Review of The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey (2012) by John P — 19 Dec 2014

It's the greatest adventure one little guy can expect when he lets in a dozen dirty hairy men to run rampart throughout his house. Oh, and the journey as well. That is pretty exciting as well to go all the way there and back again for a task that seems too great for one person to journey to. For those of you that do not know by now, The Hobbit was originally based on the classic fantasy novel by J.R.R. Tolkien in 1937 which went on to win a couple of awards and remains popular for being recognized as a classic in children's literature. The story details a Hobbit named Bilbo Baggins who is hired as burglar by Gandalf the wizard and Thorin, the king of the dwarves, to go on an adventure with them so they can take back their mountain of treasure from a dragon named Smaug. I know you may be asking yourself, "Why a simple three hundred page story like this needs to be stretched out into three films?" That answer is quite simple. Peter Jackson wanted to bring out more detail into the world of Midd-Alright it's money, plain and simple. And who can blame him when you got Hollywood breathing down your neck asking for more of that Middle Earth dough when they are already pumping out comic book films and nerds like us are asking for more. I personally try to ignore things like this, head straight to the theater, watch the film, and come right back with my two cents on what I thought about this. So let's get this over with!

From what I can tell, there is a lot of different opinions coming from a lot of different people when they see this movie. I for one usually watch a film, once in a great while, that is nearly three hours long and not only do I not get angry at it but I want more and this is that movie. It is a breath of fresh air to see Sir Ian McKellan again reprising his role as Gandalf again as I get to see the classic acting charm that he brings on the table again. Martian Freeman is great as Bilbo Baggins bringing in his own unique acting skills to the character. All the other dwarves are also unique as well giving each of them their own personality which is something that the book never did. The shining moment in this film where the dwarves escaping the goblin caves and Bilbo coming across the One Ring and Gollum for the first time which made it all the better. I will go far as to say that not everything in here was perfect like Gandalf doing a side quest with Radagast trying to hunt down a necromancer which is later revealed who it is and it comes to no surprise. They call this the greatest adventure of all time and I think this film might be by fixing some of the problems in the previous Lord of the Rings films. This film was definitely in my Top 10 of 2012 and for that I give this a solid four out of five stars.