An unexpected movie
One reason I struggled to enjoy the new movie version of The Hobbit was that I reread the book not long ago and has some vague expectation that I would be able to recognize it in the film. That turned out to be harder than I had hoped. Another reason was that I don’t particularly enjoy watching video games, and a large proportion of this film felt more “gamy” than I cared for.
But the most annoying aspect of the film was the humor that seemed out of place. It’s not that humor would be out of place in the Hobbit; but the anachronistic sort of humor (such as the adolescent gag about croquet being a nice game if you have the balls for it) was jarring and tasteless. And the Jabba-the-Hut character (where did he come from?) was as unwelcome to me as Jar-Jar Binks. (Did Spielberg have something to do with this movie?)
There are some enjoyable scenes. Gollum was fantastic, for example. But too much silliness for me to recommend it or to anticipate part two–much less part three.
I was very disappointed in this movie, and actually fell asleep in some places. Couldn’t sleep for long as it seemed that every 5 minutes the sound of a big battle intruded. I think I will re-read The Hobbit and may just skip seeing the next two, although my curiosity of seeing just how they can mess up a truly interesting and fun book may get me into the movie theater again.
I didn’t hear the gag about having the balls for croquet, and is Jar-Jar Binks Radaghast?