The Hobbit - Worth Seeing?

Oh yeah - The Hobbit is MOST EXCELLENT! The book is not one of my favorites, I've never been fond of it. But the movie was scrumptious and it was absolutely fabulous to be back in Middle-earth again.

Chickie and I had tickets to the 12:01 am showing in the IMAX 3-D theatre. All 14 screens in the movie complex were showing The Hobbit, either in 2-D, 3-D or 3-D IMAX. Because we were at the IMAX showing we were given the set of four international posters - Bilbo, Gandalf, Gollum and Thorin. Lovely additions to my wall full of Middle-earth maps and my houseful of Tolkien books and artwork.

We waited in a long line mostly populated by younger "kids" who easily could have been my grandchildren. I had a great conversation with a lovely young man next to me for more than an hour about all sorts of trivial stuff - Game of Thrones, Tolkien, Star Wars, etc. He was a lot of fun and we seemed to hit it off well.  Many people were dressed up - I saw several Gandalfs, a few Arwen dresses, at least one Galadriel dress and lots of capes since they are easy to wear over Minnesota winter wear. There were books, Frodo dolls, candy of all kinds, phones and portable video game players being used by many of the waiting kids. Finally after a last check of our tickets we were allowed into the theatre. We got into the row we wanted in the center seats, settled down, and after another half hour and some previews (the new Star Trek movie looks like it will be pretty awesome) the music of Howard Shore hit and once again I was transported to another world and time.

I still think that the dwarven hairstyles are mostly just this side of totally ridiculous, but Thorin was excellent, I enjoyed Balin, Fili and Kili. Gandalf got to be much more wizardly than in LOTR, and Elrond, Galadriel and Thranduil (yes, you do get a small look) were marvelous. Imladris was as stunning as before, still coming close to my ideal place to live. Erebor was amazing - large, deep, multi-leveled and filled with dwarves. The story - always a bit impossible, suddenly became credible.

And then there was Gollum. Beautifully portrayed as both heartbreaking and insane, the characterization was by far the best of all of the characters and so perfect. Andy Serkis absolutely rocks!

So...is The Hobbit worth seeing? OH YES! See it again and again and again because just seeing Middle-earth again makes hearts soar. And Radagast and his bunny sleigh is pretty fun too...