The new Hobbit trailer landed online earlier this morning, and Hypable is here to break it down for you. Anticipation for the film is building, so what exactly does the trailer tell us about the first Hobbit film?
The Plot
Tolkien vs Jackson
Before we get started, we have a confession to make. We didn’t hate Arwen in Lord of the Rings. We don’t mind when Peter Jackson makes changes to Tolkien’s story – we don’t love them all – but we don’t inherently hate them. Phew, it’s a relief to get that confession out there.
The problem is, if you start drawing too many book-to-film comparions, you are guaranteed to be disappointed. Die-hard Tolkien fans are unfortunately never going to be satisfied with the films (“Where was Glorfindel?! Elves at Helms Deep?! TOM BOMBADIL?!”), in the same way that die-hard Potter fans were never satisfied with the film adaptations (“MARAUDERS?!”). Although we consider this to be a totally legitimate gripe, we plan on keeping Tolkien’s glorious story and Jackson’s (assumedly) epic interpretation separate, thereby assuring that we’ll enjoy them both.
You are welcome to join us on this quest.
‘Lord of the Rings’ Throwbacks
PJ has gone to great pains to present The Hobbit films as much more of a Lord of the Rings prequel than the book ever was. The first trailer worked hard to establish this, through the opening shot of Lord of the Rings-era Frodo and Bilbo, and the new trailer spends just as much time in Hobbiton to remind us that we are revising the same place; can we just say, Hobbiton looks damn good.
Similarly, the coloring of the trailer is almost identical to the Lord of the Rings trilogy, again to establish a sense of consistency. This trailer didn’t hit us over the head with quite as many references as the previous one did, but we still get the scenes with the ring, the return of fan-favourite Smeagol/Gollum, and Galadriel’s cameo, all the remind the casual viewer of Rings and firmly establish The Hobbit as a prequel.
Additional Material
We’ve previously reported that Jackson will also be adding in extra material from the Lord of the Rings appendices and the trailer gives us a hint at what those scenes could be. You’ll have to excuse us for getting our nerd on for a second here. The appearance of Galadriel (Cate Blanchett), who was absolutely not in the book, points to inclusion of the White Council storyline, which Gandalf runs off to deal with in the book, but we never see.
Plus we keep seeing Gandalf wondering around alone on creepy staircases – we are guessing these scenes are set in Dol Guldur, the fortress of the Necromancer (Benedict Cumberbatch). Again this is briefly mentioned in the book, but never dwelt upon. Yet here’s another Lord of the Rings reference – who does the Necromancer turn out to be? None other than our good friend Sauron. Spoiler: He’s the bad guy.
The Split(s)
Only Peter Jackson could casually mention that he would love to turn the Hobbit franchise into a trilogy, and have it actually happen. Fans are still divided over the merits of this idea, and whether there is even enough material for three films. Still, now the all-consuming question (apart from, “is PJ completely crazy!?”) is this: Where will the split(s) be?
Based on the trailer, our guess is it will be after the Riddles in the Dark scenes the scenes with the wolves and eagles (as some sharp-eyed readers pointed out). We still think there will be a huge focus on the scenes between Bilbo and Gollum, when Bilbo acquires the (in)famous gold ring. That means that, like Fellowship of the Ring, this film will be primarily establishing and introducing.
The second installment is subtitled The Desolation of Smaug, so we imagine that it will end after the defeat of the dragon Smaug. Which leaves There and Back Again to deal with the Battle of the Five Armies, and Bilbo’s return home. Any other guesses?
We were lucky enough to be introduced to the main Hobbit cast in full in the very first teaser trailer, but with the new trailer came a few extra scenes with our beloved Bilbo and Gandalf, as well as the dwarves that will be accompanying them on their journey.
The Cast
Martin Freeman
Yes well, he obviously deserved his own category. He certainly had big hairy Hobbit feet to fill after following Ian Holm, and he still managed to meet and completely surpass our expectations. The success of The Hobbit franchise is really going to rest on Freeman’s shoulders.
Unlike in The Lord of the Rings, where the audience had an entire fellowship to pick and choose from, The Hobbit is absolutely Bilbo’s story – everyone else is just secondary. Yes, even Gandalf, and even Thorin, despite their voice-overs.
The newest trailer doesn’t disappoint. We finally get to see more of Bilbo than him blowing smoke rings and looking worried. With every new scene, our belief in Freeman grows – particularly the glimpse we had at the wonderful troll scene, and of course his interaction with Gollum. Freeman looks completely at home in the role, and we find him absolutely convincing as our young, reluctant Bilbo.
The Dwarves
Oh dear. Well, we understand that Jackson had to go to some lengths and make sure that each dwarf was easy to differentiate. We have the fat one, the one that looks like Santa, etc., but did we miss the part when dwarves became hipsters, and decided to sport ridiculous little goatees like the one on Thorin (Richard Armitage)?
The dwarves are an element that can make or break this film, nothing else is really concerning at the moment. It might end up being like 13 Gimlis, all competing at comedy hour. Jackson has mentioned that The Hobbit will see some fundamental differences from Lord of the Rings, but we’re hoping at this point that the dwarves become something more than just (“Look at the little fat one eat! It’s funny because he’s fat!”) comedic relief.
From the newest trailer we can see Jackson attempting to inject some more serious attributes into the dwarves characters, but we aren’t entirely convinced. This judgement will probably have to wait until we see the final film.
Anticipation
So given all of that, how are we feeling about The Hobbit as a film? As far as we are concerned, December 14 can’t come soon enough. Despite any misgivings about the dwarves, or the intensifying of the Lord of the Rings references, we haven’t forgotten that one magical ingredient – the Peter Jackson factor.
At the end of the day, we will go and see anything that man creates, and The Hobbit looks like it’s going to be a thoroughly enjoyable (and, oh we hate to make use of this fitting yet overused word – oh all right – EPIC) film.
If we can manage to keep Tolkien and Jackson’s Hobbit separate, there is no reason why we won’t love it. The cast is brilliant, the visuals are stunning, and we get more motion capture Andy Serkis – no complaints there. We could still probably lose the hipster dwarves though.
Release dates:
Finding it difficult to keep track? Check out when each of the films will be hitting theatres:
The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey on December 14, 2012
The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug on December 13, 2013
The Hobbit: There and Back Again on July 18, 2014