Movies

Early Buzz: 'The Hobbit' Review Sneaks Out After New Zealand Premiere, Praises HFR, Jabs At Radagast

By Russ Fischer/

Peter Jackson and Warner Bros. premiered The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey yesterday in New Zealand, but a review embargo was set in place to keep reviews from flooding the interwebs in advance of the first major US press screenings this weekend. But that embargo trick never really works, and so of course at least one outlet has broken out with a review (some might say "review") in advance of the agreed-upon date. Get a few bits of reaction info below.

The New York Daily News published the first review, though the outlet seems to be trying to test the definition of the embargo by not going terribly in depth with the review.

The text explicitly says that the 48 frames per second resolution works ("...after a minute or two of adjusting, the higher resolution is eye-popping, similar to discovering HD television for the first time") and that the film is "lighter and funnier than its Lord of the Rings predecessors."

The statement that will raise the most questions for many fans is this one:

Like all unexpected journeys, there are a few pitfalls along the way, most notably the tangential subplot surrounding bumbling wizard Radagast the Brown (Sylvester McCoy), whose buffoonery at times descends into Jar Jar Binks territory.

Make of that what you will; I'm not going to be too worried about it.

There are also some Twitter reactions kicking around, perhaps most notably from Bryan Singer:

There are more twitter reactions, as collected by The Guardian. They're not all that detailed:

...and so on.

We'll have a review of The Hobbit early next week. The film opens on December 14 in the US. Here's a new TV spot to tide you over:

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