Psycho's Movie Reviews #428: The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey (2012)

The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey is a 2012 epic high fantasy adventure film directed by Peter Jackson. It is the first instalment in a three-part film adaptation based on J. R. R. Tolkien’s 1937 novel The Hobbit. It is followed by The Desolation of Smaug (2013) and The Battle of the Five Armies (2014), and together, they act as a prequel to Jackson's The Lord of the Rings film trilogy. The film's screenplay was written by Jackson, his longtime collaborators Fran Walsh and Philippa Boyens, and Guillermo del Toro, who was originally chosen to direct the film before leaving the project in 2010.

The story is set in Middle-earth sixty years before the main events of The Lord of the Rings, and portions of the film are adapted from the appendices to Tolkien's The Return of the King. An Unexpected Journey tells the tale of Bilbo Baggins (Martin Freeman), who is convinced by the wizard Gandalf (Ian McKellen) to accompany thirteen Dwarves, led by Thorin Oakenshield (Richard Armitage), on a quest to reclaim the Lonely Mountain from the dragon Smaug. The ensemble cast also includes Ken Stott, Cate Blanchett, Ian Holm, Christopher Lee, Hugo Weaving, James Nesbitt, Elijah Wood, and Andy Serkis, and features Sylvester McCoy, Barry Humphries and Manu Bennett.

An Unexpected Journey premiered on 28 November 2012 in New Zealand and was released internationally on 12 December 2012, almost 9 years after the release of The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King. The film grossed over $1.017 billion at the box office, surpassing both The Fellowship of the Ring and The Two Towers nominally, becoming the fourth highest-grossing film of 2012. Receiving mixed reviews from critics, the film was nominated for three Academy Awards for Best Visual Effects, Best Production Design, and Best Makeup and Hairstyling. It was also nominated for three British Academy Film Awards.

Plot

Approaching his 111th birthday, the Hobbit Bilbo Baggins begins writing down the full story of his adventure 60 years earlier for the benefit of his nephew, Frodo.

Long before Bilbo's involvement, the Dwarf king Thrór brought an era of prosperity for his kin under the Lonely Mountain until the arrival of the dragon Smaug. Destroying the nearby town of Dale, Smaug drove the Dwarves out of their mountain and took their hoard of gold. Thrór's grandson, Thorin, sees King Thranduil and his Wood-elves on a nearby hillside, and is dismayed when they leave rather than aid his people, resulting in Thorin's everlasting hatred of Elves.

In the Shire, 50-year-old Bilbo is tricked by the wizard Gandalf the Grey into hosting a dinner for Thorin and his company of Dwarves: Balin, Dwalin, Fíli, Kíli, Dori, Nori, Ori, Óin, Glóin, Bifur, Bofur, and Bombur. Gandalf's aim is to recruit Bilbo as the company's "burglar" to aid them in their quest to enter the Lonely Mountain. Bilbo is unwilling to accept at first, but has a change of heart after the company leaves without him the next day. Bilbo races to join the company. Travelling onward, the company is captured by three Trolls. Bilbo stalls the Trolls from eating them until dawn, and Gandalf exposes the trolls to sunlight, turning them to stone. The company locates the Trolls' cave and finds treasure and Elven blades. Thorin and Gandalf each take an Elf-made blade, Orcrist and Glamdring, respectively; Gandalf also finds an Elven dagger, which he gives to Bilbo.

The wizard Radagast the Brown finds Gandalf and the company, and recounts an encounter at Dol Guldur with the Necromancer, a sorcerer who has been corrupting Greenwood with dark magic. Chased by Orcs, Gandalf leads the company through a hidden passage to Rivendell. There, Lord Elrond discloses a hidden indication of a secret door on the company's map of the Lonely Mountain, which will be visible only on Durin's Day. Gandalf later approaches the White Council — consisting of Elrond, Galadriel and Saruman the White — and presents a Morgul blade, a weapon of the Witch-king of Angmar, which Radagast obtained from Dol Guldur as a sign that the Necromancer is linked to an eventual return of Sauron. While Saruman presses concern to the more present matter of the Dwarves' quest, requesting that Gandalf put an end to it, Gandalf secretly reveals to Galadriel he had anticipated this and had the Dwarves move forward without him.

