'The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey' Review

© New Line Cinema - 2012

The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey (2012) - New Line Cinema, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, Wingnut Films

Directed by Peter Jackson
Written by Fran Walsh, Phillippa Boyens, Peter Jackson & Guillermo Del Toro
Starring Martin Freeman, Ian McKellen, Richard Armitage, Ken Stott, Graham McTavish

So, Lord of the Rings decided to do a Star Wars on us and release a prequel trilogy explaining some of the backstory. Much like the Star Wars prequel trilogy, it seems a bit pointless (at least in my eyes) but there is a difference. George Lucas was working from the crazy story written by George Lucas, whereas Peter Jackson was working from a story written by JRR Tolkien. Even though he'd proven he could do it with the LOTR trilogy, I was a little sceptical going into The Hobbit, especially after the decision to spread it across 3 films.

I was always going to be a little disappointed in this film purely because I'd been so excited at the prospect of Guillermo Del Toro directing it. As I said a moment, Peter Jackson did an incredible job bring the original trilogy of books to the big screen, but I wanted to see a slightly different take on the world of middle-earth. It's hard to argue that The Hobbit is much more of a kid's adventure than The Lord of the Rings was. And Peter Jackson has clearly made efforts to make this look visually different to it's predecessors.

One thing I noticed in this film (though I may be wrong) was that there seemed to be a lot more CGI involved. No that I'm complaining, the CGI and overall visuals of the film were the most enjoyable part of the film, for me. The CGI creatures and backgrounds blend in perfectly with reality and it really helps to broaden the world of the film. One scene I found particularly impressive (which must have been a pain in the arse to shoot, and I hope they release extensive making of's with the extended edition, because I'd love to see how they did it.) was early in the film where the dwarves begin to arrive. The fact that that scene had a hobbit, dwarves and a wizard, all of varying heights and sizes (played by similar sized actors) in the same space, moving around each other was incredible and felt like it been lifted straight from the novel.

© New Line Cinema - 2012

As far as the story is concerned I wasn't massively impressed. It certainly isn't as complicated as The Lord of the Rings with most of the screen time spent focused on Bilbo and the company of Dwarves. Although similarly to LOTR it is very much about getting from point A to point B via plot points 1 through 10. I'll be interested to see how the story plays out across the next two films with the source material looking a bit thin to cover that much screen time.

But in reality no one was really concerned about the story being amazing with this one. Most people just wanted to see Martin Freeman playing Bilbo Baggins (I know that's why I was so excited). I think I can say that he fucking nailed it. Everything from the reluctant coward at the beginning through to the brave adventurer he becomes Freeman is spot on. The returning characters are all as perfect as ever, and again I'm looking forward to seeing more of them pop up in the remaining two films. One of my problems with this film was the dwarves.

Now this is slightly unfair to Peter Jackson, because I don't think anyone would be able to the dwarves justice on screen. Because there are so many of them it's difficult to give each of them enough time to make a lasting impression. What we do see of the larger company of dwarves is excellent and I really liked their singing and Thorin Oakenshield makes a nice new badass for the franchise to replace Aragorn.

© New Line Cinema - 2012

Overall I can say I really enjoyed the film, and if you're already a fan you're bound to like it. If you're not usually a fan of this type of stuff I'd say give it a go, the story isn't so heavy and Martin Freeman is always awesome. Everyone loves him.

It's only just come out so I picked up the DVD at the supermarket for a tenner. I'd say it was worth the price seeing as how we'd missed it in the cinema. If you've already seen it a don't it I'd wait and see what's happening with the extended versions. I'd imagine it looks even better on BluRay but the visuals on DVD were great.