So how to explain this one?

First off… I had the slight inkling that this was Lord of the Rings: Fellowship of the Ring except with smaller people and uneven pacing and more fun? I think that pretty much sums it up. (And the LOTRProject appears to agree with me)

There are twelve dwarves on a quest to regain the mountain their forefathers have been driven away from… with the help of Gandalf they went on a search to find a final member of their little entourage and Gandalf decided to engage the use of a Hobbit… particularly Bilbo Baggins of the Shire.

Well what happened there after is a long series of unfortunate events where the endgame includes managing to find a way to the elven territory of Rivendell…

Anyone else see a pattern or is it just me?

Heck I can’t even get a quick list down other than to say that I liked it…

I liked it… but I didn’t love it. Then again I don’t know The Hobbit enough to be able to wage anything one way or another.

Bilbo Baggins really did it for me this time around… I have to admit I liked him a lot more than Frodo. Where Frodo was a bit more serious and reserved… Bilbo just likes to talk and doesn’t know how or when to just shut up and that is just fine and dandy with me. Then again… when told repeatedly that The Hobbit is a lot more light hearted and fun when in comparison to Lord of the Rings… can’t say that I am surprised, they are two different tones and in the grand scheme of things I did find myself laughing out loud at points.

There were times where I found myself bored with the pacing of the film, but they seem to be rather sporadic and not consistent in the where I got bored. However, the fight / battle scenes were far more entertaining to see in The Hobbit than in Lord of the Rings.

Unfortunately for me… I was doing a lot of comparison work between The Hobbit and Lord of the Rings… so I think down the road I am going to have to rewatch The Hobbit a few more times so I could truly understand the differences and to help myself in differentiating the dwarves apart… because right now I am having trouble.

And I will admit, I was trying to figure out if there was going to be a major death at the end of the first of three movies like in The Lord of the Rings trilogy, but they got me fooled there… ah well. 😛

The scene(s) that truly captured my attention was one in Rivendell where Gandalf was speaking to the elves and Saruman. They were trying to figure out what was going on and Galadriel had a look that showed that she had a stronger sense of the larger picture than Elrond and Saruman (but considering how Saruman fared in The Lord of the Rings trilogy I am not surprised).

The other scene would be during the “Riddles” chapter (I believe) where Bilbo and Gollum were having a game of riddles and Bilbo had the Ring in his pocket and as thus stumped Gollum… But by extension there was a whole sequence of Gollum chasing Bilbo and trying to get the ring back while BIlbo was trying to escape and join up with the dwarves.

At the end I am intrigued enough to want to know what happens in the second and third installments… but I think I need to find time to get around to reading the Hobbit first, just so I know what is actually coming from the original novel and what is coming from either the Silmarrilion (which is my favorite) or the Appendices from The Lord of the Rings.