Review of The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey (2012) by Caesar S — 07 Dec 2014

An Unexpected Journey is a delightful, nostalgic return to Middle Earth. It is far from echoing the splendor of LOTR, but die hard fans will be very satisfied (I was).

The movie opens as you might suppose. In a hole in the ground, there lived a hobbit. Actually, in a hole in the ground, there lived two hobbits. Frodo is back, for about two minutes. Ian Holm is back, to narrate the opening scene, and remind us that this is connected, somehow, to The Lord of the Rings. Sauruman is back, because he is. Galadriel is back, because there needs to be a girl somewhere in this movie. Oh, Elrond and Gandalf, and the Witch King, and Gollum, and the One Ring, also appear. Martin Freeman is delightful as a 50 year old Bilbo Baggins.

After a long flashback, that shows us Erebor, and Dale, and Balin, and Thorin, and Thror, and Thrain, and Smaug, and Peter Jackson, in a cameo, the movie starts to pick up some speed. After picking up speed, the movie loses speed. It is rather uneven. There is a 15 minute dinner party, compliments of Mr. Baggins, who indignantly tells the 157, or so, dwarves who invade his pantry, that they are at the wrong hole in the ground. For whatever reason, Bilbo decides that he is going with these dwarves, who he does not know, to help them kill a dragon. Then, very quickly, things happen. Trolls, and orcs, and goblins, and gollums happen. Then, Bilbo gets the ring, the orcs try to kill the dwarves, and the eagles save the dwarves. At the end of it, Erebor is in sight.

I was disappointed by the over usage of CGI. It makes the usually terrifying orcs look like something out of a video game.

There is not the same sense of danger that there is in Lord of the Rings. Jackson tries to make the hobbit-sized prequel to LOTR, feel a lot more significant than it is. He also tries to stretch it into three movies.

The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey is a fine movie, but it doesn't quite measure up to The Lord of the Rings. (B+).