There and back again. Again.
by Hunter Isham
I am a great fan of Peter Jackson’s The Lord of the Rings trilogy, admiring everything from the wonderful cast’s performances to the now classic scores by Howard Shore. I cannot say that I am an admirer of J.R.R. Tolkien and his books (of which I’ve only read two), but his Middle-earth is superbly rendered by Jackson and his team of filmmaking magicians in New Zealand. I’m sensing a Lincoln vibe here. As those of you who have read my review of that film are well aware, I had a heavy bias toward it, which no doubt influenced my ability to enjoy the film, if not love it. The same can be said for the first part of Jackson’s three film adaptation of Tolkien’s original Middle-earth adventure, The Hobbit. This film, subtitled An Unexpected Journey, is one that I was bound to be fond of, and I have reached the halfway-point “one-third-of-the-way point” with some quibbles but overall find Jackson’s return to Middle-earth to be an enchanting journey. In fact, this review may as well be titled “In Defense of The Hobbit,” if only because I believe some of the criticism lobbed its way is undue, and perhaps premature.
The majority of said complaints are aimed squarely at the elephant in the hobbit hole, the expansion of the relatively slim Hobbit book into three films, each potentially about three hours long. I’ll address this later, as it is something unique to this new film trilogy, so let’s instead look to the “usual subjects” of film review. This first third of Tolkien’s story introduces us to a young Bilbo Baggins, unknowingly about to set out on a quest with thirteen dwarves to reclaim their homeland and gold from the evil dragon Smaug. Prodded and aided by his new acquaintance, wizard Gandalf the Grey, Bilbo encounters trolls, goblins, orcs, and a peculiar fellow with a certain precious ring on his mind. To give more detail would be to reveal that as a first act to a three part story this film suffers a bit from bearing the expository load of a newly expanded story that appears to have a much larger pay-off in its endgame than this film is able to offer up in its final moments. The journey is not as grand as that in The Lord of The Rings (from here on out LOTR), nor as important to the fate of Middle-earth. Although the story can seem a tad thin at times, An Unexpected Journey has quite a bit going for it all the way through, not the least of which is its cast.
Perhaps this film’s greatest asset is the stuffy, fussy titular character, Bilbo, wonderfully embodied here by Martin Freeman, known to many for his roles on the BBC’s The Office and Sherlock. He plays the reluctant adventurer, far removed from the aging hobbit longing for another grand trip played in LOTR by Sir Ian Holm, and ultimately allows for a character arc in this film and the two that follow in which Bilbo can grow into the tired hero we meet in The Fellowship of the Ring. Sir Ian McKellan returns as Gandalf, once more donning the cloak and pointy hat, not to mention the kind heart and keen wisdom. Andy Serkis also returns to his now famous role of Gollum, the once hobbit-like creature consumed by the power of the One Ring. The extended scene in which he and Bilbo share in a game of riddles is absolutely wonderful, humorous and at times chilling, reminding the viewer that Serkis’ performance is one of the best and most finely tuned components of Jackson’s cinematic Middle-earth. Other returning players include Cate Blanchett as elf queen Lady Galadriel, Hugo Weaving as the elf Lord Elrond, and Christopher Lee as wizard Saruman the White. New faces are abound, as we get not only the thirteen dwarves (a handful of whom are given nice character moments in this first film), led by the regal, stoic Thorin Oakenshield (Richard Armitage), but also Radagast the Brown, a loopy, nature-minded wizard played by former Doctor Who star Sylvester McCoy. Thorin is the standout of these new characters, given a noble cause to fight for and an ancient foe to battle, and played with gravitas by Armitage. Radagast has been unfairly compared to Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace’s Jar-Jar Binks, a similarly crazy, comedic relief character (also in the first installment of a prequel trilogy), but he serves a much more important purpose by setting into motion major events that will play out over the course of the next two films.
Just as the cast is in fine form, the technical aspects of this picture, from Jackson’s direction to the makeup to the computer generated enemies and environments, are all top notch. Howard Shore’s score, using many familiar themes, such as those for the Shire and the One Ring, feels at home once more in Middle-earth, crafting music that is at once different but composed of the same musical DNA as his scores for LOTR. One big technological controversy surrounding the film is Jackson’s decision to shoot the entire film at 48FPS, also known on posters, ads, and marquees as HFR 3D. This means higher frame rate, specifically 48 frames of film per second, which is twice the traditional frame rate used by Hollywood since the 1920s. To envision the difference, think of a flip book, filled with still images that, when flipped through quickly, create the illusion of a moving image. Now imagine that flip book having twice the number of images (still depicting the exact same motion), and viewing those images in the same amount of time. It should create a smoother, sharper little “movie,” inching closer to the continuous images we actually observe with our own eyes. As much as the continuous display of images may just be an illusion, the 24FPS method is an illusion our eyes have been used to for more than 80 years. To many, An Unexpected Journey looks sped up when viewed in HFR 3D (the 48FPS is only showing in 3D, with standard 3D and 2D available at theaters), and to others it made the production look cheap and hyper-real, like watching a soap opera on a massive high definition television. I personally found it to look fantastic, with most agreeing that sweeping landscape shots, as well as some of the computer graphics, looked absolutely gorgeous with the added clarity. I’ve read that those used to digital media, especially video games, that display images at high frame rates are likely to be more accustomed, and therefore more adaptable, to this new technology. I for one, though having enjoyed it, think the best initial demonstration for this technology would have been a film like Moneyball, where the added clarity could make the practical sets, and especially the baseball sequences, absolutely pop off the screen. A CGI-heavy fantasy film was perhaps not the best medium for a technology that inherently reveals a lack of detail in most traditional methods normally hidden between the standard 24FPS frame rate. An Unexpected Journey will not be available in HFR 3D on home media, so if you’re curious about this new process, you may have to pony up the higher ticket price (because of course it costs more!) to see it with this December’s The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug.
