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The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey – Review Round Up

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Well the first bunch of reviews are in for The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey and they’re not as positive as I (or Peter Jackson for that matter) would have hoped. In fact, some critics have been rather scathing.

Image screen grabbed from official trailer at bottom of post

It’s a far cry from the tidal wave of critical acclaim that accompanied Jackson’s first three Tolkien movies. I can’t say I’m terribly surprised though. When I first heard that The Hobbit (one book which was shorter than each of the three LOTR books) was being split into three movies of epic scale, I started to worry it would feel slow and tedious. Then I realised that it was going to be a trilogy of prequels to one of the most successful movie franchises of all time, and the spectre of The Phantom Menace reared its ugly head in my brain. I nearly puked.

Anyway on to the reviews:

 

Robbie Collin – The Telegraph – 2 stars

It seems that as a big Tolkien fan, Robbie was not a happy chappy:

“This film is so stuffed with extraneous faff and flummery that it often barely feels like Tolkien at all – more a dire, fan-written internet tribute.”

He also was not impressed with the pacing of the movie:

“…half an hour per chapter, or one minute and 20 seconds per page. The work of the sombre Hungarian auteur Béla Tarr, whose grinding tale of apocalyptic poverty The Turin Horse ran to a mere 155 minutes, feels nippy by comparison.”

 

Geoffrey MacNab – The Independent – 3 stars

While not as aggrieved as Robbie Collin, Geoffrey MacNab didn’t seem entirely convinced. His main gripe seemed to be the story failing to move along quickly enough, and he’s certainly in the camp that feels that making 3 epic movies is taking things too far:

“There is a sense of sledgehammers being used to crack nuts in the first part of Peter Jackson’s Hobbit trilogy. J.R.R. Tolkein’s short 1937 novel, a prequel to The Lord Of The Rings, has been turned into an enormous Wagnerian epic by Jackson and his collaborators.”

On a more positive note he wrote:

“Thankfully, Jackson’s flair for action sequences and bold and complex production design hasn’t deserted him. Huge, snarling dogs and a chase sequence involving a wizard played by Sylvester McCoy being pulled by a sledge of super-nimble rabbits add some bite to the storytelling.”

 

Matthew Leyland – Total Film – 5 stars

Leyland was a hell of a lot more positive about the movie. He enjoyed the experience of seeing the movie in the new 48fps format. Leyland also disagreed with the others regarding the pacing:

“In terms of key incidents, AUJ doesn’t burrow too far into Tolkien’s The Lord Of The Rings-predating novel. Yet it rarely feels like Jackson has had the rolling pin out, overstretching the material.

Nudging three hours, it moves at an even clip – and that’s with the plot delayed by two prologues.”

He even ended up waxing lyrical in his summation:

“Charming, spectacular, technically audacious… in short, everything you expect from a Peter Jackson movie. A feeling of familiarity does take hold in places, but this is an epically entertaining first course.”

I for one will definitely be heading along to see The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey in all its 48fps glory. I might not be happy about the book being split into three parts, but there’s no way I’ll be missing out on seeing such a cinematic spectacle.

Will you be going to see The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey? Let us know why/why not in the comments box below.

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