The company journeys into the Misty Mountains, where they find themselves amid a colossal battle between Stone Giants. They take refuge in a cave and are captured by Goblins, who take them to their leader, the Great Goblin. Bilbo becomes separated from the Dwarves and falls into a crevice where he encounters Gollum, who unknowingly drops a golden ring. Pocketing the ring, Bilbo finds himself confronted by Gollum. They play a riddle game, wagering that Bilbo will be shown the way out if he wins or eaten by Gollum if he loses. Bilbo eventually wins by asking Gollum what he has in his pocket. Noticing his ring is lost, Gollum realizes that Bilbo possesses it and chases him. Bilbo discovers that the ring grants him invisibility, but when he has a chance to kill Gollum, Bilbo spares his life out of pity and escapes while Gollum shouts his hatred towards the hobbit Baggins.

Meanwhile, the Great Goblin reveals to the Dwarves that Azog, an Orc war-chief who killed Thrór and lost his forearm to Thorin in battle outside the Dwarven kingdom of Moria, has placed a bounty on Thorin's head. Gandalf arrives and leads the Dwarves in an escape, killing the Great Goblin. Bilbo exits the mountain and re-joins the company, keeping his newly obtained ring secret. The company is ambushed by Azog and his hunting party, and takes refuge in trees. Thorin charges at Azog, who overpowers and severely injures him with his Warg. Bilbo saves Thorin from the Orcs and challenges Azog, just as the company is rescued by eagles summoned by Gandalf. They escape to the safety of the Carrock where Gandalf revives Thorin, who renounces his previous disdain for Bilbo after being saved by him.

They see the Lonely Mountain in the distance, where a sleeping dragon, Smaug, is awoken by a thrush knocking a snail against a stone.

Production

A film adaptation of J. R. R. Tolkien's novel The Hobbit (1937) was in development for several years after the critical and financial success of The Lord of the Rings film trilogy (2001–2003), co-written, co-produced, and directed by Peter Jackson. Jackson was initially going to produce and wrote a two-film adaptation of The Hobbit, which was to be directed by Guillermo del Toro. Del Toro left the project in May 2010, after about two years of working with Jackson and his production team, due to delays caused in part by financial problems at Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. Jackson was announced as director that October. The Hobbit films were produced back to back, like The Lord of the Rings films. Principal photography for The Hobbit films began on 21 March 2011 in New Zealand and ended on 6 July 2012, after 266 days of filming. Pick-ups for An Unexpected Journey were filmed in July 2012 as well. Work on the film was expected to be completed on 26 November, just two days prior to the film's Wellington premiere.

Jackson had said that del Toro's sudden exit created problems as he felt he had very little preparation time remaining before shooting had to begin, with unfinished scripts and without storyboards, which increased the difficulty to direct it. Jackson stated, "Because Guillermo del Toro had to leave and I jumped in and took over, we didn’t wind the clock back a year and a half and give me a year and a half prep to design the movie, which was different to what he was doing. It was impossible, and as a result of it being impossible I just started shooting the movie with most of it not prepped at all. You’re going on to a set and you’re winging it, you’ve got these massively complicated scenes, no storyboards and you’re making it up there and then on the spot". Jackson also said, "I spent most of The Hobbit feeling like I was not on top of it. Even from a script point of view, Fran Walsh, Philippa Boyens and I hadn’t got the entire scripts written to our satisfaction, so that was a very high pressure situation". However, Jackson goes on to explain in the DVD/Blu-ray featurettes the various ways in which he and his crew overcame the obstacles encountered during filming. They found ways of making things work, even in a "very high pressure situation" in which he and his crew found themselves, especially the shooting of the Battle of the Five Armies which was shifted from 2012 to 2013 to be properly planned and shot.