I hope that is as exhaustive as is necessary (the paragraph sure is long enough), but as promised, here comes my defense of Peter Jackson and co.’s decision to split Tolkien’s 310 page book into three (probably) three hour films. Of course the first thing that came to everyone’s minds when rumors swirled that the already surprising two film adaptation would be once more divided was one thing and one thing only: MORE MONEY! Even I, as one of the LOTR cinematic-faithful, had my doubts. Warner Bros. and MGM, the studios behind the $500+ million dollar trilogy, quite obviously would like a third tentpole (especially the recently bankrupt and rehabilitated MGM) to rake in the billions, at least if it didn’t prove to be too costly to do some additional writing, filming, etc..., but Jackson and his team, comprised of partner Fran Walsh and Phillipa Boyens, remained the big mystery. Their track record shows an effort to put story before anything else, let alone profit, and to make such a slim book an epic trilogy did seem like a blatant cash grab. But then they explained how they would do it. Tolkien wrote additional material to bridge the gap between his first novel, the children’s fairytale The Hobbit, and his darker, more complex LOTR, ultimately fleshing out events referenced only briefly in the first book that he had no idea would have later connected to his epic trilogy. For example, Gandalf disappears for a period in the book, but his absence is accounted for, and is directly related to the events of LOTR, giving Jackson, Walsh, and Boyens the opportunity to create a cinematic backstory to their previous films, rather than just a straight adaptation of The Hobbit. One lesser point to make is also that The Hobbit is a more compact narrative than LOTR, with quick, concise storytelling that is at odds with the dense, descriptive (and sometimes a bit dull) text of the later trilogy. This means that a lot happens in just a few lines of text, so when such scenes are fleshed out (some brief mentions become big set-pieces) for the screen, they inevitably become longer.
An Unexpected Journey serves mainly as an introductory film, beginning the quest and presenting a host of characters and conflicts that will build toward a resolution as the series progresses. Without revealing too much of what happens in this film, as well as what is planned to occur in the sequels, I can say that the primary villain of LOTR, the evil Sauron, is established as slowly returning and possibly gaining power here, a storyline running parallel to the dwarves’ quest. Also, Bilbo’s acquisition of the Ring, obviously a major part of the earlier films, could be given more attention in these new films, as when Tolkien first wrote The Hobbit he just considered it a magic ring, not the ring that he would build a multi-volume story around. Tolkien back-engineered a mythology with which he could make LOTR a rich, towering tale. With so much to add that bridges The Hobbit and LOTR, just as much needs to be introduced for everything to tie together in the third film. It is my theory that An Unexpected Journey, no doubt a film that is overly long (but enjoyable for those who love this world), has suffered the most from the three film decision, and that the next two installments, 2013’s The Desolation of Smaug and 2014’s There and Back Again, may benefit by front-loading the first film with a good deal of exposition and leisurely character introductions, ultimately allowing the brewing conflicts to breathe when their importance dons on those who think The Hobbit is just about some short people and a wizard going to slay a dragon and claim their treasure.
Whew. There and back again is most certainly right. Peter Jackson’s The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey is a welcome return to Middle-earth for both the director and his many fans, if still not quite the film we wanted. There are some sequences that could be shorter (like a nice but unnecessary trilogy-bookending scene with Elijah Wood’s Frodo), or even eliminated, but it’s all handled with great technical skill, not to mention the wonderful performances by the entire cast. There are also some new creations by Jackson and co. that don’t always work, like an imposing but ultimately flat orc villain not present in the book, but such small failures are overshadowed by the aforementioned cast and crew. This Hobbit film suffers by having to be the first of an unexpected, expanded narrative that, if the many plots introduced are any indication, will grow into the prequel we hoped it would be by journey’s end. “All good stories deserve embellishment,” says Gandalf to a nervous Bilbo, “You’ll have a tale or two to tell of your own when you come back.” The same can be said of the three part adaptation of The Hobbit, something that seems to be earned, at least for now, and will hopefully be worth the journey there and back again when all is said and done. 8/10
P.S. I hope this unconventional evaluation of The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey didn’t prove too arduous, especially given that I spent only about one third of this super-sized (Hobbit-sized?) review on critiquing the film. I felt that it was necessary to take this opportunity to express that I think this film’s faults may eventually be forgiven in the face of stronger, faster, and more enjoyable (for non-die hard fans) follow-up films. An Unexpected Journey is being followed by films that, rather than conventional sequels devised separately from their original counterparts, are essentially just continuations of one large story, making it the first act of one massive nine hour movie. The Lord of the Rings film trilogy benefited from a denser text with more natural break points for separate films, but I have faith that Jackson, Walsh, and Boyens have done their best to make an expanded cinematic experience that will benefit from becoming a denser narrative than its own source material.
Also, one final point to make is that An Unexpected Journey has a fairly “that’s it?” kind of ending, even for those who know more is on its way, and I believe this film may have a hastily planned end point, because there is more to the story present in the film’s promotional material (much of it released before the three film decision), implying a different initial vision for the first film, and perhaps further demonstrating that the more substantial developments of the story will come in the second and third films.
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