves. And to use the words of one Leonard Nimoy, he fought with the goblins, he battled the trolls, he riddled with Gollum, a magic ring he stole, he was chased by wolves, lost in the forest, escaped via the barrel from the elf king's halls! Big props also to the movie for namedropping Orcist and Glamdring, they actually did do a fair bit of research for this and I feel the love and attention shows. It's no secret the movie runs at a brisque pace so some things got ommited but just as a simple fantasy story I think it works commendably. The animation style is entirely unique, I know Rankin & Bass is prevalently known for it's stop motion works so it is fascinating to see 2D animation from them, the backgrounds are very simple and yet incredibly beautiful, the character designs lean into the more outlandish as it should I mean it's not trying to give you realistic movement and appearances. I think I would totally have digged the hell out of this if I saw it at a young age, though I'm not sure how much younger I mean for God's sake I was 6 when Fellowship came out, but it would have worked splendidly for me. I think I've seen too much animation though, I was distinctly singling out elements of the animation that looked japanese to me and sure as hell the animation crew hailed from Japan. Though admittedly it doesn't have as many noticeable touches of flair from more recent anime, I'm just familiar enough with early examples of it to where I could see it. The voice cast did very well, I like Orson Bean's upbeat and naive potrayal of the bravest little hobbit of them all, John Huston gives Gandalf that oomph of power in his voice and I actually really love how Gandalf's magic is shown in this, Hans Conried as Thorin did have that more wise and kingly aura to him and it's almost hilarious how the majority of the other dwarves are just there for the background, Theodore Gottlieb as Gollum is so interesting to see potrayed before Andy catapulted this role into legend cause Gollum looks more amphibian and seems more just a strange creature than hopelessly addicted tragic character, and lastly Richard Boone as Smaug I can 100% see where Ben got some of his cues for when he played the dragon he has this smooth yet threatning voice and again the design is something completely unique. And that's just the only way I can sum up this movie, it's unique, it's different, it's something only this movie has. People who even attempt to compare this to the Peter Jackson movies are really just setting themselves up for ridicule, there is no comparison to be made it's just two seperate entities of a children's story so you completely and fully have to just judge this movie on it's own merits. And for me, I liked it a good bit, now was I expecting much? Not at all, I almost thought it would be sub standard at best, but I got a charming, enjoyable, utterly novel adaptation and I'm very appreciative and happy I got to see it. Back in 1977 Lord Of The Rings was still grassroots man, if you were a young kid and you read the books, maybe were into D&D, and getting to see an adaptation of Tolkien's work even as a wee TV movie must have been a big deal cause who the hell else was doing it? Nobody, that's who. Today's movie and tomorrow's review walked so Jackson could run faster than greased lightning. So I give it 3 stars, 7/10, and tomorrow's review has actually been coming since the year I started all this so stay tuned.

The Battle Of The Five Armies

I must be truthful in terms of this. I once told you that I saw The Hobbit movies, and well I can honestly say I told you the truth, I might not have told all of it. I never wanted it to end, the adventures, but all things must come to an end no matter how much you try to stop it. Today was the first time I saw The Battle Of The Five Armies.

After finally claiming the mountain and the imminent death of Smaug, the dwarves and Bilbo seem to have completed their quest. But Thorin grew sick, a sickness of the mind took over him, the dragon was with the gold too long, it started to drive Thorin mad. But there were some who resisted the King under the Mountain, an army of men and elves marched toward The Lonely Mountain, trying to bargain for the riches Thorin swore they would possess. He would not part with a single coin, thus beginning the war. But all were decieved, for another army was approaching the mountain, Sauron conjured an army to gain a foothold in this world again, starting with the mountain. The battle of the five armies begun. This film does not take any time getting down to the war for the mountain. It takes maybe 25 minutes before all hell breaks loose, and save for the last fifteen or so minutes, there is nothing but fighting going on. I'd almost say this movies outdoes even Return Of The King standards of battles but with Return Of The King, we knew the stakes. It was a battle for Middle Earth, a fight for everything, but here we know the story goes on past this point so the battles lack so much punch. It's not bad, the fights are magnificent but it just lacks all the tension. You want to know how it all ends yes, and surprisingly the battles never grated and felt like there was no time to even breathe, so I was very happy about that but the film just was missing something. The best scene in the entire movie is when Saruman, Elrond, and Galadriel stormed the fortress and rescued Gandalf, that was un-flipping-believable! I would pay money just to see that again! I also noticed the story got very Shakespearian with Thorin, a king slowly being driven mad, forcing everybody away from him, bloodthirsty and not having even a second guess about killing one of his friends but luckily that subsides although we still do kinda end with tragedy and death. Actually speaking of death, I'm not quite sure what happened halfway through this movie, in almost all The Hobbit movies we got violence and quite a bit of severing body parts but the movies did a good job of hiding it or not making it too bloody but this friggin' movie has blood splurting everywhere! It's like if Peter Jackson went from Oscar winning director back to his Brain Dead days, of violent, gory, and exploitation days. You see blood just splash all over the place! I swear on my life I saw an R rating before the movie began. An R rating?? Oh I see, Tolkien was never child friendly! Maybe it was just with the extended cut. Oh yes, and free word of warning, you know how I said the extended cut of Lord Of The Rings was the only way to watch it? Well...with The Hobbit it's the exact opposite. The extended cuts add nothing to the story. In fact the extended cuts actually hurt the movie. I prefer the much shorter theatrical cuts. Just proving that longer is not always better. Do I think The Hobbit needed 3 movies to tell the story? No. Did I still enjoy the three movies for what they did? Heck yes! But I would still just stick to The Lord Of The Rings, no disrespect to The Hobbit, I greatly enjoy the movies and appreciate what they did, but Lord Of The Rings just knocked it out of the park for me. But of course, that's just my opinion. Maybe you will enjoy these three movies compared to the other three movies, you never know. Well, that about does it for Middle Earth here for The Dude, not unless I really want to talk about the 70s animated one, I do really like it but I doubt it shall come to pass. Thank you for joining me on my last adventure for the year, but don't worry, there is still much more to talk about before the month is through. Catch you all later on down the road.

