So I eagerly went to see this film, trying really hard not to let the hype of this being another epic from Peter Jackson automatically make the film a dissapointment (films rarely live up to the hype of a trilogy where we’ve forgotten all the not so good bits and made the predecessors into the best films ever in our minds, on top of the excitment of delving back into middle earth).

So ignoring all the hype and ignoring the lord of the rings this film was amazing. The Hobbit is a lighter book than it’s sequel and Jackson managed to capture the extra child friendly atmosphere while still showing middle-earth to be a dangerous place.

It started off fairly slow, although no way near as slow as the Fellowship of the ring did and therefore matched the book again. The Hobbit was faster paced and I got the slight sense of must rush off and do this now.

Interestingly enough it was some of the quietest scenes I loved the most. There’s a beautiful scene not too far in where all the dwarves start singing. It’s the one from the trailor so forgive me for mentioning it, those who don’t like spoilers, but it had the entire cinema full of people in total silence, enraptured and I could feel the atmosphere it created in the room.

I do think it helped I was surrounded by a particularly engaged audience. There was a lot of laughter in all the right places and there was a collective ooo, and intake of breath hissed through our teeth when Bilbo said something he shouldn’t have done to one of the dwarves. I really think we all expected him to get a good smack for it.

On top of all that the fantastic cast were back from the first Trilogy. Galadriel being a particular favourite of mine and there were some gems between her and Gandalf. Those two know each other well and are evidently fond of each other.

Armitage made an absolutely fantastic Thorin Oakshield and really brought that role to life and Martin Freeman more than delivered as Bilbo. There was a hint of Frodo with a lot of Bilbo sillyness thrown in. Golem was also back and perfect. Everything had a pre-lord of the rings sort of innocence about it and yet still hinted at what might come later.

I also really liked how they managed to include enough information (depsite the faster pacing than the fellowship) to make sure anyone who hadn’t watched the first set of films would still know enough to understand what was happening. It’s actually made me quite hopeful that when this trilogy is done as well, they can all be watched in chronological order and feel like they belong that way arounfd.

Over all I actually think I liked this film more than one and perhaps even two of the trilogy (it’s going to take a little more to beat Return of The king). I am very excited about seeing the next two and have no qualms that Peter Jackson will manage to make it seem like it should be a trilogy as well. They hinted at quite a few things in this film that are events glossed over in the hobbit book but will be included in the trilogy and I am eager to see what they do with all the appendices material that belongs in this time frame.