The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey (2012) Dir: Peter Jackson
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A decade or so after he made the greatest trilogy in cinema history, director Peter Jackson returned with a new trilogy set in Middle-Earth, this time based upon the popular one-off story from J.R.R. Tolkein, originally published in 1937. I grew up on the Lord Of The Rings trilogy, so when these films originally came out, I could not have been more excited.
As a child and then a teenager, I loved these films. It had been a little while since I last watched any of them. As such, I was interested to see how my experience of the films had changed as an adult, if it even had. Naturally, I have a lot of sentimental love for this trilogy, especially in Winter, when the film's hit cinemas, but I was far more aware of some of the drawbacks lf the trilogy this time around.
The first, most obvious negative, is that the film, and the trilogy, is just too long. That isn't just the extended edition, that's the theatre release too. I love how epic, expansive and multilayered the world of Lord Of The Rings is, but I think Peter Jackson went overboard this time. The film is bloated, unfortunately. The film, and indeed the trilogy, needed editing down desperately.
In terms of visuals, there are some stunning shots throughout, however, there was definitely a heavier reliance on CGI, which made the film look and feel far more fake than Lord Of The Rings ever did, which is unfortunate. On the plus side, the makeup and costume departments did a fantastic job on everyone involved.
The story itself, even if it was a bit too drawn out, was still the film's strongest point. It had the feel of adventure from beginning to end, it managed to form a relatively good act structure to make the film work, despite being the first act of a pre-planned trilogy, and it made sure to give its key characters some solid developments.
I for one like the changes and additions to the story from Peter Jackson, at least for the most part. I think the choice to bring in another main antagonist was a wise one, and I think the arc surrounding Gandalf was worth exploring, and allowed for some really exciting scenes with familiar and popular characters.
Martin Freeman was an interesting, but understandable choice of protagonist to play a young Bilbo. Obviously, I, like many, have a huge level of sentimentality towards Ian Holm's portrayal of the adventurous hobbit, but, for what it's worth, Freeman does his predecessor a fair bit of justice. It isn't as though he does anything new compared to his typical acting style, but it worked regardless.
The standouts of the film, and by quite some way, are Ian Mckellen and Richard Armitage, who play very different, but equally well-formed characters, who provide much of the intrigue for the other characters. McKellen is as good as he ever was during his first time as his beloved wizard, and Armitage defines the trilogy with his varied and ever-developing performance.
The actors portraying the other Dwarves were all pretty decent, although only a couple stood out, those being the talented Graham McTavish, Ken Stott and James Nesbitt. The others, despite less dialogue, definitely deserve credit; Aiden Turner, Dean O'Gorman, Mark Hadlow, Stephen Hunter, William Kircher, John Callen, Peter Hambleton, Jed Brophy and Adam Brown.
Although they didn't feature heavily, I loved the performances of both Sylvester McCoy and the returning Andy Serkis, who were both very memorable and extremely enjoyable. McCoy was a great addition to the trilogy, and the story as a whole. I think it was a good decision from Jackson to include his character, despite him never featuring in the original book.
Other very noteworthy, albeit background names, include the returning faces of Ian Holm, Hugo Weaving, Cate Blanchett, Christopher Lee and Elijah Wood, as well as the new faces of Barry Humphries and Manu Bennett.
Overall, while I think it is pretty widely agreed that Jackson could and should have told the story in just two films instead of three, I still find plenty to enjoy in each one, especially this first one. It's the most Tolkein fantasy feeling one of the three, and has that lighthearted feel that the book does. I also think it has the best writing of the trilogy, although it is definitely too long.
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