After getting into the Lord of the Rings trilogy back in the late 2000s, my brother and I became interested in seeing the prequel trilogy in spite of many people being skeptical of the concept. After seeing it back in 2012, I thought it was a very good movie. It's not a perfect one and it lacks the spark of the original trilogy, but at least a lot of effort was put into it and doesn't suffer from terrible writing (*cough Fantastic Beasts sequels cough*)
My only problems is that it does have a little too much padding and some of the CGI could have been more polished.
That being said, everything else is done very well. While the story suffers from too much padding, it does retain the spirit of the Hobbit book while also connecting it to original trilogy's tone (in my opinion at least), the cinematography is just as stunning, Howard Shore's music is beautiful as is the song (Misty Mountain), the costumes are well crafted, and the acting from everyone involved is superb especially Martin Freeman as Bilbo Baggins and Richard Armitage as Thorin Oakenshield. Plus is was nice to see the other actors return especially Ian McKellen, Christopher Lee, Cate Blanchett, Hugo Weaving, and Andy Serkis in the same roles.
Overall, The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey isn't a perfect film and I understand where people are coming from, but it's a very good start to the prequel after 10 years.
My only problems is that it does have a little too much padding and some of the CGI could have been more polished.
That being said, everything else is done very well. While the story suffers from too much padding, it does retain the spirit of the Hobbit book while also connecting it to original trilogy's tone (in my opinion at least), the cinematography is just as stunning, Howard Shore's music is beautiful as is the song (Misty Mountain), the costumes are well crafted, and the acting from everyone involved is superb especially Martin Freeman as Bilbo Baggins and Richard Armitage as Thorin Oakenshield. Plus is was nice to see the other actors return especially Ian McKellen, Christopher Lee, Cate Blanchett, Hugo Weaving, and Andy Serkis in the same roles.
Overall, The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey isn't a perfect film and I understand where people are coming from, but it's a very good start to the prequel after 10 years.