“The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey” is the first in a trilogy of prequels to one of the most successful trilogies of all-time – “The Lord of the Rings”. Director Peter Jackson returns to Middle-earth (and the classic works of J.R.R. Tolkien), and he’s brought along a new friend: HFR. But we’ll get to that in a few, “precious”, minutes.
“The Hobbit” begins with an old Bilbo Baggins secretly writing his life story to nephew Frodo (Elijah Wood, who made that character famous in “The Rings” films, makes a cameo appearance). And what a story Baggins has to tell. His adventures begin 60 years prior to the start of the “The Lord of the Rings” saga. One day Bilbo, a homebody hobbit (played by Martin Freeman) meets Gandalf the wizard (Ian McKellen reprising his “Rings” role). Gandalf is looking for someone to accompany him on a journey. And there’s a catch: they’ll be joined by 13 dwarfs, who storm into Bilbo’s house and ask him if he’ll become their fourteenth member.
Gandalf believes Bilbo would make a great choice to join the crew because he used to be cunning and adventurous, before settling down to his home and ordinary life. After some thought Bilbo decides to assist Gandalf and the dwarfs on their quest to take back their homeland: The Lonely Mountain. And the rest of the film is made-up of their journey, in which they get in and out of trouble over and over and over again.
For an action/adventure movie “The Hobbit” is pretty slow. There is a lot of action, but unfortunately, not a lot of excitement. Jackson has made a very linear film, which is made-up of chase scene after chase scene – the small warriors get into battle with several groups of wildly ugly creatures – they escape and then a few minutes later, they’re on the run and fighting again. The few breaks in the action are taken-up mostly with scenes in which the characters explain why they’re fighting and who they’re fighting next. And every scene – fighting and non-fighting – is stretched-out way too long. It’s almost as if Jackson felt he had to make the film nearly 3-hours long or fans would be disappointed.
In some ways “The Hobbit” has the look and feel of a role-playing video game in which the protagonists battle and defeat gory, hideous creatures to get to the next level, along with an elaborate score. And while all this is going on it also tries too hard to be upbeat and humorous (mainly with the dwarf hijinks). In the best sequence in the film Bilbo gets separated from the clan and meets-up with the iconic “Lord of the Rings” character Gollum (Andy Serkis, the King of Motion Capture acting, reprises his role). Their interaction is not only a break from the endless action, but also provides some depth to the story. Freeman gets a chance to actually act a little and who doesn’t like Gollum. Serkis was also the Second Unit Director on the movie, a new area of film-making he’s pursuing.
Jackson shot and released the film in a format called HFR 3D – HFR standing for High Frame Rate. Normally, films are shot at 24 frames per second, but “The Hobbit” was filmed at 48 frames per second. This doesn’t speed up the overall film, or make the 2D version nearly six hours. What it does is make the images on screen clearer and more defined. The idea is to enhance the 3D viewing experience even more by making it seem like what you’re watching is live. And it does – but there are some drawbacks. At times, especially early on until you get used to it, the HFR makes the character look too good. You don’t believe that these are dwarfs and a hobbit living in this faraway land. Instead they are actors, in costume, on a set working in front of a green screen. At times “The Hobbit” appears to be a VERY large play on the worlds largest stage. Also, at times, movements and gestures – walking, picking-up objects, etc. are noticeably faster than reality. And there’s a chase scene that gets wildly out of control. Fortunately, anyone watching the movie on PPV or DVD won’t have to deal with ther HFR issue.
“The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey” is rated PG-13 for the fantasy action/violence. There is a ton of killing in this movie. Fans of the books and the film franchise will likely love it (I heard a lot of “That was awesome” from the 20-something guys who made-up most of the audience in the theater I was at). This wasn’t the right film for HFR 3D to make it’s debut – Middle Earth isn’t supposed to look this good – so avoid that and maybe 3D entirely and go with the safer and cheaper 2D version if you’re planning on going. But considering all the quality end-of-the-year movies that are out now, I say this is actually an unnecessary journey to take.
On The Official LCJ Report Card, “The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey” gets a C-.
This saga will continue in two more “Hobbit” films to be released over the next couple of years. Hopefully Jackson will be able to come up with some of his old “Lord of the Rings” magic for the sequels to this disappointing prequel.