"An Unexpected Journey" is expected adventure and fun, "LOTR Lite"

Rating: 8/10 (19 December 2012)

"The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey" is mostly what you'd expect it to be. If you've seen Peter Jackson's "LOTR Trilogy" and have been keeping an eye on the TV spots and movie trailers, it's just like that. Not much more. And not that that's bad, the film is fantastic entertainment. However, it feels so much like a rehash of some of "LOTR"'s most famous scenes that one could begin to think that the filmmakers, as they tried to stretch out a single book into three films, were running low on originality. Perhaps that's why they decided to go with the High Frame Rate format, a gimmick even cheaper than 3D that displays the film at twice the frame rate of standard projection, resulting in a hyper- realistic, sped up look that feels like a daytime soap opera. It is anything but cinematic (see it in IMAX, instead!). However, HFR and 3D do indeed compliment each other, and there are certainly grand possibilities here for the advancement of cinema. Just don't experiment with it on such important works as Tolkien's "The Hobbit". Save that for "Avatar 2″. But I digress. The film itself covers the first third of the book, and introduces us to a much younger Bilbo as he reluctantly joins Gandalf the Wizard and a company of Dwarfs determined to reclaim their homeland from a wicked dragon. We won't see that fight until the second movie, though, so this film fills its nearly three-hour running time with trolls, giant spiders, goblins, and orcs. While some parts stretch a bit, there is plenty of adventure, sweeping vistas, and fighting to please every fan boy (the film has already shot to #88 on IMDb.com's Top 250, a sure sign of bloated fan boy love). The best scene by far, however, takes place deep in a cave, between Bilbo Baggins and a familiar face, Gollum. Their game of riddles to determine Bilbo's fate is perfectly written and is so full of wit, charm, and suspense that it threatens to spill out of the screen. Andy Serkis's masterful motion- capture performance outdoes anything he has ever done before. The man is sheer brilliance, and the day that the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences recognizes that will be a great day indeed. He earns a spot as one of five Best Supporting Performances of 2012, in my book at least.
-Thomas Bond