'The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey' Trailer Proves Peter Jackson Still Has It

To be honest, I wasn't as exited about the upcoming Hobbit movies as others were.  The Lord of the Rings trilogy was a masterful fantasy epic, but something didn't feel right about giving The Hobbit the same treatment.  It takes place in the same world, but has a wildly different style than the beloved trilogy, and I was worried that Peter Jackson would try to make it more epic then it should be.  Does the newly released trailer end my skepticism?  No, but it does a very good job of lowering it.

The dwarves, for starters, look and act exactly like they should, the perfect blend of silly and serious.  That song strikes just the right chord for what the atmosphere should be: haunting, but not too dark.  Martin Freeman is a perfect casting choice for Bilbo Baggins, and I loved seeing the Shire again in its simple glory.

It's wonderful to see that they've been able to get so many cast members to reprise their roles, but I'm really not a fan the way they seem to be framing the narratives as flashbacks from a Lord of the Rings-era Bilbo.  It's a minor gripe, but unnecessary, and just worries me that they're treating this as just a prequel to Lord of the Rings, rather then a separate story with a much more light-hearted tone.  To be fair, though, I'm probably just being paranoid.  It looks great as a whole, and I can't wait to see how they choose to interpret some of the novel's cooler scenes.