The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey

I know it's spooky season, and everyone is probably waiting on Scream 4, but I wasn't feeling up to watching a horror film, so I decided to revive my fantasy reviews, because I have wanted to finish this up for all of you.

This movie is definitely different, and I had a different reaction to it when I watched it than when I first saw it in the theaters almost 10 years ago. It has some things that work, and some things that really don't.

The story acts as a prequel to The Lord of the Rings, and focuses on a younger Bilbo Baggins, played by Martin Freeman, who is convinced by the wizard Gandalf, played again by Ian McKellen, to join in an epic quest to reclaim the Dwarven kingdom of Erebor from the dragon Smaug in a company of 13 dwarves led by Thorin Oakenshield, played by Richard Armitage. Along the way, they encounter many dangers, including a bounty set by a group of deadly orcs. Throughout all this, whispers of a mysterious evil known only as The Necromancer are heard with more and more alarming frequency.

The story is definitely a cool concept, but on a rewatch, this film definitely suffered from Deathly Hallows Part 1 syndrome, or, in other words, lots of setup and not very much payoff. Considering this is the first part of a three part adaptation of a very short book (for some reason), it makes sense, but it meant there was a lot of dead space. Where in all the Lord of the Rings films, there was so much content that there was never a dull moment, in this one, due to lack of material, they had to add in other plotlines to balance out how thin they were stretching this story.

Now, other than that, the effects were nice, although I do feel this film was a bit too reliant on CGI, compared to the original films, which had more practical effects in use for the most part. The biggest standout is the performances, with Armitage portraying Thorin as a serious and determined Dwarven prince who will do anything to get his kingdom back and Freeman playing Bilbo as an awkward and reluctant participant in this journey who starts to grow more brave and heroic as he continues onward. The standout scene of this film would obviously be the game of riddles that goes down between Bilbo and the creature Gollum, played again by Andy Serkis, in which Bilbo comes into possession of the One Ring.

Overall, this movie is still well-done for the most part, but you can tell they were grasping with ways to make a small portion of the original book onto a 2 and a half hour film. It's entertaining if you have never read the book, but as someone who has read the book, it will always color my opinion on it a bit.

Next time, the journey to Erebor continues, this time involving shapeshifters and giant spiders, maybe even Smaug the dragon himself. How will our heroes fare with this? Find out when I review The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Mario Marathon Part 6: Super Mario Land 2: 6 Golden Coins

I have to say, Mario way back in the early days of gaming used to be so creative, and this game is no exception. I mean, just like its predecessor, it's very weird, but that's what makes it so charming and fun to play. As with the first Mario Land title, this game was released on the Game Boy, but for being a game on such a simple console, they did quite a lot with the visuals and world designs. In fact, I'd even go so far as to say that this game makes the first Super Mario Land look like a tech demo by comparison. The story is the usual flavor of weird that the first game had as well. Mario's castle that he just...has for some reason, has been taken over by the evil Wario and the door to the castle can only be unlocked by going to six zones and finding the golden coins that reside in each. Yeah, this game has a weird story. The six zones are really where the game shines, in my opinion. There is the tree zone, which is a grassland type area that takes place in a giant ...
Read more

Mario Marathon Part 4: Super Mario Land

Well, this was certainly a game, or at least, a good demonstration of one. This is one of the more bizarre Mario games out there, so let's talk about why that is. Super Mario Land was the first portable mainline Mario game, released for Nintendo's black and white Game Boy. So how did Mario on the go end up doing? Well, quite weirdly as mentioned earlier. While it is a 2D platformer like the other games reviewed so far, this game definitely tried to stand out in ways no other Mario game really has done before. The story follows Mario as he tries to save the kingdom of Sarasaland and its princess, Daisy, from the evil alien Tatanga. Already a departure from the norm for sure, but even the enemies are weird. For example, Koopas now turn into bombs when you jump on them instead of just hiding in their shells so you can kick them later on. The game plays like the first Mario game, but in black and white, with more bizarre enemies like the aforementioned Bombshell Koopas, and actual ...
Read more

Mario Marathon Part 1: Super Mario Bros

I like Mario, that much is clear from the random beginning of this specific marathon, but regardless, there has been so much Mario content that has come out over the last few years that a review of all the Mario games I consider important sounds like a no-brainer. Well, after a couple weeks of thinking about this, that's exactly what I am doing, and what better place than the game that started it all? That, of course, is Super Mario Bros. Now, this game is hardly the most complex thing out there. It's a sidescrolling platformer where you play as a plumber named Mario who has to save the princess of the Mushroom Kingdom from the villainous turtle dragon thing known as Bowser. But even this simple plot was revolutionary for gaming. You see, prior to this game, video games didn't have any sort of story to them and really were just things made to rack up high scores. This was the first game to really give a more fleshed out story than "Get as much points and then, I don...
Read more