The Hobbit; My Most Anticipated Movie of the Year

Its back to Middle Earth and for me, this movie was definitely unexpected; especially a three movie trilogy of one prequel. Who would have thought that Peter Jackson would  return to Middle Earth to film the least famed of the Tolkien stories The Hobbit, and then make it a trilogy. Furthermore, he is filming this series digitally, in 5k resolution, and in 3D. Jackson is simply pulling out all the stops on this one, which is why I want to see the movie so badly.



I had read The Lord of the Rings, and watched the movies, thoroughly enjoying all the time I spent in Tolkien's and Jackson's beautiful Middle Earth, and even though these books and movies reign supreme over the under appreciated prequel that is The Hobbit, I am more enthused about this movie than any of the others. Personally, I fancied The Hobbit over the other stories because I found it more engaging and a little less romanticized. It was more tight and written so the reader wasn't forced to take in too much all at once. I expect the movie to be on an equal level as my favorite Tolkien book and so far, the behind the scenes videos and trailers seem to show the movie living up to my immense expectations.

One great part of the new movie series are the actors. One of my favorite actors, Martin Freeman, who plays Watson in the BBC series Sherlock, taking the role of Bilbo Baggins. In the trailers and other tit bits shown so far, Freeman pulls of Bilbo's homely, curious, and adventurous character perfectly and I honestly couldn't picture anyone else in the role. Additionally, many actors from The Lord of the Rings series are returning to reprise their roles. Sir Ian McKellen returns as Gandalf, the powerful wizard and Bilbo's guide and friend. Kate Blanchett plays Lady Galadriel, the elven queen, and Legolas (played by Orlando Bloom) and Frodo (Elijah Wood) return in some way to Middle Earth. This brings up one interesting choice by Peter Jackson, which is to bring characters that appeared in The Lord of the Rings books, but not in The Hobbit, into the film in order to establish a more clear connection between the stories. I am excited to see how Jackson ties in these additional characters and remain optimistic that it won't tarnish the core story in anyway.

Hopefully, Jackson will make The Hobbit at least as magnificent as his Lord of the Rings films, and better yet, surpass those films and really take The Hobbit above and beyond expectations.