REVIEW: The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey

By Adam McDonald on December 17, 2012 in News

I was completely obsessed with the original Lord of the Rings movies, and while I was excited to see this, I went in with lower expectations just due to all the time it spent in pre-production and development hell. Thankfully, the final product is a great film that, while not flawless or even really as good as any of the LOTR films that came before it, delivers a product that is fun, intriguing and fully immerses the audience in the fantasy being delivered on screen.

The Hobbit tells the story of well, a hobbit, Bilbo Baggins, and his adventures with a company of dwarves and the wizard, Gandalf the Grey, as they travel to the Lonely Mountain to defeat the evil dragon Smaug and retake their abandoned dwarven kingdom that has long been under Smaug’s reign.  Their journeys take them all over Middle Earth, from the pastoral hobbit holes in the Shire to the Elven stronghold of Rivendell, through goblin kingdoms under the Misty Mountains, and culminating in battle (at least in the first movie) with orcs and wargs with a personal score to settle with the leader of the dwarves, Thorin Oakenshield.  During their escape through the Misty Mountains, Bilbo runs discovers a small, gold ring that gives him the power of invisibility and allows him to escape from the clutches of the pitiful, yet dangerous Gollum — a chance encounter that will eventually lead to the epic of the Lord of the Rings and the end of the battle between good and evil in Middle Earth.

My two big complaints are the opening and the second hour of the film. The movie begins with Ian Holm as old Bilbo Baggins narrating the history of the Lonely Mountain, Smaug and the plight of the dwarves, and this would have been perfect if it had then segued directly into Martin Freeman as young Bilbo. But no, they had to remind us that this was a LOTR movies by including a cameo of Elijah Wood as Frodo having a brief conversation with Ian Holm before running off to meet Gandalf who is coming to Bilbo’s birthday party (and thus linking this film to Fellowship of the Ring). Look, we get that the Hobbit is a prequel; you don’t need to spoon feed us bits of unnecessary plot to drill this point into our heads.
You’ll have to get over the incredibly slow pacing of the second act as the company encounters and leaves Rivendell. It is painfully obvious that this whole hour is padding in order to ensure that they could split the book into multiple movies, and had a lot of this meandering been left out, it would have led to a much tighter movie that would have been that much more enjoyable. It’s not that this is a horrible sequence, just not needed in the grand scheme of what needs to be accomplished in this film. Once we meet up again with Gollum (Andy Serkis, again showing that he can show more emotion and power in a digital character than most actors can in real life) and the underground goblin kingdom, the movie picks up pace again and delivers a strong climax and the perfect jumping off point into the next film.

As Swankmotron said in a recent article, I would HIGHLY recommend seeing this film in 48 fps if it is available in your area. While the technology still has some catching up to do with this new filming process, the resulting effect is quite stunning. Does it take some getting used to? Yes, much the same as it did when you got a full HD TV and started watching Blu Rays on it. Everything is rendered in near crystal clear clarity, and if you take the time to look around the screen to see all that is being shown, you can easily pick out the most minute details that would have been unnoticeable on standard framerate. It’s almost dismaying to think that it will be a while until all movies are filmed this way, as once you get used to how everything looks, you want to see every movie presented in the same way.

In closing, if you’re a fan of the book and the LOTR movies, then you will fully enjoy the Hobbit and will most likely want to go see it at least twice in theatres. Just make sure to check out a 48 fps showing if you are able to, and don’t be afraid to take a stretch and refill your popcorn or use the restroom during the second act if you need to; you won’t miss much.