The Hobbit: 10 Things You Might Have Missed
Say what you want about Peter Jackson's return to Middle Earth, there's no denying there's a lot of hidden gems within this trilogy opener...
The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey may have only been in cinemas a week, but it has already smashed box office records and left fans salivating for The Desolation of Smaug. Now the latest film entry in Peter Jacksons Middle Earth series is far from perfect: it is overly-long and (like many of Jacksons non-Rings work) overly self-indulgent, and while there may be sparks of brilliance (riddles in the dark) and a pleasing lightness in tone, it stands as incomplete the first half of a good movie; something Fellowship of the Ring never felt like. Sadly, all of its faults can be traced back to the incredibly ill-decided choice of splitting a tome shorter than any of The Lord of the Rings into three, lengthy parts. Even with the added content of the appendices thats a bit much. Regardless, theres plenty of splendour packed into the feature, with beautiful shots of both real life New Zealand and CGI vistas, as well as reference aplenty to keep real world hobbits glued to the screen for many a re-viewing. Here are ten such hidden gems within the film which may have passed you by the first time you returned to Middle Earth. Of course, the more eagled eyed viewer or big fans of Tolkiens work will likely have picked up on some, if not all of these; if you have, feel free to share any other discoveries in the comment section below. Honourable Mention - The Wilhelm Scream
A massive in-joke among sound effect supervisors, the Wilhelm Scream is a sound clip of (surprisingly) a character called Private Wilhelm screaming. Originally used in Distant Drums (and named after its third use in The Charge at Feather River), it came to popular use after Ben Burtt used it in the Star Wars and Indiana Jones films and now is used in many major Hollywood movies. Its an instantly recognisable sound, partially because it is so over the top, but mainly due to its ridiculous over use; the joke is no longer funny. It appears in The Hobbit as the dwarves and Gandalf are escaping from Goblin Town as one of the goblins is thrown down the mountain. But while it could be something worthy of putting on this list, the frequency with which it is used (or abused) is just too damn high.