Familiarity Breeds Contempt

Rating: 7/10 (19 December 2012)

I absolutely adored LORD OF THE RINGS especially the first film Fellowship Of The Ring and when it was announced THE HOBBIT was going to be turned in to a film I looked forward . Part of the reason I enjoyed LOTR is probably down to the fact I'd never read Tolkien . One point that did cause slight reservations for me is that people who had read THE HOBBIT commentated that there wasn't enough material there for a film trilogy . When the An Unexpected Journey was ready for release it was announced that its running time came to 168 minutes . Added to this director Peter Jackson seemed to have a problem with narrative drive in KING KONG and this got minor alarm bells running in my head . Was this going to be an overblown , overlong fiasco ?
First of all the good thing is that if you enjoyed LORD OF THE RINGS you will enjoy An Unexpected Journey I don't know if it's special effects but the fine cast who featured in the original trilogy namely Mckellen, Lee , Blanchett, Weaving , Holm and Wood don't look a day older than they did a decade ago . Likewise there's a wonderful internal continuity in that Fellowship had a Dwarf with a Welsh accent and there's a continuing Celtic connection with the casting of actors with a Northern British accents and my heart bursts with jingoistic pride watching a movie that is unashamedly Anglophile . As you might expect the cast are superb and for for a fantasy film everyone plays their roles with conviction . Even Sylvester McCoy the worst actor to have played the eponymous DOCTOR WHO has a screen presence something I thought I would never see
The problem with the film is that I have seen it . I saw it in 2001 when it was called Fellowship Of The Ring , saw it again in 2002 when it was called The Two Towers and saw it again in 2003 when it was Return Of The King and now I'm watching it again when it's called An Unexpected Journey . Can you see the point I'm making ? The story is structured and plays out exactly like the original trilogy . As in the opening sequence features a bloody battle with voice over , cuts to the Shire where Bilbo , Frodo and Gandalf meet , a fellowship is formed to go on a quest and the fellowship walks across a beautiful landscape filmed in New Zealand . Walking through a forest " Oh we're being attacked " . More walking along a mountain " oh we're being attacked . Walking in to Rivendale . Walking out of Rivendale . Walking along some hills " Oh we're being attacked " . Walking .... you've got the idea haven't you ? One wonders how Peter Jackson thought this was a three hour film because to be brutal there's zero character and plot development and could easily have been told in two hours. There's also a slight lack of freshness and wow factor involved
I did enjoy the film but some of my enjoyment was spoiled by the fact I spent the last hour of it dying for a toilet break . If I was charitable I might have awarded it a higher mark but loses one point for being slightly overlong and loses another point that I sometimes had a seen it all before ten years earlier feeling . If Jackson had produced THE HOBBIT as a three hour epic instead of three films I'd have given him ten out of ten . I've got a feeling that cynicism will creep in to the franchise and Jackson won't be bombarded with the critical acclaim he rightly deserved for LORD OF THE RINGS . It's certainly isn't THE PHANTOM MENACE but I might just wait for the DVD for the next movie instead of seeing it at the cinema . BTW there's no need to have shot it on 3-D either because I watched it in 2-D and that's the format it feels naturally suited for . I guess 3-D is another money making excercise same as stringing a film in to a trilogy ?