Reviewing The Hobbit

My imagination never filled in the details of the old Dwarvish kingdom when I read  The Hobbit, and of course author Tolkien doesn't fill them in either.  So it was really fun to see the dwarves' old home on the big screen~ on the other hand, there were galloping rabbits  . .  But something had to be made up in order to extend one book to three movies.  And we know why there had to be three movies.

Naturally, the movie does not equal the book.  It never does.  Somewhere I read that the living Tolkien family was profoundly disapproving and decided to ignore the movie completely.

It should show up at the second-run theaters pretty soon, so here's a review from the late Roger Ebert's website if you like his material.

If you really love and know the book, you may enjoy this discussion on a podcast by Dr. Louis Markos and his colleagues at HBU.   Markos has also written a new book called On the Shoulders of Hobbits:  the Road to Virtue with Tolkien and Lewis.