High Frame Rate

The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey used a shooting and projection frame rate of 48 frames per second, becoming the first feature film with a wide release to do so. The new projection rate was advertised as "High Frame Rate" to the general public. However, the majority of cinemas projected the film at the industry standard 24 fps after the film was converted.

Score

The musical score for An Unexpected Journey was composed, orchestrated, conducted and produced by Howard Shore. It was performed by the London Philharmonic Orchestra, London Voices and Tiffin' Boys Choir and featured several vocal soloists. The score reprised many themes from the Lord of the Rings trilogy but also introduced numerous new themes, including Shore's orchestral setting of the diegetic "Misty Mountains" song.

Release/Reception/Box Office

The world premiere of The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey took place on 28 November 2012 at the Embassy Theatre in Wellington, New Zealand, with a full theatrical release in New Zealand on 12 December. The film was released 13 December 2012 in Europe, 14 December 2012 in India, Canada and United States, and 26 December 2012 (Boxing Day) in Australia. It was also screened at the 65th Royal Film Performance in London on 12 December 2012.

Around 100,000 people lined the red carpet on Courtenay Place for the film's premiere, and the entire event was broadcast live on TV in New Zealand, as well as streaming over the internet.

An extended edition of the film had a limited re-release on 5 October 2015, accompanied by a special greeting from Peter Jackson.

After the New Zealand premiere, Television New Zealand noted that critical responses were "largely positive" but with "mixed responses to the film's technological advances". After the film's international release, Forbes called reviews "unenthusiastic" and the Los Angeles Times said the critical consensus is that the film "stumbles". The film holds a 64% rating on Rotten Tomatoes based on 305 reviews, with an average score of 6.50/10. The site's consensus reads "Peter Jackson's return to Middle-earth is an earnest, visually resplendent trip, but the film's deliberate pace robs the material of some of its majesty." On Metacritic, the film has a score of 58 out of 100 based on collected reviews from 40 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews". The main contention of debate was regarding the film's length, its controversial High Frame Rate, and whether or not the film matched the level of expectation built from The Lord of the Rings film trilogy, while the film's visual style, special effects, music score, and cast were praised, especially the performances of Martin Freeman, Ian McKellen, Richard Armitage, and Andy Serkis. Audiences polled by CinemaScore, during the opening weekend, gave the film an "A" grade on a scale from A+ to F.

Peter Travers of Rolling Stone criticised the film's use of "48 frames per second… Couple that with 3D and the movie looks so hyper-real that you see everything that's fake about it… The 169 minutes of screen time hurts, since the first 45 minutes of the film traps us in the hobbit home of the young Bilbo Baggins," but continued with "Once Bilbo and the dwarves set on their journey… things perk up considerably. Trolls, orcs, wolves and mountainous monsters made of remarkably pliable stone bring out the best in Jackson and his Rings co-screenwriters Fran Walsh and Philippa Boyens." Robbie Collin of The Daily Telegraph gave the film two stars out of five and said "Thank heavens for Andy Serkis, whose riddling return as Gollum steals the entire film. It is the only time the digital effects and smoother visuals underline, rather than undermine, the mythical drama of Bilbo's adventure. As a lover of cinema, Jackson’s film bored me rigid; as a lover of Tolkien, it broke my heart." He thought the film was "so stuffed with extraneous faff and flummery that it often barely feels like Tolkien at all – more a dire, fan-written internet tribute." Time Out magazine's Keith Uhlich called the film "a mesmerizing study in excess, Peter Jackson and company's long-awaited prequel to the Lord of the Rings saga is bursting with surplus characters, wall-to-wall special effects, unapologetically drawn-out story tangents and double the frame rate (48 over 24) of the average movie." The Guardian magazine's Peter Bradshaw commented on use of high frame rate technology and length of the film, writing "After 170 minutes, I felt that I had had enough of a pretty good thing. The trilogy will test the stamina of the non-believers, and many might feel that the traditional filmic look of Lord of the Rings was better." Richard Lawson from The Atlantic Wire commented on the film's "video game"-like visual effects, saying "this is a dismally unattractive movie, featuring too many shots that I'm sure were lovely at some point but are now ruined and chintzified by the terrible technology monster."

