The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey Review

★ ★ 

By: Kameron McBride

           

Peter Jackson’s "The Lord of the Rings" films can probably explain a lot of the reason I love movies.  Growing up there was nothing more impressive than to experience those movies on the big screen. They were epic and large on a scale I had never seen before. The two things, however, that I always remembered about those movies were that every single character was interesting. Everyone had something they wanted, had interesting things to say and always commanded attention on the screen. The other thing I remembered about "The Lord of the Rings" was that the stakes were always high—with the tension ever present—despite the goal being so simple: to destroy the One Ring. These two things are what I believe is missing from the "Rings" prologue "The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey."

 "The Hobbit" is the first in a trilogy of films concerning Bilbo Baggins (Martin Freeman), a Hobbit who finds himself drug into an adventure involving a company of dwarves regaining gold that rightfully belonged to them. Gandalf (Ian Mckellan, reprising his role) recruits the meek hobbit to be the fourteenth member of the dwarfish company as the burglar, much to the ire of Thorin (Richard Armitage), the leader of the dwarves. Bilbo and the dwarves set out with the eventual being Lonely Mountain, where the dragon Smaug has stolen the treasure of the dwarves and taken residence in dwarves’ mine.

           
 From here the story splits into two narratives: on one hand we have the story of Bilbo and the dwarves and on the other we have Gandalf working through a subplot that includes many events leading directly to "The Lord of the Rings." I found this hard to follow at times. Not necessarily because the events were too complex but because we don’t get into a rhythm with either story. There is a good almost hour in the middle of the film where Bilbo is barely present, despite him being the main character.

           
 I think this leads to us never getting on even footing with the story. "The Hobbit" novel gets going very quickly but the film has an opening that takes us through about an hour’s worth of build–up before we finally are on our adventure. The charm of "The Hobbit" always was getting lost in the fantastical world it presented. Here we aren’t allowed into the world as much as drug through the set­up of it.

           
Another issue is the tone. At times we are in the whimsical tale of "The Hobbit," at others we are back in the dark toned story of "The Lord of the Rings." It makes it hard to get “tuned in”—so to say—in the world of the film with various tones reverberating in the story. "The Hobbit" was intended to be a children’s book, which is why I was excited to hear Guillermo Del Toro was first slated to direct this film, as he seems to have a gift for crafting dark yet fantastical stories often rooted in fairy tales.

           
All this being said there is still much to be enjoyed in "The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey." Freeman is a terrific Bilbo and McKellan remains a great Gandalf. The highlight of this film is undoubtedly the scene with Gollum (Andy Serkis) who is back and better than ever. How they managed to improve on the Gollum/Smeagol character is beyond me but as he and Bilbo trade riddles we see kinds of expression that are truly remarkable for a CG character.

           
Peter Jackson is also a master at tailoring big battle scenes. I thought a flashback with the dwarves battling orcs in a mine was remarkable. Another tremendous moment involved stone giants wrestling while Bilbo and co. try to scale the creatures. These scenes involved a lot of imagination and great visuals, though I do think this gets overdone in a later moment where our heroes run through a goblin settlement under a moment. Here there are too many ridiculous moments to list and they ultimately make the action hard to believe, let alone follow.

           
In summation "The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey" is a wonderful movie to look at that obviously had a lot of effort and care put in to it, but one that also lacks focus and a consistent tone. That being said, this movie left me excited for the next one. I felt so much has been established in this film that the subsequent entries will be bigger triumphs. I am eager to return to Middle–Earth for the next "Hobbit" film, though I have no real desire to revisit the one I just left.