Post Published on January 20, 2013.
Last Updated on July 12, 2021 by davemackey.
My sister (Anne) had her birthday this past Saturday and as part of the celebration a few of us went out to see Peter Jackson’s The Hobbit: The Unexpected Journey. I was eager to celebrate my sister’s birthday, but not as eager to see the film. While I enjoyed the Lord of the Rings trilogy I thought The Hobbit movie would be slower, I had a sermon to prepare and so on. I was greatly and pleasantly surprised.
I haven’t read The Hobbit in fifteen years but as far as I could tell the film stayed fairly close to the storyline. While some have complained that the humor in the film makes it too light-hearted and reduces its faithfulness, I felt that the film perfectly reflected the lighter tone of The Hobbit.
The film is filled with beautiful landscapes, intense battles, and plenteous humor. It deserves its PG-13 rating for the intense violence, but otherwise contains no objectionable elements. Interestingly, it does include several rolling heads – as opposed to the one we saw in the first Lord of the Rings film, which seemed (at the time) to be pushing the PG-13 rating.
Martin Freeman really makes the movie with his portrayal of Bilbo and those who have seen BBC’s Sherlock will recognize Bilbo as the affable Dr. James Watson.
If you haven’t seen the film yet, I highly recommend it…and then you can wait with eagerness like me for the sequel to come out next Christmas.
Ohh, and the extended time spent with Smeagol/Gollum was amazing and hilarious.