The Hobbit

This week's movie rental was The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey ...

a 2012 epic fantasy adventure film directed by Peter Jackson. It is the first installment of a three-part film series based on the 1937 novel The Hobbit by J. R. R. Tolkien.

I first read the book when I was a teen and I still recall that line in the beginning which Gandalf speaks to Bilbo in the Shire ... I am looking for someone to share in an adventure :) Some of the characters in this film, the story of which precedes The Lord of the Rings, are familiar from that earlier film series, including Gandalf, of course ...



But this segment of the film series dwells mostly on Bilbo, who is played by Sherlock's Dr. Watson :), and on the leader of a company of dwarves, Thorin Oakenshield ....



My favorite character, though, was the wizard, Radagast the Brown, who had a special relationship with animals. He had hedgehog friends ...



And he had a neat sleigh that was pulled at super speeds by bunnies :) ...



I didn't feel the movie was as good as LOTR, but then I didn't like The Hobbit novel as much as the LOTR novels either - the earlier story lacks the drama and moral high stakes of the later story. I guess that's why Jackson added a lot to the movie that wasn't in the book in an effort to make it both more exciting and more serious. Unfortunately, it didn't really work all that well for me, but still, it was worth a watch. You can read the review in The Guardian here. One thing I did especially like about the movie was the song the dwarves sang ...