"Why don't we have a game of riddles and if I win, you show me the way out of here?"
To say I’ve been looking forward to this film along time is
an understatement, so unfortunately I cannot promise an unbiased review, I can
instead promise a fan’s review. So for me personally the build up and
production history of this film are as big a part of its story as the actual
film and book on which it’s based. This is quiet a rare film for me where I knew
the story going in and for the most part knew what to expect having read the
book, and yet half the films story was new to me, you could say the story was Unexpected.
Ok on to a bit of the history of this film, I’ll try and
keep this brief. The film has been in production since late 2007 and was originally
set to be two film directed by Guillermo
del Toro, with Peter Jackson serving as Executive producer, development of the
film was notoriously slow which eventually lead to Del Toro’s departure from
the project and Jackson taking over directing duties. Now as most of you will
know the story of The Hobbit is a prequel to The Lord Of The Rings (LOTR), it
was originally written as a children story and having read the book the story
is very light and doesn’t have the same depth to it as LOTR so I was shocked
when it was announced that Peter Jackson was looking to split the story up into
three films, as I personally thought two was stretching it a bit but made sense
if they were going to tie the plot of The Hobbit into that of LOTR. I think what
we got in the cinema was the extended version cut of The Hobbit: An Unexpected
Journey, which isn’t necessarily a bad thing if you’re a fan of the extended
versions of the LOTR movies, but can turn off casual/new fans of the film
franchise. Also the addition of a lot of extra material from JRR Tolkien’s
other works mainly the Appendices from the end of The Return of the King and
possible taking some cues from The Silmarillion (especially the parts filling
in the blanks between as well as around The Hobbit and LOTR stories).
So thoughts on the film, as much as I loved it, it was a bit
slow and took ages to get going. We’re introduced to a younger Bilbo (Sixty
years before the events of the LOTR took place), who for the most part isn’t as
likable character as the Bilbo we meet in the LOTR. This younger Bilbo is quiet
reserved and stuck in his ways and has very little interest in doing anything
out of the ordinary. He is whoever forced into action by his friend Gandalf the
grey and eventually agrees to join an adventure with a group of thirteen Dwarfs
and Gandalf looking to reclaim the Dwarves lost home from the possible deceased
dragon Smaug. This first film is mostly following Bilbo’s journey to overcome
his more comfort-loving reserved side and him realising that he can be a useful
member of the team and that he has unique skills to offer. There is also a lot
of side plots introduced in this movie that weren’t present in the book that
while the fill in the blanks of what’s happening in Middle Earth, do little to
serve the story except increase the running time. Having said that though, I really
did enjoy this film, visually its stunning and while practical effects such as
having actual actors in make up as the Orc’s were replaced with Computer Generated
Graphics this time around I still found myself being drawn into the story and
investing in the character.
While I think the decision to split the story into three
films was foolish and resulted in scenes that would have normally been included
on an extended cut of this film making it into this movie, it was still a great
movie. The only warning I’d put on it was to only go see it if you love The Lord
Of The Rings movies (especially the extended cuts) if you only liked them maybe
just wait until its out on DVD/BluRay and rent it then. For me personally this
film was an 8/10, great potential but a bit bloated in part.
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