The Hobbit - An Unexpected Journey

I've read the Hobbit and Lord of the Rings 4 times.  The first time I read it as a teenager, I cried at the end of the Return of the King.  Not because of the ending, but because the author was not writing any more books - that was it.  I've been feeling the same way with the Lord of the Rings movies, and very excited to see The Hobbit - An Unexpected Journey.

Since I am such a Tolkien junkie, I shelled out the extra cash and watched the movie at The Grand IMAX 3D adventure bringing my two children - 11 and 8 years old.

Rants and Raves gives this movie 4 RAVES - a great adventure, keeping close to the stories in the book, and where they added it was a nice tie in into the beloved characters of the Lord of the Rings.  Many of the same actors in the trilogy return for the prequel.

The story of Bilbo Baggins Unexpected Journey with a gang of 13 dwarves to the Lonely Mountain to slay a dragon and return a home, is not just visually stimulating, but the conversations are quick and sometimes funny, the content not overwhelming with the introduction of characters and setting of scenes.  What I particularly loved about the movie was the references to The Lord of the Rings, how watching the other movies and reading the books, they did a great job of tying it all together.

Gollum in this movie shows his more sinister side, where in Lord of the Rings you almost felt sorry for him.  You understood in the first how corrupted by the ring he was, and being away from it for a while softened him a bit.

The dwarves in this movie were fantastic.  I never in reading the books ever thought a dwarf could be good looking, but the casting in the movie actually made a few of them pretty sexy.  Taking cue from Aragon, they created a prince that you enjoyed looking at while rooting for.  There was a lot of comedy between the dwarves that helped make the fights between the Orc, Goblins and trolls much easier.

I did not give this 5 stars just due to noise, the IMAX theatre totes that it immerses you in the experience but they didn't need to blow your ears off as part of it.  Boys, who are used to video games, mp3 players with headphones that said it was too loud, meant it really was too loud.  I made ear plugs out of napkins for the boys and that helped them with the movie.  Also, the 10 minute Star Trek preview on top of 4 other previews was really not necessary on top of a 2 hour 46 minute movie.

So go see the Hobbit, An Unexpected Journey - IMAX or not.  If you are a fan of the movies or the books or both - this is a great addition to the journey.

Playing at local theaters including the Winston Salem Grand 18 in both 2D and 3D IMAX Adventure.