Year: 2012
Director: Peter Jackson
Country: US
Language: English
Approximately eleven years after Peter Jackson's first installment of the Lord of the Rings Trilogy screened worldwide, The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey hit theaters and has done, unsurprisingly, well. It appears that the seemingly great novels by J.R.R. Tolkein will not die out, but flourish for generations to come. Even The Hobbit is not the last we will hear of him because Jackson has decided to make the one book into another epic trilogy of his. Bring on the orcs I say!
In this film, Bilbo Baggins (Martin Freeman) is swept into a quest to reclaim the lost Dwarf Kingdom of Erebor from the fearsome dragon Smaug. Approached out of the blue by the wizard Gandalf the Grey (Ian McKellen), Bilbo finds himself joining a company of thirteen dwarves led by the legendary warrior, Thorin Oakenshield (Richard Armitage) . Their journey will take them into the Wild; through treacherous lands swarming with Goblins and Orcs, deadly Wargs and Giant Spiders, Shapeshifters and Sorcerers.
Peter Jackson should have renamed this The Hobbit: A Homo-erotic Journey, because there certainly is a lot of homosexual subtext within his film. Jackson is no stranger to putting LGBT themes within his pictures, the original Lord of the Rings Trilogy closely examined the "friendship" of lovelorn couple Frodo Baggins and Samwise Gamgee. I feel this undertone adds to a picture that is otherwise bloated with action scenes that, even in a fantasy, throw you in complete disbelief. The film has a pretty long running time, 169 minutes, but it feels much longer. The time isn't filled wisely and has many "filler" scenes that don't add to the character development or to the plot. Perhaps if the film was trimmed to 90 minutes it would have been less of a drag.
The cinematography in The Hobbit was great, but it doesn't feel authentic. The CGI was obviously on overload here, to create the perfect swooping shots, but that gives the film a less human feel. Do we compliment Jackson's direction or his special effects crew for this film? However, like his previous LOTR Trilogy, Hobbit has a great and familiar score that gives the film an epic feel despite having a script barely suitable for a videogame. I did love seeing Gollum again, but could care less about every other character. Most of them were one dimensional caricatures suitable for comedic fodder, Jackson took no care in getting us emotionally involved with the dwarves.
In conclusion, while Lord of the Rings lovers may hate my verdict, I feel that Tolkein's book is far better than Peter Jackson's modern bastardization. The Hobbit does have some very fun and unique moments but overall, unless you're a huge fan of the series, its pretty much a drag. Though I'm fascinated by the dragon Smaug, I think I'll just re-read the novel rather than sit through 3 hours of filler. To its credit The Hobbit is the first film shot in 48fps, however I'm hoping that it's the last as well. Piss on it! 1,5/5
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