The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey [M]

Tucked away in his little hobbit hole lives Bilbo Baggins of Bag End: a hobbit who never had any adventures or did anything unexpected. That was until the wizard Gandalf showed up on his doorstep one day and invited him to come along for an adventure. Many of Bilbo’s exploits have been heard around the Shire, but was everything in his story told? Bilbo now recounts his adventures with Gandalf and a motley crew of dwarves let by Thorin Okenshield on a quest to take back their homeland, stolen years ago and still kept guard over by the feared dragon Smaug. 

Since the conclusion of the most epic trilogy in cinematic history, this first instalment in a prequel trilogy has been the most highly anticipated movie event of last year. A breathtaking and just undeniably dazzling return to a Middle Earth not plagued by the darkness of Sauron, The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey follows the famous adventures of a young Bilbo Baggins and proves to be another masterpiece in the series of Middle Earth artworks that Peter Jackson has brought to our screens. I wouldn’t say that it scales the exact heights of his predecessors but it comes pretty damned close! It’s a stunning film! 

Tucked away in his little hobbit hole lives Bilbo Baggins of Bag End: a hobbit who never had any adventures or did anything unexpected. That was until the wizard Gandalf showed up on his doorstep one day and invited him to come along for an adventure. Many of Bilbo’s exploits have been heard around the Shire, but was everything in his story told? Bilbo now recounts his adventures with Gandalf and a motley crew of dwarves let by Thorin Okenshield on a quest to take back their homeland, stolen years ago and still kept guard over by the feared dragon Smaug. 

To be expected, we return to a place and a form that is oh so familiar in director Peter Jackson’s latest visit to Middle Earth. Originally only meant to be two films, The Hobbit has been spanned into three, which is something that I have to admit I wasn’t entirely sure about. For those who haven’t read the tale, the book is actually not all that large, only spanning two or three hundred pages, which is something that could easily have been made into two films (maybe two theatricals and then extended versions released at a later date). The padding that has been added to span the story into three films is a result of clever and cajoling writing that ties the film quite strongly to The Lord of the Rings. We begin practically where we began in Fellowship of the Ring: in the Shire with a 111 year-old Bilbo and Frodo waiting for Gandalf to arrive for Bilbo’s birthday party. We then proceed to backtrack sixty years where the real story begins. For the first half, the film is exactly like the book, but then the story gets a bit bigger when an alternative plot is introduced, one that I’m deadly certain was mentioned in the Lord of the Rings books and not The Hobbit. This is where the padding is and you would have thought that a fan of the books, like myself, would be annoyed, but in actual fact I rather like the way that they’ve tied in the two stories because a) it’s better catered to a wider audience, many of which have probably never read the books, and b) it quite effectively conveys the vastness of the dramas and stories of Middle Earth. One thing that we have to remember with these tales from the perilous realm is that their sense of time cannot be compared to ours because we are dealing with creatures that age much slower than humans, some not at all. Bilbo’s adventures and his discovery of the One Ring we have to remember is almost a mere footnote in the history of Middle Earth, remember that when Bilbo’s finds it in Gollum’s cave, Gollum’s had it for five hundred years. Do you see what I’m trying to get at? The writing and the fact that bits of the two stories were blended together made the movie more in keeping in terms of scope with its predecessors because even though we’re telling a small story, it set into motion and was set against bigger things that were happening at the same time. 

There is a fabulous actor in Martin Freeman who stars as Young Bilbo Baggins. Martin must have watched The Lord of the Rings extensively, paying very close attention to Ian Holm because he played the younger version of him so well! His mannerisms, gestures, the way he spoke in short and explicit dialogue, and even the way he smoked his pipe, absolutely everything about him was perfect! Martin delivers a performance that begins the film being adorably nervous and rooted to home, but then changes whilst on his travels with the dwarves and finds courage and a wit that he never knew he had. Martin provided much drama, heart-warming messages, and comic relief to the mix and I was rapt from the start. 

The art department and set designers have to be applauded for their incredible achievements in creating the countries and towns of Middle Earth. What makes these movies so completely EPIC is the breathtakingly incredible sets that riddle them. We were awestruck by the Argonath, Rivendell, and Moria in Fellowship, blown away by Edoras, Orthanc and Helm’s Deep in Two Towers, and struck breathless by Minas Tirith and Minas Morgul in Return of the King. Now the cavernous and glittering halls of the dwarf kingdom of Erebor render breath and speech from our bodies in this film. There are quite literally no words to describe how unutterably beautiful and amazing these places are! 

Starring Ian McKellen, Martin Freeman, Ian Holm, Jason Nesbit, Elijah Wood, ­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­Sylvester McCoy, Richard Armitage, Graham McTavish, Ken Scott, Aidan Turner, Dean O’Gorman, Mark Hadlow, Jed Brophy, Adam Brown, John Callen, Peter Hambleton, William Kircher, Stephen Hunter, Barry Humphries, Christopher Lee, Hugo Weaving, Cate Blanchett, and Andy Serkis, The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey is a fabulous bit of cinematic achievement that’s filled with magic, beautiful New Zealand scenery, action, violence, incredible sets, amazing costumes, beautiful weapons, suspense, drama, and comedy. It’s been well worth the wait to say the least, as this beautiful movie that affords never a dull moment is our prize.