The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey (2012) 
The original Lord of the Rings trilogy was positively epic, showcasing the world of Middle Earth on the grandest of scales, providing us with deeply rich characters and satisfying action scenes. With that in mind, I was very excited to hear that they were making another trilogy based on The Hobbit
, starting with this first movie, An Unexpected Journey.
This is a prequel to the original trilogy, following the adventures of hobbit Bilbo Baggins. He is accompanying a company of dwarves and they end up going on a grand adventure together, along with Gandalf the Wizard. This is great for providing a lot of back story, like why dwarves and elves don’t get along. We also meet Smeagol/Gollum. He has a single extended scene with Bilbo, which I thought was the most entertaining part of the movie.
If you’re already a big fan of LOTR, then you really do have to watch The Hobbit. That being said, I don’t feel that this film holds up to the original trilogy. There are many drawn-out and unnecessary sequences, giving me the feeling that they stretched things out just so they could make another three hour movie and not because the plot necessarily warranted a three hour duration. It’s not quite as rich and complex as I had hoped, but this could simply be setting the stage for the next two films. We’ll find out soon enough.
Ted (2012)
Did you have a teddy bear as a child? Did you wish that Teddy could actually walk and talk, conversing with you like a real person? That wish really did come true for Mark Wahlberg‘s character in Ted. And Seth MacFarlane of Family Guy fame provides the voice of Ted.
You get that signature irreverent comedy style that we’ve come to expect from MacFarlane, so you can expect a lot of bathroom humor. Ted
If Ted were replaced with a human being, this movie would be like any other buddy comedy. It’s formulaic and predictable. Even so, I enjoyed my 106 minutes and would recommend this “freakin’ sweet” movie to anyone who likes Family Guy.
Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter (2012)
What if we only knew half the story of Honest Abe? Based on the spoof novel of the same name, Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter
Yes, this is entirely a different kind of vampire movie and while it has quite the unique concept, the execution left something to be desired. The movie suffers from very uneven pacing, going very slow one moment and then suddenly advancing 20 years the next. The slaying scenes were reasonably satisfying, especially with the totally unbelievable physics, but the narrative ultimately fails Lincoln. Maybe Pride and Prejudice and Zombies will be better?
The Raid: Redemption (2011)
When I went over to my friend’s house and he said he had an Indonesian movie for us to watch, I wasn’t really sure what to expect. I’ve seen movies from Hong Kong, Korea, Japan and other parts of Asia, but I don’t think I’ve ever seen anything from Indonesia. After watching The Raid: Redemption
There is an urban apartment complex that appears to be overrun with organized crime. A police squad prepares for a raid, presumably to take down the crime syndicate housed within. Along the way, we learn more and more of the back story, but the real reason why you’d watch this movie is for the action. It’s all expertly choreographed, satisfying our needs for both firefights and for hand-to-hand combat. You get busted walls, broken limbs, and brutal fist fights. The narrative could be stronger, but it does move along at a healthy pace and action junkies will certainly get their fill.
The Hobbit is the only one of these movies that I am inclined to spend money on. Of course that would be because I saw the LOTR trilogy and it seems only logical to see how they fill the back story.
Have you read the books?
Not the Hobbit. I bought all the LOTR book for my wife as a present when we were dating. She is an extremely big fan, but just haven’t had time to read any of them.
“There are many drawn-out and unnecessary sequences, giving me the feeling that they stretched things out”
I agree completely, a few of the scenes went on way longer than they needed to.
That said, I’ve frequently heard criticism of this trilogy stating that the book is about the length of just one of The Lord of the Rings books, and those were two books to a movie (roughly). What I think many people don’t realise is just how compressed the original book was. Events were described in a few short paragraphs that realistically *require* a lot of expansion in order to appear on screen without being too fast-paced. Obviously here they’ve gone too far the other way, but I still don’t think it’s too much of a stretch to get 3 films from The Hobbit, especially when you add in all the juicy bits about the White Council, and other stuff alluded to in the book, or things that occurred between The Hobbit and LotR.