Customer Reviews

The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey [DVD + UV Copy]

5 star:		(177)
4 star:		(65)
3 star:		(32)
2 star:		(19)
1 star:		(42)

 

 

I was looking forward to this as I really enjoyed Peter Jackson's adaptation of The Lord of the Rings. While it's not a bad adaptation of The Hobbit, it's not brilliant either, and I feel that the problem is that Jackson is trying to stretch out a 300 page kids' novel to fill three 3-hour films. This is partly achieved by putting in elements from Tolkien's notes and appendices to Lord of the Rings, such as the White Council, which is not objectionable. But also, a lot of the time is taken up with pointless action sequences which may be visually impressive, but don't really add much to the plot. Another problem is the depiction of the dwarves. In LOTR, Gimli was a one-off comic relief character (unlike his character in the novel), but here almost all the dwarves are depicted as comical, and very difficult to take seriously. The exception is Thorin Oakenshield who is portrayed very well by Richard Armitage. Another problem is Radagast, who comes across as a completely ridiculous character, not at all an angelic being of the order of the Istari, which is what he actually is. And he goes around in a sled pulled by rabbits if you please!

On the plus side, the scene from the book where three trolls debate the best way to eat thirteen dwarves and a hobbit is genuinely hilarious, and the riddle scene with Gollum is very nicely done. But the adaptation could have been better.

Since Sir Peter Jackson's last foray into Middle Earth, he's created the fantastic (King Kong) and the fantastically awful (The Lovely Bones), and now we're back and it's like we never left. Sir Ian McKellen (Gandalf), Hugo Weaving (Elrond), Elijah Wood (Frodo), Cate Blanchett (Galadriel)... they've aged like elves - not a day. Tonally this is breezier than the Lord of the Rings (let's call it LotR) trilogy, but great care has been taken to ensure that it fits seamlessly into the same universe. The same exquisite detail in close-up; the same use of long shots to make the characters tiny in a vast world.

J. R. R. Tolkien's little book concerns a little hobbit, who lives in a hole, who finds himself on a big adventure with a gang of dwarves, overseen by the wizard Gandalf. Tolkien's dwarves, seeking an almighty golden hoard hidden under a Lonely Mountain, are closer to Time Bandits than a heroic Fellowship, but Jackson and his co-writers (now including Guillermo del Toro) have shifted their purpose to something more laudable: the reclaiming of their homeland.

In a beautifully crafted opening, after elegantly intersecting with The Fellowship of the Ring, the bumbling dwarves are introduced to Bilbo and ourselves one by one, as unwelcome visitors to his humble home. They eat, they sing, they talk, and the scene is set. These are the characters we'll follow in almost every scene. The Hobbit is much more linear than LotR; scenes concerning Radagast the Brown (a wonderfully eccentric Sylvester McCoy, channelling the spirit of Tom Bombadil) and Azog (the orcish slayer of Thorin's father, Thrain) are brief asides rather than parallel plots.

So it's all about the dwarves, and we get to know a few of them well, particularly the bold leader, Thorin (Richard Armitage). He's as close to our Strider, except more reckless, driven by rage, and far less trusting of the titular halfling. As Bilbo Baggins, Martin Freeman is a more subtle performer than Elijah Wood. And he needs to be - a hero as reluctant as Bilbo is a tough sell, but Freeman convincingly depicts a gradual self-realisation: a drive from within, rather than a compulsion from without.

Jackson proves once again that he's the master of combining CGI with human emotion (even though actual humans are conspicuously absent from the story). The scene involving the Storm Giants - living, fighting mountains - is a good example: rather than giving us an omniscient hawk's eye-view of the battle, Jackson focuses on the real drama: the dwarves and the hobbit, clinging to the giants' knees. And then there's Gollum, arriving for a late cameo. The best chapter in the novel becomes the best scene in the film, with Bilbo and the unlikely keeper of the One Ring riddling in the dark. The special effects might not be technically groundbreaking as they once were, but their integration with real actors remains unsurpassed in cinema.

