The Hobbit, or When Hollywood Franchises Go Wrong

Rating: 5/10 (15 December 2012)

Years ago, when it was announced that Guillermo Del Toro would direct the prequel to the Lord of the Rings and that Tolkien's classic would be turned into two movies, people were skeptical that it could be done. So you can imagine that when Peter Jackson took over and The Hobbit became a trilogy, people were flabbergasted. Could Peter Jackson really pull it off? Could The Hobbit be turned into a sprawling three part epic? Now that the first movie is out, I would say the answer is "no." The Hobbit: an Unexpected Journey is well acted and beautifully shot, but its episodic structure and excessive length (three hours) bores more than it entertains.
The Hobbit tells the tale of Bilbo Baggins's adventure with Gandalf the Grey (reprised by Ian McKellen) and thirteen dwarfs who are determined to retake the dwarf kingdom of Erebor from the evil dragon Smaug. Bilbo, a Halfling who has never left his home, seems an unlikely teammate for such a mission, but Gandalf sees an inner courage in Bilbo that the dwarfs do not. Bilbo embarks on the journey to prove his worth and to have an adventure. He is designated as the official "burglar," despite his objection to the term, because his small size and light weight make him stealthy compared to the dwarfs. Martin Freeman, best known as Watson on the BBC's hit series Sherlock, plays Bilbo as a classic "fish out of the water" character. He is clumsy, fearful, and a burden on his teammates.
The Dwarf king Thorin, a fierce warrior played by Richard Armitage, believes Bilbo is more trouble than he is worth. Yet many of the dwarfs seem ill fit for the mission as well, since many are too old, too fat, or too young to be great warriors. On the journey, the team of misfits encounters all sorts of nasty creatures, including goblins, trolls, and Thorin's arch-nemesis, the pale Orc. They travel along mountains, canyons, and plains, while making a stop in the Elf city, Rivendell, where LOTR alums Elrond, Galadriel, and Saruman the White make appearances. And in the most memorable scene in the movie, Bilbo steals Sauron's ring from the creature Gollum. By the end of the movie, Bilbo proves to be quite a brave warrior and earns the respect of the dwarfs.
The plot description certainly sounds exciting on paper, but The Hobbit is surprisingly boring. For a three hour film, not much really happens. Peter Jackson pads his work with long exposition on the history of the Dwarfs, a fake tension between the elves and the dwarfs that doesn't go anywhere, dwarf songs, and an unnecessary subplot about Radagast the Brown (played by Doctor Who, Sylvester McCoy!), a wizard who encounters the Necromancer, a sorcerer who can raise the dead (SPOILER: the necromancer is Sauron). While some of this content was in the original book, much of it has been expanded (needlessly). Unlike the Lord of the Rings films, which at least had a decent narrative flow, this film has more of an episodic quality. It is essentially a collection of miniature adventures better suited for television than a feature film. Really, this movie could have been an hour shorter. It's sad because I could see this being a really good HBO miniseries, but as a feature film it does not work.
I wish I could say more about this film, but there isn't much more to say. This is what happens when Hollywood's obsession with franchises goes wild. They turn self-contained, simple adventure stories like The Hobbit into inflated trilogies. The Hobbit is simply not an epic. Now, if Jackson can edit the next two films so that they don't have the episodic feel of this movie, perhaps he can save the rest of this trilogy. But The Hobbit has already set a new December opening day record of $37.5 million, and I fear that the high box office returns will deter Jackson from changing his style. If the movies are going to make a ton of cash anyway, why should he listen to the critics?
The best thing it has going for it is the cast. They have great chemistry and they are very funny. Sure, the effects were great, (although the Orcs looked better in the LOTR trilogy). The action scenes were fun, but in the absence of a narrative flow they became tiresome. Freeman plays an endearing Bilbo and he is really the highlight of the film. Unfortunately, The Hobbit just falls flat. I hope Jackson can fit all the subplots in the next two films together in a proper narrative structure, or else we can expect more bad reviews for certain and maybe diminished box office returns.