The first film in a new trilogy which is a prequel to the Lord of the Rings Trilogy from a decade ago finally hits the big screen after years of starting and stopping. Being the first of the planned three films this one has a lot of set up not unlike Fellowship of the Ring from the other trilogy. Also just like that one the first 30-40 minutes of the film is set in the Hobbitts' homeland of The Shire. It starts with a scene that is set prior to the other trilogy and has an unexpected cameo by a main character from the first trilogy. The film things jumps back 60 years prior to that adventure as we see Bilbo Baggins as a young hobbitt meeting Gandolf the Grey for the first time. We see in flashbacks that the Dwarves were forced out of their mountain home by a great dragon and Gandolf wants to help them to reclaim it with the help of Bilbo. One by one a small groupr of Dwarves arrive at Bilbo's home to go over plans on how to defeat the dragon and take back what was once theirs.The group is small in number but huge in drive and determination to achieve their goal.
Once on the road to the mountain the group come across many of adversaries with the Ogres being the main ones that track and attack them every time they get a chance. One of the new "villains" if you can call them that are best described as enormous rock mountain creatures as they blend in with the mountains. Not truly enemies as they fight amongst themselves but the group are caught up in the crossfires. They also come across friends like the elves who help them with a map that they were having trouble deciphering. Towards the end with the Dwarves, Gandolf and Bilbo all separated from each other fan favorite Gollum pops up and has a very interesting confrontation with Bilbo where a certain little "precious" object makes an appearance.
Verdict : The movie plays like most first parts of trilogies as it mostly sets up the story and characters before the meat of everything comes up in the next two chapters. In my view unlike the Fellowship of the Ring this one had more substantial action for a first chapter. Like the Fellowship, the movie drags while in the Shire but picks once the group departs there. I saw this with the new technology being used, High Frame Rate (HFR), which has 48 frames per second instead of the usual 24 and thought it really adds to the visual. You can really tell the difference and with general special effects so much better now than last time we saw the hobbits all the creatures pop out at you with impressive detail. For fans of the first series there is no question you need to see this if just wanting a good action flick to escape to a THUMBS UP from this viewer. Enjoy and Merry Christmas.
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