A journey through Middle Earth

Rating: 5/10 (18 December 2012)

Before I begin this review I would like to say I am a HUGE fan of the Lord of the Rings trilogy. Fellowship of the Ring, The Two Towers, and Return of the King are, in my eyes, one complete movie and that one movie is my fourth favorite movie of all time. I seriously cannot sum up how I feel about these movies I love them so much. That being said, I was super hyped for The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey. This movie had very big shoes to fill and it probably was my most hyped movie of the years with maybe an exception for The Dark Knight Rises. I was so excited for this my which explains my reactions when I read the reviews basically destroying The Hobbit. With a 65% on Rotten Tomatoes currently, this was quite a punch to the gut for fans of the movies and the books. A 65% is about average for a movie, but with the original trilogy receiving an average of 94%, this was very shocking. After I saw the disappointingly low score, my hype for the movie plummeted. I was so disappointed I decided against seeing the movie at the midnight release or opening day. I finally decided to see the movie on Sunday night at a 3D showing and went into it with no expectations. I was amazed by what I saw.
The story is very interesting. A young and reluctant Hobbit named Bilbo Baggins is drafted by Gandalf, his wizard friend, to join a ragtag team of Dwarfs to take back the Dwarfs' home mountain, Erebor. Bilbo sets out on a "unexpected journey" to the Lonely Mountain with the spirited group of Dwarfs to reclaim a their stolen mountain home from a dragon named Smaug. I cannot really get into the story until the whole trilogy is finished but I would like to say that it does a great job of getting the trilogy started.
Unexpected Journey had many things in it that I really enjoyed. Martin Freeman did an amazing job as Bilbo Baggins. Freeman has become one of my favorite actors for his role in the BBC TV show Sherlock and it was very nice to see him play such a fantastic character as Bilbo Baggins. Ian McKellen also does a wonderful job as the wizard Gandalf. One of the main things that worried me about The Hobbit was having to switch back to Gandalf the Gray after we got Gandalf the White in The Two Towers and Return of the King. Fortunately, McKellen reprises his role so well, that you really do not remember Gandalf the Gray ever leaving. My new favorite character has to be Thorin, the Dwarf leader. Thorin is just so awesome that it actually made me wish that was in the original books so he could be included in the movies. I also really enjoyed the music, I know that this may sound like a lame thing to be excited about but The Lord of the Rings has some fantastic music and I would almost argue The Hobbit has even better music with the "misty mountains cold" theme. The Hobbit also has a lot of great scenes. I do not want to give away every good scene in the movie but let me just say that my two favorites are the scene with the Trolls, and the Orc fight. The Hobbit had solid acting all around, great CGI, and was actually very well written.
That being said, I had a few problems with this movie. My main problem being that the movie was obviously supposed to be only two parts. There are many scenes that you could tell were only added to pad the movie and make it a trilogy. There is a scene close to the beginning with Frodo and Bilbo and it could have been removed from the film all together. Another problem with the film is Bilbo kind of takes a backseat to the Dwarfs. I know that this is mostly a problem with the book, but if they could have added ANYTHING they should have added more scenes with Bilbo. The biggest problem I have with the Hobbit is the group of Dwarfs. The whole team is made up of about thirteen Dwarfs and none of them are really that memorable. I can see most people messing up which Dwarf is which and even worse some don't have speaking lines which makes the ones that do even easier to mix up. Those are the few nitpicky problems I have with the movie. Now I thought I should share some quick thoughts on the added scenes. Radagast the Brown was the new character that I could actually tolerate and the scene in Rivendell was OK even if it did stretch on too long.
I feel I should give two closing thoughts on The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey. For a newcomer to the trilogy I think you will be a little harsher on the movie, giving it about a 7. I would say that the critics are wrong on this movie and I hope everyone goes to see it. The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey was, in my opinion, a great movie that though was disappointing, was still very good.