A couple of issues. Not everyone will get along with the joviality and the slapstick. Once or twice I do feel that certain scenes contain a knowing look too many. (When Gandalf is telepathically communicating with Galadriel, I swear he nods at the audience.) Thankfully, it's consistent, and rarely at the expense of immersion. Also, given what we know, perhaps more could have been done to foreshadow the LotR trilogy - there's certainly room for this in the Rivendell sequence (in which a shabby Gandalf the Grey, in the presence of even greater greatness, looks humbler than we've ever seen him). It's conceivable that an extended cut will provide more references to the impending doom of Middle-Earth.

Given the brevity of the book, what concerned me most was how Jackson et al could possibly
expand the story into the first part of an epic trilogy. The fact that they have, without the film feeling baggy (Bag-Endy?), is, in a sense, an even mightier feat than the adaptation of the LotR novels. It doesn't have the emotional depth of LotR, nor the narrative breadth. It never did. But it has humour and action in droves, along with warmth and intimacy. And it's amazingly good fun - more Jim Henson than Game of Thrones; more Whedon than Nolan. Which is okay by me.

Expect An Unexpected Journey to be condemned as boring and overlong by professional critics (the same critics who probably laud Bela Tarr). Expect it to be dismissed as frivolous and silly. But, more than anything, expect to be entertained by a delightful fantasy film.

Hands down the production is grand and was a good showcase for my new 3D tv. But other than that it's a very boring movie with endless cliches.

Before seeing this film, I was aware that there has been a fair amount of criticism directed towards it due to the film makers turning a relatively short story into three rather long films. There have been suggestions of cashing in on the franchise. Well, that may be the case to a certain degree but I don't think you can fail to see that THE HOBBIT: AN UNEXPECTED JOURNEY remains a very entertaining film.

This part of the tale takes part 60 years before the LORD OF THE RINGS trilogy. At the very beginning, we see Bilbo Baggins as he begins to settle down to write the full story of the adventure that he found himself on when he was a young hobbit. We are then given enough back story in regards to the Dwarfs to know what became of their home and, ultimately, the reason for the adventure that bilbo later finds himself embroiled in. For me, this was really what made this installment as successful as it is. This is the prelude to LOTR and, cleverly, there are ways that we are reminded of this; the music plays a great part in this, as you instantly recognise elements of the soundtrack from the later films. Obviously, characters also play a great part in this too, but we are also given a new insight into some. As another reviewer has stated, our introduction here to Gollum really leaves an impact, especially his parting words. The Shire is also very familiar - Bilbo's house 60 years ago looks as it does later. And, there is even Frodo at the very beginning of the film, reminding you of the connection between him and Bilbo.

Of course, THE HOBBIT makes use of brilliant CGI and other effects. The sets are fantastic and the characters are great. Likewise, the casting of this film is also inspired. Richard Armitage as Thorin is perhaps the revelation but the whole cast is strong. I truly loved this film. Yes, it is long and yes, there are going to be two others before Bilbo is able to say that he went there and back again, but I for one am really looking forward to the next part of his journey.

