At the Hobbit with New Zealand wine

new zealand

At the Hobbit with New Zealand wine

Kiwi winery Villa Maria were sponsoring the wine at tonight’s preview showing of The Hobbit, so I got to go.

Pictured above: Warren Adamson (Craggy Range), Kate Sweet (PR person and significant other of Warren), Sarah Shepherd (NZ Winegrowers), me, and Penny Fear (Villa Maria UK).

The film?

Good bits: lots of action and incipient peril (if this is your thing); serious cgi (if this is your thing); the sequence involving Golum (just brilliant); the Goblin’s underground city, with its rickety wooden structure; the stunning Kiwi scenery; the fact that despite all the fighting and dangerous scrapes, no dwarves, wizards or hobbits are injured.

Bad bits: the 3D was rubbish (this may have been a problem with the cinema, who were showing the film at 48 fps) and almost ruined the watching experience; the licence taken with cgi to the point of absurdity (the escape from the goblin city is just silly); the utter maleness of the whole thing; Richard Armitage as Thorin; James Nesbitt as Bofur; the 1950s style painting that is the backdrop for the Elfin kingdom;  and the fact that this isn’t a stand-alone film because of the ending, which is very abrubt.

I’m not surprised the New Zealand trade commission got behind this film: it just makes you want to visit New Zealand. Which I shall do, next month.

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