Matthew Leyland of Total Film gave the film a five-star rating and said that it is "Charming, spectacular, technically audacious… in short, everything you expect from a Peter Jackson movie. A feeling of familiarity does take hold in places, but this is an epically entertaining first course." Ed Gonzalez of Slant Magazine awarded the film three stars out of four and called it "The first of an arguably gratuitous three-part cine-extravaganza." Todd McCarthy of The Hollywood Reporter said that "Jackson and his colleagues have created a purist's delight… And leads to an undeniably exciting, action-packed climax." McCarthy did however think that "Though there are elements in this new film that are as spectacular as much of the Rings trilogy was… there is much that is flat-footed and tedious as well, especially in the early going." Kate Muir of The Times gave the film four out of five stars, saying Martin Freeman "perks up" the film as Bilbo Baggins and that Jackson's use of 48 frames per second 3D technology gives the film "lurid clarity". Dan Jolin of Empire gave the film four out of five stars and thought "The Hobbit plays younger and lighter than Fellowship and its follow-ups, but does right by the faithful and has a strength in Martin Freeman's Bilbo that may yet see this trilogy measure up to the last one" and he stated that "There is treasure here".

The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey grossed $303 million in the United States and Canada and $718.1 million elsewhere for a worldwide total of $1.017 billion, becoming the 15th film in history to reach $1 billion. It is the fourth highest-grossing film of 2012. It scored a worldwide opening weekend of $222.6 million, including $15.1 million from 452 IMAX theatres around the world, which was an IMAX opening-weekend record for December.

An Unexpected Journey earned $13.0 million during its midnight run, setting a December midnight record (previously held by Avatar). It then topped the box office on its opening day (Friday, 14 December 2012) earning $37.1 million from 4,045 theatres (midnight earnings included), setting a December opening-day record (previously held by The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King). By the end of its first weekend it grossed $84.62 million, finishing in first place and setting a then December opening-weekend record (previously held by I Am Legend). 3D showings accounted for 49% of weekend ticket sales while IMAX showings generated $10.1 million (12% of the weekend gross). The film held onto the top spot for a second weekend, despite declining 57% to $36.7 million. An Unexpected Journey remained at the top of the box office during its third weekend, dropping only 11% to $32.9 million.

An Unexpected Journey earned $11.2 million on its opening day (Wednesday, 12 December 2012) from 16 markets. Through its first Sunday, it managed a five-day opening-weekend gross of just under $138.0 million. It topped the box office outside North America on two consecutive weekends. In Sweden, it scored the second-largest five-day opening with $6.20 million (behind Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – Part 2). Its three largest openings occurred in the UK, Ireland, and Malta ($18.8 million); Russia and the CIS ($17.8 million), and Germany ($17.1 million).

Budget $200–315 million

Box office $1.017 billion

My Review

Ten years ago, I laid eyes on Peter Jackson's Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring, and instantly fell in love. I realized pretty quickly that it was the perfect combination of style and substance: a film so loaded with story and detail, but also had enough style and action to make the experience truly epic. This experience would only be supplanted by The Two Towers and The Return of the King, the latter of which has taken its place as my personal number-one favourite movie.

After so many years of legal battles and creative turmoil, The Hobbit is finally adapted for the big screen. If anything could displace the Lord of the Rings as my favorite film trilogy, I was certain that it would be The Hobbit; if for no other reason than I found Tolkien's The Hobbit is a far easier and funner read than LOTR, and I always knew that there would be moments that would make for excellent cinema.

