The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey (***)
Directed
by: Peter Jackson
Starring:
Ian McKellen, Martin Freeman, Richard Armitage, James Nesbitt, Ken Stott, Cate
Blanchett, Ian Holm, Christopher Lee, Hugo Weaving, Elijah Wood, Lee Pace,
Benedict Cumberbatch, Andy Serkis
Seen:
January 6th 2013
*** Out of ****
J.R.R.
Tolkien wrote probably the 2 most famous fantasy novels ever with The Hobbit
and the three-part The Lord of the Rings. The three parts of The Lord of the
Rings was probably the most successful and critically acclaimed series of
movies ever (not financially, that would be the Harry Potter movies – fantasy
again?), and Peter Jackson decided, quite a few years later, to produce a
trilogy of movies from The Hobbit, a book that, interestingly, in its whole is
shorter than any of the three parts The Lord of the Rings consists of.
In
The Lord of the Rings, mention is made of Bilbo’s (Freeman) tale “There and
Back Again”, and The Hobbit is that tale. It tells of the dwarves, under King Thrór,
losing their majestic kingdom when Smaug, a mighty dragon, attacked them and
took over while the elves under King Thranduil (Pace) did not assist them. Thrór’s
gradson Thorin’s (Armitage) hatred of elves because of this is well mentioned
in the movie. Far away in the Shire Gandalf (McKellen) tricks Bilbo into
hosting a party for 13 dwarves, (Balin, Dwalin, Fíli, Kíli, Dori, Nori, Ori,
Óin, Glóin, Bifur, Bofur, and Bombur), under Thorin’s leadership) who intends
to travel, with Bilbo joining them, to Lonely Mountain to defeat Smaug and
retake their mountain kingdom. On the way the group gets captured by hungry trolls;
they are chased by orcs from whom they escape through a passage to Rivendell; they
set out for Lonely Mountain across the Misty Mountains and witness Stone Giants
fighting; they are captured by Goblins, and Bilbo is separated from the group. Bilbo
meets Gollum (Serkis), he stumbles across the ring, and when the group unites
again their escape attempts from the orcs needs something special to succeed.
Visually,
The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey holds up excellently to the Lord of the Rings
trilogy. There are some new characters and many old ones as the world of Middle
Earth is once again expertly brought to life on screen. The orcs/goblins are
probably even scarier/more evil than in the Lord of the Rings movies, and it
felt at times that there is a slightly bigger emphasis on the fantasy aspects
such as giant eagles and wizards’ spells than there was previously. A change
that brings it more in line with the books but that I would rather they didn’t
do, was the singing – only one part of one song struck a chord with me, the
rest was annoying and, to say the least, juvenile. That is not to say I didn’t
enjoy the movie, in fact I truly did, but this made The Hobbit vastly inferior
to the Lord of the Rings trilogy.
There
is a high sense of adventure that permeates the movie, and I am very excited to
see what the offering will be in the next two movies of this trilogy. I
mentioned earlier that this small book is being developed into a trilogy, which
does in some ways explain to me why this felt so much like a light version of a
proper Lord of the Rings movie. Living up to the larger trilogy was always
going to be a tall task though, and even though I can’t guarantee it, I believe
as a fan of the original three movies, you should find quite a bit of enjoyment
here. My brother, a massive fan of the original trilogy, hated The Hobbit, but apart from some scenes, I loved
it.
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