Top Ten Reasons Why You Should See ‘The Hobbit’ (Even If You’re Not a LOTR Fan)

While I am not a fan of franchise spin-offs or basically just plain milking things, I actually found The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey entertaining. And although I’m not really a fan of The Lord of the Rings trilogy, I did find this film to be quite amusing. At first, I was hesitant at the thought of watching something I knew I was sure not to like, but as soon as the first half hour went by, I found myself enwrapped within the tale of hobbit Bilbo Baggins. Then I began to wonder how many people might actually like this film, even though they cannot stand the Rings trilogy. So in hopes of persuading some of you non-fans, behold my reasons for why you should see the movie.

10. It’s shorter than the other 3 Lord of the Rings movies

I was very tempted to put this as my number one, but I decided to put the “pros of the cons” first. (That makes sense if you think about it.) The shortest of the Rings trilogy is 178 minutes (2 hours 58 minutes), and the longest is 201 minutes (3 hours 21 minutes). So while The Hobbit is only 9 minutes shorter, those nine minutes could mean 9 minutes less of talking time, which leads me to my next point. . .

9. A lot less talk

Compared to the other three, the film features half an hour of a “current” scene (since it does follow Bilbo Baggins through his life, so the entire film is a narration), which is all talk, and then fragments of speech and fighting throughout the film. And better yet, the talk…

8. It’s pretty comedic

While the comedy might seem corny at times, the talking scenes go by quickly because of the comedy written in the dialogue. Whether it’s Bilbo Baggins trying to save his own life or the dwarves eating everything in Bilbo’s house, the movie picks up and you start to become engaged with the film.

7. It’s a lot more action-packed.

I like to think of the film as almost like the later Harry Potter films, like Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. It has a lot of action and talk mixed together, but  it’s the action that really steals the show. You have Ian McKellen’s badassery by splitting a rock with his staff, and you even have the 13 dwarves surviving a real life “Rock ‘Em Sock ‘Em” game between two stone mountains.

6. You didn’t have to watch The Lord of the Rings trilogy to understand this film.

Not much prior information is needed to watch the film. Sure, many of the characters from the trilogy are in this spin-off, but they are reintroduced immediately to Bilbo, so the new audience members learn everything with Bilbo.

5.  It’s a lot less gritty and more visually appealing than the LOTR trilogy.

Maybe it might be because of the technological advances we’ve made in the ten years since the trilogy was released, but the color and whimsy of the film really pop out. The color of the forests and the animals really stuck out for me, but I think Peter Jackson’s 48 frames per second worked against him, since the action and high-movement scenes were quite blurry.

4.  It has a lot more “English.”

By English, I mean words that would be understandable. I’m not saying that the towns and the names of places and people were changed; I mean that the words created by J. R. R. Tolkien are explained within the film, which goes back to number 6 – you don’t need know anything from LOTR going into this film.

3. No absurd reasoning.

By this I mean that the sequences perfectly fit with what you would consider a fantasy film. Trolls turn to stone once light touches them – perfectly reasonable. The main plot also is reasonable – a dragon destroyed the dwarves’ land, which included the door to Middle Earth. Gandalf has the key to the door, and all the dwarves have to do is find it before the Orcs (simply put: the enemy) get there.

2. Just like The Hunger Games, it’s all people are going to talk about.

It’s like the sophisticated version of the Twilight Saga, it’s pretty big. It beat out the record that I Am Legend set for the top December Friday box office gain, earning $37.5 million on Friday. It also expected to make $85-95 million this weekend, which will beat I Am Legend’s $77.2 million in December of 2007, and it beat out The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King record of $34.5 million. In addition to the box office revenue, there is some speculation that the film will win the Oscar for best hair and make-up.

1. It’s full of wonder and awe.

Yes, I end this with the reasoning that it is a fantasy movie, and it’s just fun to watch. This film is the difference between Twilight and The Wizard of Oz. By that, I mean if you found the LOTR trilogy boring, you really wouldn’t find this one boring – as much.

Check out the official site here; you can make yourself a dwarf just like one of the characters from The Hobbit. Also, check out our review of The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey here.