The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey

I hated the extended editions of The Lord of the Rings. Loathed them, in fact. In every single instance, I could see exactly why the deleted scenes were originally excised. Shoving such redundant scenes back into the movies made long stretches of the originally great films feel tiresome. Despite many vocal fans that claimed that it was impossible to have too much Middle Earth, I was always of the opinion that the theatrical cuts were the best.

So it was with some trepidation that I approached the first Hobbit movie. The knowledge that the book was originally being split into two films made me apprehensive, and the last minute decision to change it to three had me quaking in my boots. Peter Jackson had made it clear that he was going to dip into the appendices from ‘The Lord of the Rings’ but, nevertheless, would The Hobbit films be the equivalent of the LOTR extended editions? I needn’t have worried. For me, An Unexpected Journey flew by, and I loved just about every minute of it.

For those who don’t know, The Hobbit is set 60 years before The Lord of the Rings and concerns the halfling Bilbo Baggins, who is press ganged into helping a group of dwarfs reclaim their home and their treasure from the great dragon Smaug. Gandalf’s along for the ride, and several other characters who popped up in LOTR appear here also. Being a children’s book, it’s a smaller tale, but it’s also one that constantly hints at events just out of the novel’s reach. Peter Jackson, of course, willingly dives head first into such events, and this is what prevents the film from feeling like a small story stretched into three hours.

Jackson has made it clear that Martin Freeman was the only person he ever wanted to play Bilbo, and he is indeed perfect in the role. At first, I found his performance off-putting because it felt too much like Freeman on autopilot (especially in comparison his brilliant turn as Watson in the modern day ‘Sherlock’) but he soon showed a depth of character that was only ever hinted at in the book. The returning performers are of course great, and whilst there are too many people playing dwarfs for me to list them all, special reference should be made of Richard Armitage, who manages convey a sense of gravitas as Thorin Oakenshield.

For those who care about the cinematic technology on display, I saw the 48 frames per second version in 3D. For the first 15 minutes or so, like many other viewers, I was horrified. The image is indeed reminiscent of low budget television at first glance, and to my eyes that are used to 24 fps, it felt like everyone was moving slightly too quickly. But then, gloriously, I warmed to it. The almost complete lack of motion blur was wondrous, particularly in the wide shots. For years now, it’s annoyed me when a camera pan across a digital matte painting led to a blurred image, a flaw that was even more apparent in 3D. With the 48 fps version of An Unexpected Journey, this is a problem no longer. By the time we’d reached the climax, I was well and truly in love with the image.

The same goes for the overall tone of the film. It does sit awkwardly between children’s pantomime and dark fantasy, but I came to love the fact that it wasn’t afraid to be a little silly every now and again. Jackson’s sense of the ridiculous hasn’t lessened, so whilst proceedings don’t get as OTT as, say, the dinosaur stampede in King Kong, there are some pretty outlandish moments. The only drawback is that at times it’s hard to believe that our heroes are ever really in that much danger.

I was really genuinely surprised how much I enjoyed this film. In the final analysis, it does have its flaws, but I thought it was much more entertaining than The Two Towers, which has always been a struggle for me to get through. We will never know what An Unexpected Journey would have been had Guillermo del Toro remained at the helm, but it’s safe to say that the franchise is in good hands with Jackson.