In Which Peter Jackson (mostly) Fails to Recapture His Glory Days

Rating: 3/10 (1 January 2013)

You can tell by my rating that I didn't like this movie, but let's be fair. Despite my overall negative view of it, I still found some gems which are so good that I just can't bring myself to not mention them.
The end credits song is better than all three end credit songs from "The Lord of the Rings" films; there are so many words you could describe it with: dignified, moving, haunting; I'll settle on "powerful". The opening battle scene was on par with the one in "Fellowship". The last shot was a masterpiece of quiet tension. The special effects are top notch...and that's really all the praise I can give it.
There are two ways to evaluate any book-to-film adaptation: either by comparing it to the source material or to see if it works on its own. Sadly, "The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey" fails in both.
It fails in comparison to the book because the title character himself is nowhere to be found; instead we're stuck with an impostor. In the book, Bilbo Baggins is a timid, pitiful individual who takes part in something much bigger than he is and slowly grows from an ineffectual wreck of a man into a cunning, brave hero. MovieBilbo (as I will refer to the aforementioned impostor) opts for a different approach. Rather than being timid and anxious, MovieBilbo is merely flustered and annoyed. Rather than being ineffectual, MovieBilbo immediately becomes the most-competent member of Thorin's team. While both Bilbo and MovieBilbo had an arc, MovieBilbo both downplays it (by making him less pathetic at the beginning) and rushes it (by making him become competent much faster), and these two things ultimately make the character growth not only meaningless but almost unnoticeable.
Now, only the worst of obnoxious fanboys would evaluate a movie solely by how faithful it is to the source material, but even on its own, the movie fails. Why? Because it goes against one of the foundational rules of cinema: Show, Don't Tell.
Granted, there is, in fact, a lot of stuff this movie DOES show - the fall of Erebor, Thorin battling against Azog, and so on - but on the most crucial stuff, it opts for telling. The tension between Bilbo and Thorin is a driving force in the third act, but the only way it is indicated is through dialogue. Thorin tells Bilbo he doesn't fit in with the rest of the band. Bilbo himself makes this same observation later on. The problem is that these spoken lines are the only indication of this. With the exception of him having a little trouble riding a pony near the opening, Bilbo is not shown to be any less competent than the dwarfs. We, the audience, never see Bilbo struggle to keep up with Thorin's company. Rather, we're just spoon-fed it by the dialogue, and that just makes the tension, the conflict that follows, and the resolution to said conflict feel fake or artificial.
Either way you look at it (on its own or in the shadow of the book), the movie just doesn't let you emotionally invest in it's lead character. You might as well stick with the Rankin-Bass cartoon from the 70s, which - despite cramming the plot into about 90 minutes - is much more enjoyable and has a lead that you'll actually care about. If there's one good thing that could come out of Jackson's film, it would be bringing this other version out of (very undeserved) obscurity.
I don't know if the next movie will be better, but I do know that I probably won't bother seeing it.