Movie News: The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey
Editor’s note: today’s blog post is brought to us by our editorial assistant, Ashley Van Eysinga. Enjoy!
Who wants to go on an adventure? I know I do! I was lucky enough to attend a special screening of The Hobbit: An Unexpected Adventure earlier this week, surrounded by superfans of the previous Lord of the Rings movies and The Hobbit book.
The Hobbit: An Unexpected Adventure is the first of three films based on the famous book by J.R.R. Tolkien. The story follows a hobbit (small guy with hairy feet) named Bilbo Baggins. Bilbo’s the type of hobbit who likes to stay at home with his books and maps. He keeps his house very tidy, and lives a very calm and comfortable life. That is, until the wizard Gandalf shows up at his front door and asks him to go on an adventure. At first, Bilbo says no. But then 13 dwarves burst into his house, eat all his food, and somehow convince him to take a chance and join them on their journey to reclaim their lost kingdom.
Here are are a few things I noticed about the movie:
1. It’s long. And I mean, l-o-n-g! You are about to settle in for a three-hour movie. I suggest you have a snack handy (I know I needed one halfway through!).
2. It has super special effects. The director, Peter Jackson, used a new type of technology to film The Hobbit in 3-D. In a normal 3-D movie, you will see 24 frames (a single picture or still shot) in a second. But with the new HFR (High Frame Rate), you will see 48 frames in a second. The goal of this technology is to make the images move faster, and therefore, look more realistic. Does it work? Pretty much. Although, sometimes the images were almost moving too fast for me, making it hard to focus on anything. But the big, wide scenery shots looked awesome.
3. It’s a bit scary. Mostly because of the orcs. Those guys are very mean and they want to get their hands on the dwarves. If you don’t like scary stuff, you probably won’t like them!
4. It left me wanting more. Throughout the whole movie, I was waiting for the big battle. But that won’t happen for another two movies. This movie sets up all the details you need in order to understand why the dwarves are on their quest. But you will definitely be asking yourself, what’s next? And you’re going to have to wait until the next movie to find out (unless, of course, you read or have read the book!).
Fans of the book or the Lord of the Rings movies will want to check this one out, for sure. But just a warning: there are some scary scenes, so if that’s not your thing, you may want to skip this one.
The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey is in theatres today. If you go see it this weekend, come back and tell us what you thought!
-Ashley, owlblog@owlkids.com
