With nearly $3 billion made from the “Lord of The Rings” movies, would one ever expect “The Hobbit” NOT to get made? But troubles for this one abounded from the simple (Guillermo Del Toro was originally going to direct, but left after the movie was delayed) to the complex (MGM had rights to the book, not New Line Cinema who made the Lord of The Rings movies).
After all of that got sorted out (Del Toro remained credited as a writer on the movie and MGM is now a co-financier), director Peter Jackson decided, a mere five months before release, to turn The Hobbit into a trilogy of movies (originally, it would’ve been only two) much to the disdain of fanboys everywhere.
Now, “The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey”, arrives, mammoth expectations run rampant and a new trilogy starts, to interesting results. Bilbo Baggins (Martin Freeman) is a normal Hobbit, living a peaceful life, until the wizard Gandalf (Ian McKellen) appears and brings a band of 13 dwarfs with him. The dwarfs, lead by Thorin Oakenshield (Richard Armitage) want to reclaim their homeland, but will need a sneaky Hobbit to help them. Bilbo joins the group, albeit with a ton of resistance, and soon discovers a world beyond anything he could’ve ever imagined, along with a ring with unimaginable power.
One negative aspect of the film if the foregoing of practical effects such as puppets and animatronics for CGI effects. In the previous LOTR movies, the Orcs were threatening monsters that even the most mature men would fear. Here, the computer effects make them lose their fearsome edge and make them laughable.
The main baddie in this one, Azog, an Orc that has a personal connection to Thorin, looks laughable, resembling a cross of Kratos from “God of War” and the God-like beings from “Prometheus” He looks atrocious, and one wonders why they gave up the effective practical effects. While some CGI effects come over better, especially the Goblins and their wonderfully designed King (who is dazzling just to watch), when your adversaries aren’t very threatening, what hope does your movie truly have?
Aside from effects, the rest of the movie comes over much better, surprisingly so actually. Bilbo comes over as a great protagonist, thanks in no small part to the wonderful Martin Freeman who gives the role believability and pathos. I wish the dwarves, besides Thorin, had more to do, but I have a feeling they might be developed more in the forthcoming two movies. Ian McKellen is once again aces as Gandalf, giving the role a bit humor and slight eccentricity this time around. While it’s nice to Ian Holm and Elijah Wood reprise their roles as the older Bilbo and Frodo Baggins, respectively, their scenes goes on for a bit too long and ultimately feels extraneous.
The best performance comes from Andy Serkis as Gollum, whose scene with Bilbo is by far the highlight of the movie, being more suspenseful than 90 percent of this year’s action sequences. To boot, the visuals for Gollum are phenomenal, making him come to life in a beautiful way and putting the other CGI characters in the movie to shame.
When it was announced that “The Hobbit” would be split into three movies, people (including me) were worried that there wasn’t nearly enough material for a trilogy of movies. While the film feels a little slow in the beginning, kudos to Peter Jackson and Co. for coming up with a nice emotional arc for this first chapter, giving the film a sense of purpose even without the other two movies to give it proper resolution.
“The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey” just misses being a classic, but it isn’t too far off, and I’m genuinely excited to see where this series of movies goes from here. It may be a bit slow , and the overuse of CGI distracting, but “The Hobbit” still is a magical time at the movies that’ll be hard to forget.
Postscript: I did not see this movie in the highly publicized 48 fps. I’ll go see it in that format over break. Sound off in the comments if you want me to review that version when the break is over.
