Casey's Movie Mania: THE HOBBIT: AN UNEXPECTED JOURNEY (2012)

Rating: 6/10 (15 December 2012)

The good news is, THE HOBBIT: AN UNEXPECTED JOURNEY will satisfy (a lot) of die-hard fans who have read the J.R.R. Tolkien's book. And at the same time, the familiar majestic feel and strong visual flair that we have grown accustomed to Jackson's epic filmmaking style is there. But the bad news is, the movie is mostly a long-winded slog and unnecessarily bloated that might frustrate a lot of casual viewers.
The original J.R.R. Tolkien's The Hobbit book is actually runs at less than 300 pages and that's considerably thin. Generally, one feature movie is more than enough but writer-director Peter Jackson is daring enough to expand its storyline to a nearly three-hour long. That is certainly very ambitious, but Jackson also make a big mistake of overloading his story expansion with lots of unnecessary fillers and extraneous characters that he could have trimmed off instead. Not to mention that Jackson and his co-writers (Fran Walsh, Philippa Boyens and Guillermo del Toro) drags awfully a lot during the start, especially in the scene involving Gandalf and the 13 dwarfs crashes at Bilbo's home, making a mess and also taking their times to sing not one, but two musical numbers. Yes, I understand it is sometimes necessary to understand the nature of the dwarfs' characters but at the same time, is it really necessary for Jackson and his fellow screenwriters to stretch such scene that long? Even when Bilbo's "unexpected journey" begins, you would expect Jackson has finally find his proper footing and set a strong momentum ahead. But alas, the story continues to bog down ahead and it's really a butt-numbing experience to sit through. That's not all, you'll be surprised that all the countless attacks from trolls, wolves and Orcs feel more like an afterthought.
But luckily the movie manages to show some good sign of life once it reaches to the second half. A brief, but spectacular sequence where Bilbo and the 13 dwarfs find themselves caught in the middle of the thunderstorm while the mountains they are crossing suddenly comes to life and starts fighting each other. The scene where those towering stone giants hurling rocks at each other is certainly a sight to behold. Subsequent sequence afterwards grow progressively better with the movie's most memorable scene involving Bilbo and Gollum engage in an intense competition of riddles. That single scene alone is tautly directed, yet suspenseful enough to keep you attentive at all time. Last but not least, is the exciting sequence where Gandalf leads the 13 dwarfs as they march forward across the multi-level wooden bridge while fighting an endless army of goblins. In that particular scene, Andrew Lesnie's swooping camera-work that track the battle is akin of experiencing a roller-coaster ride.
Despite some of the unnecessary extraneous characters, most of the cast here are good enough to warrant some attention. Martin Freeman is perfectly cast as the plucky, yet likable Bilbo Baggins and he's the kind of unlikely charming hero viewers love to root for. As the wise Gandalf, Ian McKellen slips his iconic role like a glove and his commanding performance is as captivating as ever. Richard Armitage is engaging enough as the hardheaded Thorin. And of course, not forgetting Andy Serkis, who reprises his memorable role as Gollum. His particular scene where he shows all the frustration and despair during a game of riddles is a terrific work of acting expression.
Technical credits are top-notch, and again I must noted that Andrew Lesnie continues to spellbind us with his epic cinematography that gives the movie such a majestic quality. While the special effects are considerably better than those in THE LORD OF THE RINGS trilogy, some of the CG looks spotty in place (notably in the chase scene involving the Orcs at the open mountain).
Regarding about Jackson's daring choice to shoot his movie in a relatively new 48 fps (frame per second), I couldn't comment that since I watched this in 2D version. Even so, I notice the 2D version is significantly different than the average 2D version of any movies I have watched before. The sheer amount of color and every visual detail surrounding the movie are significantly brighter and so sharp they make my eyes bleed.
Overall, THE HOBBIT: AN UNEXPECTED JOURNEY doesn't exactly reaches the creative heights of what Jackson did successfully in THE LORD OF THE RINGS trilogy. But it's still a reasonably exciting epic fantasy to watch for anyway. On the contrary, Guillermo del Toro was supposed to direct this movie and back then, THE HOBBIT was originally split into two movies. It's quite a loss that Guillermo del Toro quit the project halfway after years stuck in pre-production limbo. If he chose to stick around, the outcome would have been somewhat different. Furthermore, it would be interesting to see del Toro's unique take in THE HOBBIT movies. I'm not saying that Peter Jackson is a bad choice for this project. As a matter of fact, he's a perfect fit since he knows the world of J.R.R. Tolkien's beloved fantasy like the back of his hand. But returning to Middle-Earth after THE LORD OF THE RINGS trilogy does have a sense of deja vu experience more or less. Since he's already signed on for the next two movies, we can only hope he'll be improved considerably well in THE HOBBIT: THE DESOLATION OF SMAUG which is scheduled for next December release.