With the incredible success of ‘The Lord of the Rings’ films, it would seem natural to adapt J. R. R. Tolkien’s other Middle-Earth masterpiece, “The Hobbit,” to the big screen. Despite production issues that delayed the film seemingly indefinitely, the book has finally reached the big screen in what is the first part of a trilogy, ‘The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey.’
With Peter Jackson returning to direct, along with most of the cast and crew members of the original LOTR trilogy returning to this film as well, it would seem like a recipe for success on paper. While ‘The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey’ is a good film, it isn’t without its problems, but this is still a welcome return to Middle-Earth that should please both fans of the book and the LOTR movies.
The story focuses on a younger Bilbo Baggins sixty years before the events of LOTR, when Gandalf convinced Bilbo to embark on an extraordinary and dangerous adventure. Joining with a group of thirteen dwarves led by Thorin Oakenshield, their goal is to reclaim the Dwarves’ homeland – the city of Erebor – which has been taken over by the fearsome dragon Smaug.
Along the way the group runs into many fearsome creatures – including three bumbling trolls and a Goblin King – and also set forth the events of LOTR when a certain ring is discovered by Bilbo in Gollum’s cave. The story does go out of its way at times by adding material not in the book to connect with the LOTR trilogy, which may divide purists of the book, but the new material is interesting and gives further insight into the world J. R. R. Tolkien has painstakingly crafted.
‘The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey’ benefits heavily from having much of the cast and crew from LOTR returning for this film, and returning to Middle-Earth feels exactly as it should. The production designs are outstanding – even if the CGI is hit-or-miss – and the story feels right at home in Tolkien’s universe.
The story in ‘The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey’ is more of an adventure story than the dark epic that LOTR is, but the lighter tone is an interesting change that is thankfully well-executed and manages to bring in a fair number of laughs to balance out the darker moments. That doesn’t mean that this is a less grand adventure than LOTR; the scale of the movie is still unprecedented – thanks in large part due to the gorgeous environments of New Zealand – and the action scenes are massive and exciting as well.
It’s a shame then that the movie is as stretched out as it is, clocking in at a ridiculous 169 minutes. “The Hobbit” is actually shorter than any of the LOTR books, and the long running time ends up creating a ridiculous amount of padding. In addition to this flaw there are a few other nagging problems – the inconsistent CGI and underwhelming antagonist to name a few. But this is still a good film that delivers grand action scenes along with impressive production designs and some superb performances
Rating: 7/10 (Good)
