Review by Zachary Goodier
Peter Jackson's return to Middle-earth follows Frodo's
uncle, Bilbo, on his quest to help a party of 13 Dwarves, led by Thorin
Oakenshield to reclaims the lost kingdom of Erebor. Bilbo starts out in his home in the quaint
region of the Shire; however, the peace is soon interrupted by Gandalf the
Grey, who seeks to find someone to join in an adventure. Bilbo quickly refuses, saying that his place
is in the Shire. Hobbits are naturally
grounded, and rarely travel. However,
after having a party of Dwarves show up at his home, Bilbo can't help but join
in on the journey. Their journey takes
them through the wilderness; facing Goblins, Orcs, Wargs, as well as a sinister
presence that is beginning to spread across the land. And even if they ever manage to get passed
all of that, there is still the threat of having to face a dragon once they
reach their destination. However, this
movie is the first installment in a trilogy that will chronicle this entire
quest.
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| Sure, this is a picture of Bilbo going off to join in his adventure, but I did the same thing going to grab this from the delivery guy. |
Probably the very first thing people will be concerned with
is, "Is The Hobbit as good as The Lord of the Rings?" Well, that is a difficult question to
answer. In short, this is completely
worthy of being placed alongside LOTR,
but this is a different story. As much
as I love the original trilogy, its' story is somewhat generic in its'
"good vs evil" theme. On the
other hand, The Hobbit isn't that
profound with its' "dungeons and dragons" theme to the story (excuse
the pun, couldn't resist). However, what
is crucial is to realize that The Hobbit was published in 1937, and obviously
it must have been worked on for years prior.
These stories serve as THE
basis for almost all contemporary fantasy works, including our beloved Dungeons and Dragons.
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| Dungeons? Check. Dragon? ....That is a very big check, a check with sharp teeth, big eyes, and some killer breath that I could only imitate after eating a triple helping of my "Surprise Attack Jalapeno" omelet. |
Is the story completely fresh? Of course not. However, it's the execution that makes this
story so great... Once you get started about an hour into the movie, or so it felt. The brush strokes may
seem broad; however, that opinion is quickly forgotten once you get into the
details. However, if you have read the
book by J. R. R. Tolkien, which I highly recommend, then there will be a lot of
changes to the story here. Namely, the
addition of a "Azog, the white Orc" who serves as an old enemy of Thorin
Oakenshield, as well as the inclusion of the Necromancer. While the Necromancer was technically in the
book, that story was never delved into fully within the book; merely serving as
a side quest that Gandalf is forced to undertake separate from the quest of
Bilbo and the Dwarves. What is important
to know is that this won't leap out at those who haven't read the book; it is
written in rather smoothly and seamlessly, and proper credit to the writers for
pulling it off. Still, this is part of
the reason that this one book is being stretched out into three movies. I will definitely go to see all of them, but
part of me feels like this is just an attempt to shake more money out of the
fans.
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| Christopher Lee and Hugo Weaving return to reprise their roles as Saruman and Elrond, respectively. |
How are the characters?
Well, this is one of the reasons the old LOTR trilogy appealed to me more, while there are a great many
faces returning to their old roles, the new faces might not all hold a great
deal of appeal for you. While The Fellowship of the Ring took the time
to showcase each individual character's personality, this movie doesn't quite
do that. You will literally have a pile
of Dwarves fall into the door, and sure they all get a couple of moments in the
spotlight, but this doesn't feel as personal as the old movies did. That isn't to say that the new Bilbo and
Thorin don't do well as central characters, because they really do. However, the rest of the party is not as
involved. While they definitely have a
great deal of charm and humor to them. They are obviously not to taken
seriously, except for those couple of scenes where the tone becomes more
serious.
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| With enough crazy Dwarves, you can solve just about any problem. |
That brings me to another thing that differs from the LOTR trilogy: The tone. While the LOTR
was a very dark and serious story about the battle to save Middle Earth, this
story is much lighter and not as dark as the old movies. While this is by no means a bad thing, it does
lead to this movie lacking some of the seriousness and weight. The reason for this is primarily because the
original book was written for children.
So, not a great amount of death takes place, aside from the heaps of
Goblins and Orcs that our heroes slay.
Does that make this a children's movie? Well it's still PG-13, but then
again, our ratings system is touchy compared to what children were allowed to
read back in Tolkien's day.
The dialogue is also worth noting, with more of the
brilliant lines that you would expect after watching Lord of the Rings. Gandalf
stands out, as always, but Bilbo and Thorin, as well as some of the Dwarves,
also have their stand-out moments where you really come to understand them and
respect them for it. This may not seem
like much, but it's the cherry on the sundae for these stories. We meet a lot of familiar faces, like
Sauroman One wonderfully done scene is the
meeting between Bilbo and Gollum/Sméagol, where they begin a game of riddles to see whether or not Bilbo
will be allowed to escape the caverns.
This is also a powerful scene because it is where we are introduced to
the Ring of Power, which will help Bilbo more and more as the journey
progresses, but will also be the center of the quest that takes place in Lord of the Rings.
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| Give actor Andy Serkis and the computer team credit for turning this... |
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| Into this. |
Overall, does this replace The Lord of the Rings? Of
course not, those movies will forever be the brilliant, almost classic works
that I still love to this day. However, The Hobbit: an Unexpected Journey is
plenty worthy of standing alongside them as a worthy addition to any fan of
either Tolkien's writing or Jackson's directing. The only thing that bothers me is the attempt
to drag this out into another trilogy. However, the general switch from the costumed actors to CGI Orcs and Goblins has a negative impact on this movie in relation to the old ones. While the additions and alterations to the details are somewhat
extensive, they don't get in the way of enjoying the ride, and in many ways
they help supplement an already brilliant story. Whether or not the attempt to make this
one-book story into 3 separate movies is an attempt to take more money from us
is debatable. However, I will gladly pay
to see all of these movies, just to visit Middle-earth one more time. These aren't the same movies as you've likely
already seen, this is a brand-new adventure with different characters,
mostly. I would definitely recommend
this for anyone who wants to revisit Middle-earth, or simply go on a brilliant,
epic adventure that served as one of the main origins of contemporary fantasy
and fiction. Would I call this as great as the old movies? No...
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| This movie, while not the same as its' predecessors, is still.... "Precious" to me (pun obviously intended). |
The
Good:
-Brilliant
story and characters to follow throughout this lengthy quest.
-Lot of
old faces to tie this into the story you may already know.
-Good
old-fashioned "dungeons and dragons" style to this story; kill the
dragon, get the loot.
-Lighter
tone makes this more accessible to a broader audience, I think.
-Still
plenty of those powerful moments that helped define the LOTR trilogy.
The
Bad:
-Takes a while for the story to truly kick off.
-Well,
I could cite that the attempt to make this single, not-so-large book into three
movies adds a somewhat greedy overtone to this new trilogy, but I'd say just
shut up and enjoy it, not like they're not giving you your money's worth.
Scully
Rating: 9.0 out of 10