The Hobbit's unexpected journey

OK its been a while since reviewed a new film (or newer shall we say) and so having just watched the DVD I thought I would look at The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey, which is the first of a three part adaptation of J.R. Tolkein's novel, The Hobbit.  So let's shall we look have it.

Right well its a pretty long and involved plot so in a continuing effort to keep plot summaries DOWN in length on this blog, I shall keep it fairly short.  So the film begins with the hobbit, Bilbo Baggins (Ian Holm) who is approaching his 111th birthday, who decides to write down the full story of the adventure he had 60 years ago.  The film then goes back 60 years ago when Bilbo was a younger man (played by Martin Freeman) who one day is paid a visit by the great wizard, Gandalf the grey (Ian McKellen) who asks him if he would like to come on a journey with him, but Bilbo turns him down.  Later that night a whole host of dwarves turn up on Bilbo's doorstep and go in, under the impression Bilbo had invited them, and soon enough Gandalf turns up as well, as Bilbo realises he had been tricked by the wizard.  The point of the meeting is soon revealed that Gandalf wants to recruit Bilbo on their journey to find the Lonley mountain, which is said to be the last known dwarf kingdom, to which the leader of the dwarf party, Thorin (Richard Armitage) has a key and a map to help guide them there.  Bilbo initially turns down their invitation to come as their "burglar" as he put off by the fair chance of his not surviving their quest, however the next morning he changes his mind and catches up with Gandalf and the band of dwarves.  And from here this is where the long and very dangerous journey begins....

It probably has to be said that The Hobbit would be a tough one to follow up after the tremendous efforts Peter Jackson put into making the Lord of the rings trilogy, which were in great films in their own right, however The Hobbit stacks up pretty well.  Although it has to be said as it is just a single book (at a mere 310 pages), its seems a bit unusual that Peter Jackson would want to make a whole trilogy out of it, but I guess with his strengths as a storyteller he can find ways to pad things out in an entertaining way.  Admittedly the film is a bit of a slow burner at the start, but once the adventure gets under way it becomes a really entertaining film, with plenty of great moments of action, humour, drama and fun.  It also sees the reprise of several of the characters that we have seen in LOTR, apart from Bilbo and Gandalf, there is also Saruman the white (played once again by Christopher Lee), Lord Elron (Hugo Weaving) and Galadriel (Cate Blanchett) as well as Frodo Baggins (once again played by Elijah Wood who doesn't look all that different!).

In regards to the performances they are all pretty good here, and Martin Freeman in the role as Bilbo Baggins is very good, and he bears reasonable resemblance to Ian Holm, and physically he was the perfect choice for the role.  Sir Ian McKellen is once again great as Gandalf, and he carries a fair amount of the film, especially in terms of the narrative as he delivers alot of the film's exposition, and as before he plays Gandalf with a nice sense of humour, stubborness, bravery and slight fragility.  Richard Armitage also gives a fine performance as Thorin, the grandson of the late dwarf king, King Thror, and for some reason his voice resembles that of Gerard Butler's (in fact at first I thought it was him!).  Sylvester McCoy is excellent as the eccentric wizard, Radagast the Brown, who lives in the woods with animals and also plays a small but key part in the film where he fights with a nercomancer, that corrupts the forrests with dark magic.  And then there is Andy Serkis and his contribution to the film as Gollum, as he once again does a great job in his vocal work and physical work as the tormented, twisted and pitiful creature, who's mind and body has been taken over by the ring.  And finally I will mention the band of dwarves and as there are 13 of them, I will only mention one or two, such as James Nesbitt, who gives a nice performance, as Bofur, as a genial dwarf.  And then there is Ken Stott as Balin (replete with a large white beard!) who provides some of the film's funny lines, such as when the dwarves reach Rivendell and Lord Elrond looks at the elvish swords the dwarves had found in the troll cave, and Bilbo is about to show them his sword and Balin says "I wouldn't show them that if I were you, its more like an envelope opener!".  

The film itself also has several entertaining sequences, and the film for me started to get going when Gandalf, the dwarves and Bilbo stumble across a trio of trolls, who have stolen a couple of their ponies for dinner, and they very nearly get added to the menu too, as the dwarves are pit on a giant spit!  The scene where Gandalf meet with Elrdond and Galadriel is good as well as we see the re-introduction of Saruman the white, the leader of wizard's order, and its strange to see him in a good context as opposed to a bad one, since the story takes places many years before the events of LOTR, and it also makes you wonder even then he was playing a double role as good wiz bad wiz.  The action scene where Gandalf, Bilbo and the dwarves fight off the orc leader, Azog and his hoard of orc soldiers is also pretty good as are the scene where the group try to escape the goblin caves, prior to facing Azog.  But for me the best scene in the film is where Bilbo encounters Gollum in the lower goblin caves, and they challenge each other to answer some riddles, and if Bilbo wins Gollum will show him the way out, and if Gollum wins "then we eats Baggins whole!" to which Bilbo replies "fair enough!".

Direction wise Peter Jackson overall has once again done a really good job here, and although it lacks pace in the first hour or so, it really picks up well as it goes along, and again he shows a great understanding of Tolkein's works.  Technically speaking the film also looks great and while there is perhaps a somewhat over reliance on CGI in the film, the CGI that is used is actually quite good, although perhaps the three squabbling trolls do look a bit naff in comparison to the other computer based characters, and the fact they all talk in cockney is a bit silly.  And finally I'll mention the film's music score by Howard Shore, which is excellent and it echoes some of the themes from LOTR, but he also adds plenty of new passages which are good.

So that's it for my look at the Hobbit's unexpected journey, which is overall a very entertaining film, albeit a little bit lengthy and it does take a while to get going, but once you get there it becomes an enjoyable watching experience, and it bodes well for the forthcoming second part in the Hobbit trilogy.

And that's all for now.