I finally got off my arse and went to see The Hobbit. Based on the novel preceding the Lord of the Rings and effectively working as the first of a three-part prequel to the Peter Jackson film trilogy, An Unexpected Journey is a slightly more light-hearted, slightly more fantastical, but none the less epic adventure of a halfling, a wizard and a pack of dwarves going off on a quest for treasure. This film comprises roughly of the first half of the original novel and it thankfully kicks off the story in a great way.
Firstly, what did I think they could have done better with the film? I think the pacing was a bit odd and not as fluid as in the Lord of the Rings movies. The prelude and the denouement felt really tacked on and broke the feeling of the film a little bit. I didn’t mind catching a glimpse of Elijah Wood, but the movie should have ended once Bilbo and company escaped the caves. However, the movie wanted desperately sell the idea that Thorin finally approves of Bilbo after talking down to him through the whole movie, as well as building up to a final confrontation between him and Azog that it started to feel a little ridiculous. I also felt that the dwarves really weren’t utilised well as characters. I was more interested in Gandalf and Bilbo (who are the stars of the story) half the time and only really got excited at seeing familiar faces from the LOTR films.
Now for the good news, for one the film kept me entertained all through out. If you could bear to sit through the horribly boring third film of the LOTR trilogy, you shouldn’t have problems with this film’s running time. There are enough off-the-wall moments and unexpected song-numbers to keep you entertained. My favourite of the new characters introduced was Radagast the Brown, played by Sylvester McCoy (of Dr. Who fame). This nutty wizard serves as a nice balancer to the dead serious Saruman and the humane yet remarkably sword-wielding Gandalf. The trolls, the goblins and the wolves offer some spectacular moments and there is a lot of action to go around. Some people may find the opening of this film a tad drawn out, but I personally found that it made me appreciate the more action-packed sequences more.
And of course, my absolute favourite thing in the whole movie was the riddling game with Gollum. I liked the fact that Gollum comes off a little bit more comical and his scenes with Bilbo was the definite highlight of the movie for me (one of the reasons I felt the movie should have ended after they escaped the caves). Andy Serkis’ performance is just as brilliant as it was in The Two Towers and The Return of the King.
So, how does the first Hobbit movie compare to the LOTR trilogy. Quite frankly, it’s a little hard to compare. Although I felt the film clearly tried to go for a similar feel, it was clearly more fantastical and also lighter to make such a comparison a little unfair and also a little redundant. However, I felt the movie came very close to matching the quality of The Fellowship of the Ring as a starter to the series. The story doesn’t quite have the same urgency and drama involved to it, but it’s never the less a fun movie and worth checking out.
Score: 3½/5
Score breakdown:
- +1 Gollum!!
- +½ The songs were a nice throw-back to Tolkien’s original book.
- +½ The Goblin cavern scenes
- +½ Radagast the Brown – crazy-ass wizard hopped up on ‘shrooms!
- +½ Elijah Wood, Ian McKellen, Christopher Lee, Cate Blanchett and Hugo Weaving are all back.
- +½ The Trolls Scene
- -½ The Finale, if you’re not gonna give us an epic fight at the end, don’t tease us and just leave it unresolved like that!
- -½ The dwarves were really under-utilised (and kind of a bunch of assholes to be honest)
- -½ So… Gandalf and Galadriel are apparently the romantic couple of this trilogy. *Ech!*
