Triple Bill Mini Musings: Hobbits, Sounds, and Cockneys...

The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey:
What's it about?
Peter Jackson & Co return to Middle Earth with Lord of the Rings prequel The Hobbit (a new three-part movie extravaganza), where a young Bilbo Baggins is reluctantly pulled into a quest with a collection of Dwarves to take back their home from the dragon Smaug.
Who would I recognise in it?
Martin Freeman, Ian Holm, Ian McKellan, Cate Blanchett, James Nesbitt, Richard Armitage, Ken Stott, Graham McTavish, Hugo Weaving, Elijah Wood, Christopher Lee, Andy Serkis, Sylvester McCoy.
Great/Good/Alright/Shite?
If you didn't like The Lord of the Rings trilogy, you won't like this, but inversely, if you were into those films (or, indeed, the original texts) then you should be happy here. A lovingly crafted fantasy world, unending glory shots for the New Zealand tourist board, Orcs, Elves, Dwarves, Hobbits, Goblins and so on - you know what to expect by this point if you're familiar with "the other trilogy" that took the cinematic world by storm in the early 2000s. It has to be said though, that the pace is a bit slow up front - there's only so much time you can spend at the dinner table in the company of Dwarves before you start thinking "shouldn't we be cracking on with this quest of yours?", and those who complained about the LOTR trilogy being nothing but 'three movies about people walking' (the Randall Graves' of this world) won't be in any danger of changing their tune.

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