Science Fiction World

The first full trailer for Peter Jackson's long awaited and highly anticipated adaptation of The Hobbit has been released and it is a glorious vision, to be sure.

While it is a delight to be reacquainted with Ian Mckellen as Gandalf, Andy Serkis as Gollum, Cate Blanchett as Galadriel, as well as the landscape of Middle Earth itself and even Howard Shore's magnificent score, it is better by far to witness Martin Freeman absolutely nail the young Bilbo Baggins.

Equally impressive is the company of Dwarves led by Richard Armitage as Thorin Oakenshield. As much as I enjoyed John Rhys-Davies as Gimli in The Lord of the Rings trilogy, his movement always seemed excessively cumbersome to me, especially when in combat, but those (perhaps technical) issues appear to have been eliminated and the new breed of dwarf has been impressively rendered. Given the prominence of the Dwarves in the story of The Hobbit, this is a welcome development.

The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey is the first of two movies adapting J.R.R. Tolkien's classic of fantasy literature, The Hobbit. The screenplay is by Fran Walsh, Philippa Boyens and Peter Jackson (the team responsible for adapting The Lord of the Rings), with the addition of Guillermo del Toro, who was involved with the project as director until delays in production forced his departure. The two movies are being shot consecutively in 3D, with the first scheduled for release on 14 December 2012.

Here's the latest poster: