The Hobbit an Unexpected Journey review
For those of you who don’t know me as a critic I have always loved the Lord of the Rings movies. It’s by far one of the most thrilling, gripping and exciting book adaptations that has ever been put to film now Peter Jackson, returns this time making the first of three films in a soon to be trilogy. Yes folks I am of course talking about the prequel to the series: The Hobbit. Or as the movie is called The Hobbit an Unexpected Journey. It has been one of the most anticipated movies of 2012 almost everybody has been talking about it and have all been excited for it. So has it really lived up to the hype? Yes it has but it is by no means better than the Lord of the Rings movies but in my opinion it is not right to compare it to a monumental film series like Lord of the Rings seeing as it is it’s own movie. But is it worthy enough to take it’s place in the series? Or should it forever be burned in the fires of Mordor?
Well folks let’s find out.
Seeing as it’s a prequel to the Lord of the Rings series it takes place several years before the Fellowship of the Ring, here Bilbo Baggins is retelling the story of how he found the one ring of power and started his epic quest across of all middle earth. The fact that Peter Jackson returns as the director means that The Hobbit an Unexpected Journey becomes a breathtaking, heart pounding fantasy epic like the films before it. But much as I might I actually found this to be lagging behind in pacing particularly at the beginning when Bilbo is in the shire meeting with Gandalf the Grey and the Dwarfs. Though I can forgive it for being faithful to the book I can understand that, but I did feel that it should’ve picked up the pace I think round about when the dwarfs first appeared in the film. Half an hour into the movie we are still in the Shire and there’s about little to no activity going on there and it’s essentially just there to set up the story as a whole. But the story does pick up as soon, Bilbo and company leave the shire only then does the movie starts to get the ball rolling. I felt a few scenes didn’t really seem necessary and I thought they didn’t contribute anything to the story and it can at times seem pretty redundant and tedious and in my opinion those scenes could’ve be a bit shortened. But does that little detail detract from the movie overall? Not at all, I thought it was a great telling of the first part of the Hobbit but all I’m saying is the pacing could’ve been a lot better for the story’s sake. I was thoroughly surprised that they had the dwarfs singing like in the book which impressed me so the movie does get merit points for bringing up the lore in terms of the Hobbit.
Martin Freeman star of Sherlock and The Office puts on an impressive performance as Bilbo Baggins. He makes him a strong, fun and believable character the way he delivers his lines is astounding as well as Ian McKellen who returns as Gandalf the Grey and is just as spectacular as he was in the Lord of the Rings films. As for the dwarfs, they don’t really stick out in my mind for the most part because the dwarfs pretty much serve as background characters but there are a few dwarves that make a much stronger impression on me. Luckily Thorin, the leader of the dwarves is one of them. He was a strong character who provided a lot of action, his relationship with Bilbo was well developed and very interesting and probably hands down the best character in the entire movie besides Bilbo of course.
One thing that bothers me about this movie is the fact that it relieves heavily on CGI. Now don’t get me wrong the Lord of the Rings films used a fair share amount of CGI but here it’s overused and because of this with characters like the Orcs and the Goblins either ended up being okay or just plain terrible in design. It’s not really a big issue that I have with this film and I do understand that Peter Jackson did that in terms of the light hearted tone of the book but I strongly feel that they should’ve used real actors with prosthetics and make up on them. Again it’s not a major complaint but the CGI is very noticeable and can quite jarring at times to look at.
My biggest complaint that I have with the movie is Radagast the Brown. A character who I found quite annoying to have on screen and quite frankly was a character that I hated and was the weakest character overall. The problem with Radagast is not the fact that he’s a stereotypical hippie character who loves animals but it’s the fact that his story arc is vital to the story and the writers I think made him that way in order to appease the younger audiences. His character is relevant to the story but you will sit there thinking: “What was going through the writer’s heads when they came around to Radagast the brown?”
He acts all weird and all over protective of the animals he looks after along with being obsessed with eating mushrooms and of course that’s his main trait as a character. And after the first time it gets really annoying. It’s established in the story that he’s not as great as Gandalf but seriously I would take Gandalf over Radagast the Brown any day. Thankfully he’s not in the movie for very long and again he doesn’t detract from the movie itself but the 5 minutes he’s onscreen is painful to watch regardless.
But the rest of the 2 hours left in the Hobbit is defiantly worth the wait. It’s got so much action sequences that you could wave a stick at, the many action scenes that you have in this movie will keep you on the edge of your seat and is jaw droppingly sweet. But the scene stealer for me would defiantly be the whole “Riddles” scene between Bilbo and Gollum it was very enjoyable and Gollum looks amazing in this film. We have crossed boundaries when it comes to technology and Gollum is living proof that we have come far in terms of what we can do with CGI and motion capture as a whole. Of course Gollum is still the slimy, slippery creature that we know and love from the Lord of the Rings films the scene itself conveyed a lot of emotion and it was by far my favourite scene.
For all it’s flaws this film had, I had a lot of fun watching the Hobbit, it’s defiantly worth seeing but there will be scenes that felt unnecessary, some scenes that felt quite forced and sometimes felt really drawn out. But it defiantly has its moments where it’s brilliant and just makes you feel like your part of the quest. It’s a nice little romp back in middle earth and overall like I said I had a blast watching this.
8/10
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