The Desolation Of Smaug

Yeah, that....that's a way to end a movie.

The story continues in The Desolation Of Smaug as our travelling heroes inch closer and closer towards The Lonely Mountain and finally come face to face with the dragon Smaug. Meanwhile a much greater evil has been uncovered. To be truthful, I think this is my favorite of The Hobbit movies. The story progresses at a very good pace, never once do you get bored (And in some cases fixes problems of the book.), the characters are still fun and we get two new arrivals to the cast. An old friend from previous films, Legolas Greenleaf plus an entirely original character created for the movie, that's right a character not created by Tolkien is featured in the movie, Tauriel played by the absolutely stunning Evangeline Lilly who I have to say is a great welcome to this series. She doesn't feel out of place at all, she is an honorable and caring figure, and somehow is Arwen fully realized. Not many people know Arwen had much bigger roles planned in the films beyond horse riding and sexy crying, she was planned to be a warrior who fought at the battle of Helm's Deep but for some bizzare reason she got cut out, which sucks but now we got a true representation of an Elven warrior in full action, she is awesome. But not as awesome as something scaly, breathes fire, and flies. It's time to talk Benedict Cumberbatch people. Short version, best part of the entire movie. Long version, Jesus fish this is incredible! I mean what a casting choice, Ben really makes this creature leap off the screen, he is cunning, he is devious, he is everything you would want in a villain. After I saw the trailer for this movie, heard his voice, saw Smaug, it became very apparent I had to read the book. So I did, and you could bet millions of dollars when Smaug speaks in the book, Ben was heard in my head. The reveal of him in this movie is perfect, for those of you who just saw the trailer and said, oh I've seen the dragon now. No. You have seen hardly a thing. He is huge in this movie, and for the first half of his scenes you only see him with Bilbo (Insert Sherlock reference here.) which makes him look even bigger. If there was ever a single reason to see this movie, yeah it's Benedict Cumberbatch as Smaug the dragon. And the ending...oh God, the ending. I saw this opening day, when that scene happened I was not very happy. Stupid cliffhangers right when I don't want it to stop. It still makes me mad, I want to watch the last movie right now. But I want to hold off until tomorrow so I can review it properly. I mean let's get down to brass tacks, if you stuck around to see the first movie then you will be hooked by the second if you haven't already. I know fantasy is still an underground film genre, but Lord Of The Rings really is what made it big and popular, so I understand if not many people can't get their heart into it like I have. And that's fine, opinions are never wrong but I always try new movies and tell people about them regardless because you never know if a movie will stick with you or not. But regardless, we have one more movie to wrap up so I will join you on the conclusion to this journey tomorrow.

An Unexpected Journey

A great start to an unforgettable adventure.

An Unexpected Journey is the first chapter to The Hobbit trillgy, a precursor to The Lord Of The Rings following Bilbo Baggins on his quest with a company of dwarves to reclaim their homeland from a great dragon. It's almost basic fantasy storytelling 101, but Tolkien made it into something so much greater in the book which I am proud to say I have read but have yet to claim The Lord Of The Rings as fellow completed readings. I was quite hesitant to learn it would be a trilogy of movies, because the book itself is a simple children's adventure book, but as first movies go I was impressed. The way Peter Jackson started this and what all he included did justice to the book, but now having greater technological use for the film warrants staggering visual effects, some so massive it would take dozens of viewings to catch everything. Middle Earth has never looked so incredible, both in familiar locations and all new ones that were yet to be discovered in the original movies. Also familiar cast members like Ian McKellen, and Hugo Weaving make returns with a whole new slew of characters, with the hero Bilbo played by Martin Freeman who I already enjoyed as an actor, but grew to love him even more after seeing him in this movie. He really nails my vision of a young Bilbo out on an adventure, he gets that persona down and interjects much humor and enjoyability in this part. All the dwarves headed by Thorin played by Richard Armitage, are great with all of them having identities and individual personas of their own, with not two feeling or even looking similar to another which does nothing but flesh out the already developed world, and you can easily pick which dwarf is your favorite. But one of the main aspects of the movie that makes it much better than what people give it credit for, is how the stories intertwine. This is not just a straight up potrayal of The Hobbit, because well Tolkien wrote The Hobbit first and intended it as a simple story for children and had no connections to his future books beyond setting and select few characters, so this movie does an incredible job laying the seeds of The Lord Of The Rings movies while still telling it's own story. The movie is different in tone as well, whereas Lord Of The Rings was an emotional fantasy epic that dealt with world changing events, The Hobbit is more or a less just a exciting adventure movie set within the world. Either way you cut it, An Unexpected Journey is a great start to a series of films that I can't wait to talk more about. Join me tomorrow as we approach The Lonely Mountain....