Most Enjoyable Fantasy Trilogy
I've enjoyed The Hobbit story in all media for some time, so I decided to get the 4K version and was not disappointed. As we all know, there are three films: An Unexpected Journey, The Desolation of Smaug, and The Battle of the Five Armies. All serve as the prequel to the other well-known Tolkien trilogy, The Lord of the Rings. I'm aware of the negative press surrounding the Hobbit trilogy, but to be perfectly honest, I found this series of movies to be more enjoyable than the Lord of the Rings trilogy. I'm not saying they're better movies. I'm saying that they're more enjoyable. The Lord of the Rings is very well made with great story and action. The Hobbit just seems to have more fun going about it. I was really taken in by the Dwarves in the first film. In LOTR, the Dwarves seemed to all look alike (from what we saw) and Gimli was really the only example we had of them. In The Hobbit, the Dwarves had far better character development and a great look to them. They all looked unique and had specific personalities. After that, the rest was just fun. I really enjoyed Martin Freeman's portrayal of Bilbo Baggins. Granted, there was a lot of "filler" put into the story in order to spread out one book into three long films. I'm also aware of the wrath of the purists as there were story elements inserted that didn't appear in the original book. However, even with all of the additives, the basic plot was not lost. We also can't ignore the best Dragon seen on the screen: Smaug. I loved what they did with Smaug and how they really gave him a presence in all three of the films. There's also the Extended Versions of the films and these just made me enjoy the series even more. They fleshed out story elements and scenarios even further and also restored some scenes that were originally in the book but not in the theatrical release. I was very surprised to learn that the Extended Cut of the third movie is R-rated. The Theatrical version is PG-13 as are all of the other films in the series. However, the battle scenes in the final film do get really intense and graphic at times, so I can see the R-rating. This is something to consider if you plan on watching this series with your kids. The package is good. 4K picture and sound is as great as can be expected. There is so much more detail that I didn't catch on the Blu-Ray copies, so I'm really happy with what's on the screen for both Theatrical and Extended cuts. As for the package itself, it would be good to warn you that this package just has the 4K discs. There are no other formats in the package such as Blu-Ray or Digital Copy. There are also no special features on any of the discs. There are just 6 discs with 2 versions of each of the 3 films and that's it. So, if you had copies of these films on Blu-Ray and enjoyed the special features, you may want to consider keeping them alongside of this 4K package. All in all, a great Fantasy series and has quickly become my favorite. Highly recommended! Read more
