Ariana Reid THE HOBBIT MOVIE REVIEW

SUMMARY At the beginning, Bilbo is sitting outside smoking a pipe when Gandalf appears. They engage in conversation, but as soon as Bilbo could see where he could get away, he did. He went inside his hobbit-hole and waited for Gandalf to leave. Gandalf then put a mark on the hobbit’s door. Around one-two days later, Bilbo was eating breakfast and got a knock on his door; the knock belonged to one of 13 dwarves. That dwarf came in and another came. It happened this way until all 13 dwarves (Gandalf was also with them) were at Bilbo’s home, but they were unexpected. At Bilbo’s home, the dwarves proceeded to talk about their plan to retrieve their treasure and home from the dragon Smaug. They needed a 14 th person for their adventure and Gandalf had chosen Bilbo. Throughout the adventure, Bilbo and the dwarves have confrontations with trolls, goblins, wargs, and orcs. At the end, eagles come to save Bilbo and the dwarves from evil.

MOVIE VS. NOVEL The movie is slightly different from the novel. There are some things from the Lord of the Rings that were added to the movie, like the necromancer. There is also a little more action added to the movie than there is in the book. For example, the movie showed Smaug taking the kingdom and treasure from the dwarves and shows the war that happened afterwards. This did not come up in the book, which added more action to the movie. These changes do work because it makes The Hobbit seem more like a prelude to The Lord of the Rings series, which is what it is meant to be, and makes the movie a little more exciting. The director may have made these changes to make the movie more appealing to viewers.

THEMES Themes in the novel: Heroism: In the beginning of the story, Bilbo was timid, or somewhat cowardly, and wanted to stay in his hobbit-hole. As the book progresses, Bilbo becomes a lot more brave. His bravery shows as he confronts the trolls in chapter 2, escaping with Gollum’s ring, slaying the spider(s), and talking to Smaug. Before he did any of this, he had doubt in his mind, but he went through with it and didn’t turn back. In the movie, Bilbo had saved Thorin from an orc/goblin by killing that orc. Bilbo saw that the orc was going to kill Thorin (he was on the ground), so Bilbo decided to kill it. Good vs. Evil: In the novel, the good are Bilbo, the dwarves, the elves, eagles, and anyone who helped the dwarves. The bad in the novel are the goblins and wargs. The good and bad in the novel are also the good and bad in the movie. The dwarves and Bilbo are trying to take back the treasure from Smaug (which was originally theirs). The goblins/orcs and Wargs are trying to take the treasure from Smaug, while trying to stop the dwarves along the way (they do this by trying to kill them).

THORIN In the movie, Thorin seemed more like the hero than Bilbo did. There was more of Thorin in the movie than Bilbo. By this, I mean that Thorin was showed more than Bilbo. For example, near the end of the movie, when the orcs and Wargs found the dwarves, Thorin was the one to go fight with the “main” orc. Thorin also seemed to accept Bilbo more (he was nicer to Bilbo) than he did in the book. In the book, Bilbo seemed to be more of the hero than Thorin did. In the book, Thorin did do courageous things, but Bilbo did more. He saved the dwarves from the spiders, confronted the trolls (even though he didn’t want to go), and talked to Smaug. Thorin was mainly the leader of the dwarves in the book.

HIGHLIGHTS/WEAKNESSES OF MOVIE Highlights: There was a lot of action for the number of chapters showed The movie kept the same characters (director didn’t take out any) The movie made it seem more like a prelude to The Lord of the Rings The movie showed Smaug taking over the treasure in Dale, which was not mentioned in the book Weaknesses: New characters were added (if someone has only read The Hobbit and not The Lord of the Rings series, it would have been confusing as to who those characters were)

MOVIE OR NOVEL Personally, I prefer the movie. I prefer the movie because I am not that fond of reading books, but I’ll read graphic novels free willingly, and the movie had action. The movie provided action in parts that the book didn’t. For example, the movie showed Smaug taking over the treasure in Dale, when in the book, it wasn’t even described. The book was good in the middle to the end, but the beginning of the book was boring. The beginning of the book was also the part that pertained to the movie (around chapters 1-6).

MOVIE RATING I would give the movie a 5 out of 5 stars. I would give it this rating because it had a lot of action, for how many chapters they showed, and it was a close adaptation of the book. I would recommend this movie for people who enjoy the Lord of the Rings series. People who like the Lord of the Rings series will most likely enjoy this movie because it serves as a prelude to the Lord of the Rings movies, even though it was filmed after the Lord of the Rings was. I would also recommend this movie for people who like action movies since there was a lot of action. The movie showed the fighting between the Orcs and the dwarves, how Smaug took over the treasure in Dale, etc.

FAITHFUL OR NO? The movie is a faithful adaptation of the book. It showed most of the parts that were in the chapters 1-6, while adding a little more action into it. The movie showed the dwarves and Gandalf inside Bilbo’s hobbit-hole discussing their plan to take back the treasure from Smaug, Bilbo deciding to go on the adventure, Bilbo and the dwarves’ encounter with the trolls, and the dwarves in the goblin kingdom. It also showed Bilbo’s encounter with Gollum.