Movie Review: The Hobbit

The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey

By Jeremy Cooper: Layout Editor

Director: Peter Jackson

Starring: Martin Freeman, Ian McKellen, Richard Armitage, Andy Serkis

Synopsis: Sixty years before the events of The Lord of the Rings, Bilbo Baggins (Freeman), a mild-mannered hobbit, is coaxed by Gandalf the Grey (McKellen) into joining a group of dwarves on an adventure to reclaim their lost kingdom from a dragon called Smaug.

Review: Growing up, The Lord of the Rings trilogy was the defining movie event of my childhood and all three films as a whole remain in my top ten favorite movies of all time. So upon hearing that Peter Jackson and company were adapting J.R.R Tolkien’s preceding novel, The Hobbit, as a prequel, my excitement was great to say the least. However, mild apprehension followed when I learned that they were making not one, not two, but three movies out of a 300 page novel, whereas Lord of the Rings was based off of three long books. 

It was almost guaranteed going that this movie wasn’t going to reach the cinematic heights of its predecessors and believing that it would do so would be setting an unfairly high standard. The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey is flawed, but it has just enough good things in it to make it an entertaining and reasonably satisfying experience. 

The Lord of the Rings films are noted for their length, but every scene, even in the extended cuts, feels necessary and adds to the narrative greatly. The Hobbit, however, feels padded out for the sake of making three movies. 

The first third or so of the movie feels a bit dragged out. The most glaring examples of this include an unnecessary prologue scene featuring cameos by Ian Holm and Elijah Wood, and a prolonged dinner scene at Bilbo’s house which serves as an introduction to the dwarves. 

This dinner scene in particular doesn’t serve any point other than to give us about ten minutes of comedy before getting to the reason why the dwarves are even at the house in the first place. It might have been better had there been some character development, but alas there isn’t much.

However, once the journey gets going, it really gets going. The visual effects are phenomenal, the action sequences are grand and immensely entertaining and there are even some strong character moments towards the end. The standout set-piece would be Andy Serkis’ brief return as Gollum in a scene that comes the closest to matching the brilliance of the film’s predecessors. 

The acting is also uniformly good. Martin Freeman does really well as Bilbo Baggins, making the character immediately likable and showing some great character development. Ian McKellen as Gandalf is an iconic performance and watching him again is just as entertaining as it was ten years ago. 

The rest of the new actors also do fine work, particularly Richard Armitage as Thorin, the leader of the dwarves. The one performance I didn’t like, however, was Sylvester McCoy as Radagast the Brown, a comic-relief character who quickly becomes more annoying than amusing.

I do have hopes that the next two films in this series can improve, perhaps greatly. Having read the source material, I know that the tone gets darker and with all of the exposition out of the way, perhaps the narrative will become more focused and less drawn out. I could be overly optimistic, but I’m half-full as opposed to half-empty.

Consensus: Despite a spotty first half, The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey is an enjoyable return to Middle Earth featuring strong acting and some terrific set-pieces. 

Verdict: 7.5 out of 10