The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey

If you have not the read 'The Hobbit' by J.R.R. Tolkein but plan on seeing the film based off of it, I have two tips for you - don't worry if you haven't read it, you practically do not need to with how detailed the film is and that being said, that's because the tiniest book in the series about Middle Earth, The Hobbits and the Lord of the Rings is split into three films, each will probably be as long as the first, which was almost 3 hours long. For once, I probably will NOT complain about how the films don't follow the book. There is a problem with that however - I have not read any of the books. I own 'The Hobbit' and 'The Two Towers' (which is actually the culmination of Books 3 & 4 in the series, 'The Treason of Isengard' and 'The Ring Goes East'. I love when authors do series because it just makes it easier for the world to last for the fans. I am a HUGE fan of the 3 films that are currently out and maybe that's why I haven't read the books yet. Also maybe because reading books out of order annoys the crap out of me and I just can't do it. Who knows? But regardless, when you put the first installment of 'The Hobbit' into the mix, things change a little bit. If you thought the previous Lord of the Rings films were a little long, just wait until you see 'The Hobbit'. I am pretty sure once I read the book, I will not have missed a detail. This film while interesting is VERY long and kind of boring. While I enjoy Middle Earth and everything, it just felt very drawn out. Yes, there was lots of action and plenty of new information that I did not know about, but the problem is, I cannot imagine sitting through two more films like that. Maybe it's because we went to the late night showing and I know tomorrow will be tiring because we will be in a car for 6 hours, but even still, to sit there for 3 hours when maybe 3 days has progressed in the story that takes much longer is a little taxing on your brain. It also makes you scream why and talk back to the movie. I did that a lot. But I do that for every movie, it seems. This film does totally fit into the series. There are the travel montages and the huge action scenes, the fights with the orcs, the ridiculous ideas they come up with that make you facepalm, it is definitely a part of the series. Probably the most interesting part is the casting - two things that just would not leave my mind during the film and maybe affected my taste of the film was that Martin Freeman as the younger Bilbo and Christopher Lee as Saruman. While Lee plays Saruman in all of the films, the previous films came out before another role that my minds put him in; Dr. Wonka, Willy Wonka's father in Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. All I saw was that for Lee but what was even worse was poor Freeman, who I have recently seen cast as John Watson in Sherlock, the BBC series. While Freeman is not type-cast, he has the same ticks when acting regardless of the character and I kept going back to Sherlock and John Watson than thinking he was Bilbo Baggins, which quite frankly is obnoxious. Both men are amazing at what they do and are FAN-TASTIC in this film, so do not let it deter you from seeing the film. I suppose I can better give my view of this film once I have a) read the book and b) have seen all 3 portions of the film, which sadly won't be until 2014, which thankfully means that fans and probably managers will be pushing for them to get done quicker so that everyone can enjoy the story nicely. So, until next time--