The original plan was to chat some about The Hobbit in last week’s Cult Spark podcast, but that got bumped in favor of Dark Tower talk when the site unexpectedly went a little Mid-World crazy for a few days. We’ll likely focus on The Hobbit in the next episode, but in the meantime, here’s the spiffy new trailer for the first of the three Hobbit films, An Unexpected Journey, coming Dec. 14:
As you know, I’m wary of Peter Jackson stretching this story over three films, but such concerns seem distant when I’m busy smiling ear to ear over the above two minutes and twenty seconds. Some thoughts …
— Martin Freeman as Bilbo is just some of the best casting ever, especially when you consider that he’s taking over a role previously played by a different actor (Ian Holm, who’s also in The Hobbit as old Bilbo but sits this trailer out). The shot of him running and yelling out, “I’m going on an adventure!” is a highlight here.
— Richard Armitage is going to be a complete badass as Thorin Oakenshield, isn’t he?
— I think the “A dark power has found its way back into the world” part must be ancillary material dealing with the rise of the Necromancer/Sauron, as I can’t immediately recall that scene from The Hobbit text proper.
— One of my worries is that Jackson will try to darken the story of The Hobbit too much to make it flow better into The Lord of the Rings films, but my mind is a little eased by all the humor on display here, including the funny bit with the troll at the end.
— All of the action shots look incredibly epic, especially the stuff on the side of the mountain.
— I bet Hugo Weaving prays every night that these movies turn out better than The Matrix sequels.
— The one ring turning into the “O” in the title graphic surprised me a little, but it leaves no doubt that this is meant to be sold (and probably seen) as a direct and integral prequel to The Lord of the Rings, not as a separate adventure in that same universe with a few of the same characters.
Having just watched the most recently released trailer for The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey, I come away from it feeling reassured. Aside from a couple of dodgy effect shots (what in the hell was that sleigh being pulled by, giant chipmunks?), this looks to be the Lord of the Rings trilogy all over again, just a bit more light hearted. I’m sad that the technology wasn’t in place to allow Peter Jackson to go back in time to the set of Alien and borrow younger Ash for a bit to film this movie but Martin Freeman seems more than up for the task of filling Bilbo’s shoes. There are some truly beautiful shots in this film from what I can see and I’m definitely going to make it a point to catch this somewhere where it’s playing in 48fps, just to see for myself what the difference is. It’s good to see Ian McKellen, Cate Blanchett and Hugo Weaving back in the mix and looking just like they did ten years ago. Those dwarves look pretty awesome as well and I’m sure many kids will walk away from these films with a favorite of theirs in mind. I’m digging that Gollum looks a lot younger and spryer than he did in the original LOTR films but truth be told, I pictured that scene in the cave between him and Bilbo as being a lot darker and scarier. I know it’s too early to gauge how the scene plays out at this point but I’m hoping that Jackson manages to make Gollum, who most of us are already very familiar with at this point, a menacing and dangerous presence in this story.
This looks like it’s going to be fun and a welcome return to the land of Middle Earth. Whether this is a cash grab or not, there’s no denying Jackson’s love for the material, so rather than write this off as ‘hobbit meets thirteen or so Gimlis and goes on a trip with them’, I’ll be checking this out on its first weekend of released based on the assured tone of this trailer. However, I’m still a little unconvinced that we needed three films to adapt this story so we’ll see how THAT little detail plays out over the next year and change.
Agree with you completely on “young Gollum,” Terrence. It’s subtle, but clearly there.