There is probably no film more heavily embargoed this fall than Peter Jackson's "The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey." Even though it premiered on Tuesday in New Zealand, reviews have been under lock and key, but the New York Daily News has decided to risk the wrath of Sauron and posted the first quasi-review/opinion piece about the film. And actually, it's quite positive, though one particular sentence caught our eye.
In Ethan Sacks' report from Middle Earth, aka Wellington, New Zealand where he attended the premiere, he was actually mostly pleased with the film, in particular the new fangled 48fps projection. "The movie offers technological wizardry, thanks to a 48 frames-per-second format, twice the industry standard. Critics who saw a trailer earlier this year were unimpressed, but after a minute or two of adjusting, the higher resolution is eye-popping, similar to discovering HD television for the first time," he wrote. But not everything is great in Frodo town, and Sacks dropped the eleven letters that strikes fear in the heart of every fanboy: Jar Jar Binks.
"Like all unexpected journeys, there are a few pitfalls along the way, most notably the tangential subplot surrounding bumbling wizard Radagast the Brown (Sylvester McCoy), whose buffoonery at times descends into Jar Jar Binks territory," he wrote. Ouch.
But we should stress that overall he found the film to be "faithful to the fantasy world" of the original "Lord of the Rings" trilogy of films in addition to being "lighter and funnier," which isn't a surprise considering the source material is as well. And of course, many, many more opinions on the film — both good and bad — will be coming in the days and weeks ahead. 'An Unexpected Journey' opens on December 14th. [via Movieline]