If The Hobbit had been made before Lord of the Rings, then there would have been far more fuss made of this at awards ceremonies. As it was it was mostly ignored, and there is a slight feeling of "more of the same, but not quite as good," for the Hobbit. But if that is true then it is only because the story itself is less epic than LOTR, and has four or five too many dwarves in the novel to keep track of and get to know individually. The movie tries to make each one different to look at, but in the first part of this trilogy they move mostly as a group and everything that happens to them happens to the group, and so none in particular shine, aside from the leader Thorin. The attempt is made to give Thorin the depth and tragic element that Aragorn carried in LOTR, but something is lacking and many times i felt the longing for Viggo Mortenson to appear. That is the problem with comparisons, but it is impossible to consider this film without considering the shadow cast by its predecessor.
In LOTR we had the structure of the fellowship equally divided between the hobbits, the elf, the dwarf, the men, and the wizard, but the individual characters in the Hobbit are not fleshed out or distinctive yet, though they may each come into their own in the following parts of the trilogy. There are simply too many of them, but I felt the book suffered for this too, so this is not a fault of Peter Jackson's, because he would have been heavily criticised by the luvvies if he had chosen to cut the number of dwarves down to a more manageable number which would have made it easier to focus on individuals. Cutting it to seven would have been ideal, but Disney got there first.
The movie does not follow the book exactly but i won't go into spoiling details, just to mention that characters and scenes that exist elsewhere are added here, though are not in the Hobbit book. Some of the additions will be extremely popular as they harken back to LOTR,reintroduce some well-loved characters and give some added depth and seriousness to the tone of the film. Nothing seems out of place.
The set designs are incredible and the visual style matches LOTR and the script has some obvious echoes in structure and style, and it's almost at times as though some key lines were lifted from the LOTR at certain moments and inserted into this script, to maintain the link between the two stories, even though they were not part of the book.Those who know LOTR will recognise these moments immediately.
Where the Hobbit falls short for me is when we see several scenes of extreme danger and destruction even greater than in LOTR and almost not a scratch on any of the heroes follows as a result. It is inconceivable that they would all escape the things they escape in this movie,and this tends to result from scenes that have been added that were not in the book. Yes the scenes add drama and imagination, but sooner or later we need to go back to the book and at that point in the book they were all still alive because they hadn't faced those kinds of dangers. Bilbo waves his sword like an idiot and cannot fight to save his life, but when it suits the story he suddenly becomes able and heroic and fights off a wild savage beast far bigger than himself. In LOTR there was never the feeling of any character suddenly being able to exceed his abilities,and so each film was grounded all the way in believability. I found the first part of the Hobbit didnt match the LOTR in this level of credibility and we are left just having to assume that everyone will always get away no matter what is thrown at them, and a certain level of tension is lost as a result. Unfortunately for the Hobbit, it has to follow standards of excellence in LOTR so high that they will be hard pushed to beat on any level.

Like most people the Hobbit was an important book for me when I read it as a child, so I too was interested to re live the simple and short tale with the Lord Of The Ring's film magic bringing it to life.

However, there are unfortunately some fundamental points to highlight on this long film, broadly mirroring the comments made elsewhere. The first half is undeniably boring, you don't empathise with any of the one dimensional characters from the off (except, ironically, Gollum), the CGI is appalling (notably the rabbit cart and the dying hedgehog), the padded-out far-fetched fight scenes are straight out of the 'Raiders of The Lost Arc' over-the-top school of action and adventure, the 7 Dwarfs have a hotch potch of dialects from Newcastle, Devon and Ireland (but by contrast the Orcs speak, err Orc and the Elves Elvish), you can't tell one dwarf from the next (except for the one who can't act - let's call him 'Grumpy'), Bilbo has an extremely limited script and acts like that bloke out of the office, not saying anything but looking confused most of the time (Oh hang on, it is him) and the plot is padded out within an inch of it's life with an over zealous and intrusive musical score. Finally, a striking difference between this and LOTR is the humour in the Hobbit. The verbal interchanges between, say, the trolls or the 'monster' with the bizarre sack chin are straight out of Disney Pixar children's comedy stories (he reminded me of the blobby thing from Star Wars), whilst the fight scenes are comically over the top (so much so that you know that all the heroes will get out alive in the end). The final ominous scene with the dragon sums it all up - this was pure Shrek CGI unbelievability and fairy story mock tension, which would struggle to make a 4 year old fear what's ahead in the impending follow ups.

It took me three attempts to get through it, but like the journey, I got there safely in the end..........

Or did I???

So, style wise, one for the kids and fans of Shrek, really. The adults can at least marvel at the beautiful scenery that the not-so-merry band stroll through at length.

great film just have to wait for the next couple of films. got it in a limited tin which was nice

Had to watch it twice as i thought they had lost it in the begaining the first time however it got better, only thing is when is the next one out.

Read the book loads of times, this is as exciting as LOTR, cant wait for the next two episodes. Great film

Sadly I couldn't get to the cinema to see this movie, so it was a long wait till the DVD was released for me. But a wait well worth the waiting. I loved the film from start to finish. The characters lived upto my expectation from reading the book and brought this film to life for me. A lot of the negative reviews say it stretches belief, but surely they realise it is fantasy don't they? Overall it is a very enjoyable film made all the better for being long. Looking forward to seeing the next two.