I’m going to go ahead and get this out of the way:
I didn’t like this movie all that much. I am one of two people I know that thinks the same. Overwhelming popular opinion is that the movie was fantastic. My personal opinion was that it was simply okay.
Now, if the “Lord of the Rings” fans could just put away their pointy objects, I’ll try to explain why.
“The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey” is the first of three films by Peter Jackson attempting to cover the story of J.R.R. Tolkien’s “The Hobbit,” as well as set up the trilogy as a prequel to the “Lord of the Rings” trilogy. Originally, it was planned to be two films, so the trailer has several scenes that are likely to be in the next movie. Or the super extended mega-special 500 hour DVD Blu-Ray version. Whichever.
Anyway, the movie starts with the older Bilbo Baggins (Ian Holm) beginning to write the book of his adventures for Frodo Baggins (Elijah Wood). The prologue setting up the back story of “The Hobbit” begins, with Bilbo telling the tale of the Dwarven kingdom of Erebor and its desolation by the dragon Smaug (voiced by Benedict Cumberbatch, though not really heard in this movie). The movie then sets up these events as occurring on the day of Bilbo’s eleventy-first birthday, the event at the beginning of “Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring.” With that intro set up, we’re taken back into the past, with young Bilbo (Martin Freeman) smoking a pipe while Gandalf the Grey (Ian McKellen) attempts to solicit Bilbo’s presence on an adventure.
Gandalf basically tricks Bilbo, utilizing his hospitality, into becoming host for 13 dwarves, led by Thorin Oakenshield (Richard Armitage), who are looking for a 14th member, a burglar in particular, to join them in their quest to retake Erebor from Smaug. After some hemming, hawing and singing, Bilbo eventually runs after them the next morning and begins the adventure.
For those that read “The Hobbit,” the movie goes all the way to the escape of the company from their entrapment in the trees, just before entering Mirkwood Forest. The company journeys from Hobbiton to Rivendell, meeting less than fully intelligent trolls and violent orcs on the way, then through the Misty Mountains, where they get trapped in Goblin Town and Bilbo meets Gollum (Andy Serkis) and finds a special ring that will look quite familiar to anyone that watched “Lord of the Rings.”
Jackson has also added several plot elements to the movie that exist outside the original book. During the events of “The Hobbit,” Gandalf often disappeared. In “The Silmarillion” and other Tolkien literature, we learn why, and a lot of that is set up in this movie. Radagast the Brown (Sylvester McCoy) has discovered an encroaching evil, a powerful necromancer, in the forest of Mirkwood. Gandalf’s extraneous adventures deal with that specific plot, though it will almost certainly feature more heavily during the company’s journey through Mirkwood and to The Lonely Mountain.
I saw the movie in IMAX 3D, though not in the 48 frames per second format that many are heavily criticizing. The experience lasted about 3 and a quarter hours (the movie itself lasting about 2 hours and 50 minutes) and had lots of goodies for the nerds (my favorite example being a shared line between Gandalf and Thorin when transitioning from the escape from Goblin Town to being trapped in the fir trees: “Out of the frying pan…” “…and into the fire,” which are names of the chapters in the book), but I honestly just didn’t like it that much.
Now, some of the extraneous stuff was nice, I thought. For example, the story behind Thorin’s name, Oakenshield, was included. I really enjoyed that. But, honestly. This was going to be two movies. It’s now three. You do not need to have it nearly 3 hours long. The movie felt overly stretched out, like there was a ton of filler bogging it down. Also, the tone of the movie felt really awkward.
“The Hobbit” was originally written as a children’s book. Admittedly, it’s a pretty heavy children’s book that deals with some heavy, dramatic stuff, but on the whole it’s got a bit of a light-hearted nature to it, particularly in the beginning. It has its harrowing adventure and stuff, but it’s told in a lighter way, so to speak. It has a bunch of songs, too, which Jackson did include in the first movie (the best easily being the Misty Mountains Song that featured in the trailer). The movie’s tone seemed almost bipolar, though, unable to find a good middle ground between intensely dramatic massive adrenaline pumping adventure and glory and lighthearted humor, which is a bit disappointing because I thought that line was actually pretty easily walked during “Lord of the Rings.” But, honestly, it felt almost like an episode of “Dragon Ball Z” at times with all the fighting happening over and over and over again, fights that lasted so very long. In actuality, upon hindsight, there may have only been about four fights, but they took up so much time and attention that they seemed almost like the majority of the film. If you include harrowing escapes, that drama is the majority of the movie. Or so it felt like. It weighs heavily and steals attention, and is sometimes unnecessary. The length of the battle in Goblin Town, as well as the (I’m almost certain entirely invented for the movie) scene on the Misty Mountains where the company finds themselves precariously perched were particular offenders. The slow “Noooooo” must have been used five or six times in the movie, continuing to remind everyone that it’s a super serious deal, except when it’s being silly and light.
But the thing that irked me most about this movie was the music. It has a beautiful score, don’t get me wrong. And as I said, the Misty Mountains Song was fantastic. But the music is almost non-stop. It keeps playing on and on and on, constantly trying to remind the audience “You should be feeling sad right now!” Most movies do this, but the score seemed to drown out several moments that should have been focused on the acting in the scene. The movie’s finale is the best example I can think of, the one that really just sent me over the edge of being annoyed.
Now, to be fair, I grew up with the Rankin/Bass cartoon film “The Hobbit,” and I think that it is perhaps the most perfect Hobbit film that could be made. I think it’s fantastic. But I think that people that liked “Lord of the Rings” an intense amount will really enjoy this movie… and it’s not necessarily a bad movie. It’s fine. It’s just overly long (I started drifting off during the Riddles in the Dark scene), overly cluttered, “tone deaf” so to speak, too intense with the music and completely lacking an intimacy that the original story had. And, for book purists, it has some pretty awkward inaccuracies, I think. Or, well, things that I kept noticing weren’t quite right, often because of the extra bits he added in, that annoyed me. Like when the dwarves fight with Bert, William and Tom.
Ultimately, you’ll probably enjoy it if a) you haven’t read the book and/or b) you really liked “Lord of the Rings.” I just think it’s not all it’s cracked up to be. Maybe the next two will be better.
chaoticpen 