Reviews

Film Review: The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey (2012)

To be honest, after all the bad things I’d heard said about Unexpected Journey from other LOTR fans, I went in expecting a mess. But, even though I’m a die-hard LOTR fan, I loved this film. I’d even go as far to say it’s my favourite of 2012 thus far (But I have yet to see Life of Pi, Zero Dark Thirty, Django Unchained and Lincoln). I came out of the theatre and thought to myself, “Yeah, that was the Hobbit… on Acid!” I truly have never seen a children’s tale that was so simple adapted into a film for adults this way before. For the LOTR fans, we get to see things that were in the appendixes, such as the battle between the dwarves and orcs for Moria, Azog (who lives longer than in the actual book and is basically the main villain) and even Saruman before he became evil. So, there are a ton of things to say which I will whittle down into Good and Bad categories, as I usually do.

The Good:

Casting decisions. The choice for actors in this is excellent. Of course, Ian McKellan is Gandalf and he will always be Gandalf in my opinion, nothing can top his performance. Martin Freeman was great as Bilbo Baggins and captured the true essence of the character, as at the beginning he is a timid, cowardly Hobbit and towards the end actually saves Thorin’s life and displays bouts of bravery, which helps him earn Thorin’s trust. Richard Armitage was badass as Thorin Oakenshield and I think was ultimately the perfect choice for the character. The rest of the dwarves are really funny, my favourite ones apart from Thorin being Dwalin, Balin, Fili and Kili. And of course Andy Serkis returns as Gollum. We’ll talk about that later.

3D actually works! I went and saw it in 3D with the 48fps. And this is a film that was definitely made to be in 3D, I mean it just looks amazing in 3D. The details on the Eagles feathers, the rocks coming towards you, it’s just gorgeous in 3D. This is one instance where I recommend going and seeing it in 3D. The 48fps is also noticeable, as the shots go by even faster than other films and therefore give us a lot more detail on the action.

CGI Gollum. The Gollum scenes are absolutely amazing. Gollum looked awesome for 2002 in Two Towers, but now he has just been refined thanks to technological developments and looks real. There’s even a part where he shows his teeth and the teeth are so well animated, I genuinely thought it was a part of the costume.

The ties with the appendixes. This is a gripe a lot of people have with this film and I really don’t see why, because it expands and evolves it. The Dwarves battle outside Moria was just awesome, Thorin vs Azog was so cool to see (although it kind of drifted away from the lore with that one since it was actually Nain who killed Azog in the mines and Azog is still alive in this) and the little references to Bilbo’s relatives is quite interesting as well. I thought it breathed even more life into a universe that already had a ton of it. Plus the fortress of Dol Guldur is mentioned which (spoilers) was Sauron’s first fortress after he began to come back to Middle Earth.

The music. The music is just awesome. LOTR’s music was kickass but, arguably, the Hobbit’s was even more kickass! Especially the parts where the Dwarves go into battle, the music really picks up and is so epic. And that Misty Mountains Cold song? That is one of the best original songs I have heard in a film.

The Bad:

The comedy can be hit and miss. Let me just say that there is a lot of stupid stuff that goes on with the Dwarves. For example, Bombur’s relationship with food can distract. But some of it was quite funny as well and didn’t deviate too far from the main plot.

Radagast the Brown. The only character who I personally thought was a little annoying was Radagast. He’s kind of like the Jar Jar Binks of Middle Earth. He does have some cool things about him though, like the bunny sled. But when Saruman talked about his relationship with mushrooms, I think that’s when I lost faith with that character. That was the dumbest moment of the entire film.

The CG. The CG is awesome on Gollum but on other things looked too cartoony. For example, I don’t remember Orcs and Goblins looking so cute and made for kids and the Goblin King had a testicle for a chin, I’m not kidding. So that can sometimes be a problem.

Final Verdict: 9/10 Awesome! When I look back on this film as a whole, I think that this was just amazing. The fact that Jackson actually managed to make 3D work in a film is impressive, the casting is spot on and I can ignore some of the little quirks (but not Radagast, that will never be forgiven). It just misses the top spot of Instant Classic for Radagast, who I think needs to be made a little less weird. But this truly is my favourite film of 2012, even though it’s not the best. Awesome!