Despite the underwhelming reviews and reception, I found The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey satisfying; it met my expectations perfectly. I won't deny, however, that the film overall feels like a long-laboured attempt to force lightning to strike twice. Not only because of all the story padding, connections to LOTR, returning stars, and the splitting of the story into three films, but also insomuch as trying to craft new iconic characters out of Bilbo and Thorin to mirror Frodo and Aragorn respectively. I think the thing that really gets on people's nerves is the sheer audacity in taking a single book (one that was previously adapted into a humble, bite-sized 79-minute cartoon) and exploding it into a 500-minute franchise. Thus follows the common complaints that the films are too long, too padded, too big for their own good.

Personally, none of these factors really affected my enjoyment of the film. The only real drag I felt was in the opening act; the Shire scenes seemed to take a good while to wrap up. Once the party hit the road, the film explored the big plot points I remembered well from the novel's first third, complete with awesome rip-roaring action. The film's final act is pretty jam-packed with loads of orc-slaying mayhem. Above all, however, the film has a nice sprinkling of humor and character throughout, keeping things lightweight and even. I think the most memorable and satisfying of scenes, however, will be the major encounters that I remember fondly from the novel: outwitting the three trolls, for example, or the riddle scenes with Gollum, are all brought to life perfectly on the big screen.

The story for The Hobbit is as quintessential of a fantasy adventure as, well, Lord of the Rings. The film not only does a fine job of packing in loads of events, characters, and fine details from The Hobbit's original narrative and story, but it also ties in some content from The Silmarillion and the appendices of Tolkien's books. A lot of this is incorporated to make tangible ties with LOTR, allowing the film to serve as a proper prequel, while digging up additional subplots, conflicts, and details to layer onto all of Peter Jackson's Middle-Earth films. Yes, the film could have all these extra scenes cut out, making the film trimmer. Frankly, I liked it the way it is. Some of the scenes helped me understand certain nuances of The Hobbit's politics and backstories. Some helped in the nuances of established characters and events (especially in regards to chronicling Gandalf's whereabouts, who would otherwise just pop in and out randomly, like in the book, but it would have probably alienated audiences further). Some is purely invented for the film series to streamline the continuity (purists might be outraged when they see Radagast on screen). It's a bit early to tell where The Hobbit is going with all the threads it has grabbed, but it does serve a purpose in the long run. If nothing else, it'll help average audiences connect and understand the Middle Earth on a deeper level, and set things up for later events in the next two films.

As expected, the film looks splendid, with quality photography and editing. I'm especially pleased to see that the filmmakers dropped the shaky-cam effects that were dispensed in the fight scenes of LOTR; just about every shot in The Hobbit is solid and steady. Acting is pretty decent from the whole cast; aside from all the familiar faces, Martin Freeman plays Bilbo with the right amount of nuanced uptightness, while Richard Armitage plays it tough as Thorin, and every other dwarf actor does their best to make their characters stand out in their own neat ways. Writing is great; the script adapts as much as it can from the novel, while allowing the film to breathe on its own. This production is loaded with excellent sets, props, costumes, and special effects. Music is nice too.

Perhaps I'm biased, because this is another film where I see nothing really wrong with it. If anything, it feels like more of the same as LOTR, with the same construction as Fellowship of the Ring. Even if it is a blatant cash-grab, drawing out the material across three movies to maximize the franchise, it is still a fair crowd-pleaser. Given that we still have the desolation of Smaug and the Battle of the Five Armies to witness on the big screen, I'm certain that An Unexpected Journey is but a small taste of greater things to come; things that may prove to be as epic, if not moreso, than LOTR! At the very least, the film does perfect justice to the original novel, while delivering a fine spectacle. I couldn't ask for a finer film. 9.7/10