Movie Friday: The Hobbit--An Unexpected Journey

I saw Peter Jackson's new middle earth extravaganza last weekend, and found it to be a mixed bag at best.  On the plus side, Martin Freeman was very good as Bilbo Baggins, and Ian McKellen held his own as a slightly younger version of Gandalf than we saw 10 years ago.  On the other hand, the dwarves were mostly forgettable; quite a bit less compelling than most of the rest of the Fellowship of the Ring.  The decision to split a fairly brief book into three movies also clearly hurt the story, requiring a lot of filler and extensions of trivial episodes into lengthy set pieces.  Perhaps the most annoying thing for me was the ridiculous overkill when it came to cliffhangers (e.g., the storm giant battle, or the escape from the goblins).  It took all the worst excesses of Jackson's King Kong and amplified them further.  Finally, I saw it in 3D at 48 fps, and found the experience rather exhausting as opposed to entertaining.

Although it seems to be doing all right at the box office, the critical response has been lukewarm, at best.  Here's the trailer.