The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey Review

A Hobbit's Holiday 

Ryan Gilliam

While there are many moments in this world of “Seriously? How have you not seen _______,” this reaction is never as strong as when talking about The Lord of The Rings trilogy. LOTR is loved and adored all over the world, not only through Peter Jackson’s epics, but through video games, music, and the original books. So where does The Hobbit come in? Well, The Hobbit is a prequel that goes back and explains things briefly talked about in the original trilogy. While The Hobbit is a fine (much easier to read than the LOTR) book, Jackson’s translation into film falls shy of the last visit to Middle Earth.

The Hobbit takes place about 60 years before The Fellowship of The Ring, and follows around Bilbo Baggins (Frodo Baggins uncle). It is about a very well-to-do hobbit that gets swept up into an adventure entailing dwarves, a familiar wizard, and a dragon. While the LOTR trilogy is a walk-a-thon for the saving of all of Middle Earth, The Hobbit is simply a heist movie filled with dwarves trying to reclaim their home from the villainous dragon Smaug.

The seriousness, and gravity of the LOTR trilogy just isn't present in The Hobbit due to its more kid friendly story line. This makes for a tone (especially in the beginning) that is mostly charming, but lacking in any real substance.

Where The Fellowship of The Ring began slowly, The Hobbit’s beginning is even slower, overstaying its welcome for a good 30 minutes. The first hour is filled with songs, flashbacks, and fart jokes. It's a disappointing shift from the original trilogies darker tone.

Thankfully, the second and third act feel more like what we are used to seeing in Middle Earth. The battles are epic, the story is darker, and more mature characters are introduced (or re-introduced depending on how familiar you are with the trilogy.) Marring one character that completely ruins the two or three scenes he is, the rest of the movie remains consistently dark, with small bursts of wit.

Due to the fact The Hobbit book isn't even as long as one of the LOTR books and Jackson is splitting The Hobbit into three near three hour movies, he adds quite a bit. When the announcement came that The Hobbit would be split into thirds, there was much concern about filler and accusations of “money grabbing.” Surprisingly, Jackson manages to not only pull off almost everything he adds, but he also makes it feel organic, as if it were just hidden within the pages of The Hobbit to begin with.

The film makes it through roughly six chapters out of 20 in the book. The film is quite long and clocks in at about two hours and 49 minutes. When The Hobbit part one does end, it ends well, making the full year wait for part 2 a difficult one for fans new and old.

As one would expect, The Hobbit has a stellar cast to breath life into all the many characters. While it is nice to see Ian Holm reprise his role as Bilbo (he plays old Bilbo this time around and is only in about 15 minutes,) his younger half, Martin Freeman, plays the originally stuck-up and prim hobbit with stunning perfection. All the dwarves do well (despite that fact that Bomber seems only there to be a “fat gag”,) and they are led by Thorin (Richard Armitage), and his right hand dwarf Balin (Ken Scott). Armitage and Scott really complement each other well, and lead the huge pack of dwarves with elegance and ferocity. It is no surprise that, in addition to Freeman, the two veteran LOTR actors really make this film shine. Sir Ian McKellen returns as Gandolf the Grey and preforms stunningly, as would be expected. Also returning (supposedly for the last time ever) is Andy Serkis as Gollum. Despite the fact that Gollum is only in about 30 minutes of the movie, he manages to steal the show with absolute ease.

Where Jackson was once a director who believed in practical effects and sets, he seems to have traded in that hat in favor of the “new digital age.” This film, unlike LOTR, is filled with CGI effects. From CGI Goblins, to landscapes, to tiny woodland creatures, there seems to be a lack of interaction. Where I could really feel Aragorn plunge that sword deep into the belly of Lurtz at the end of Fellowship, the trolls here do not even feel as “lived in” as the cave troll in the mines of Moria back in 2000.

48 FRAMES WARNING:

As most films buffs know, most movies are shown at 24 frames per second (meaning the amount of moving pictures that you see during a second of film.) While The Hobbit released in the standard 24fps, it also released in a 48fps version labeled in most theaters as “The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey: High Frame Rate.” While I cannot allow this to detract from the merits of the film itself, I do have mixed feelings about it. In 48fps, the CGI looks much better, but the cost on your sanity is too great.Things feel too smooth, too bright, and too fast. Even if you have never been motion sick in your life, you should bring one of those airplane bags with you to see The Hobbit 48fps. It is not  awful, it is, however, unnecessary. Film should not ever switch too this format. If you see it once in 24fps, and you are curious about the change in frame rate, I would not discourage you from quenching that curiosity. I saw The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey first in IMAX 3D and the next day in 48fps 3D. I would highly recommend the IMAX version and suggest you stay away from 48fps unless you have a real interest in such things.

Conclusion:

The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey is not a bad movie, nor is it just mediocre. The Hobbit is a good movie that just never reaches the high points of the original trilogy. However, The Hobbit is still an absolute blast and will certainly scratch that Middle Earth itch for you once again.