The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey - Movie Review... Earlier today, I watched the IMAX 3-D version of the first installment in Peter Jackson's The Lord of the Rings prequel trilogy. In terms of the movie itself, The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey is well-made. In terms of the 48-frames-per-second (a.k.a. High Frame Rate, or HFR) format that I watched the film in, however, it was APPALLING. While I eventually grew used to jerky movements and extreme sharpness as the flick went on, the HFR presentation of The Hobbit increased my disdain for Blu-ray and other digital gimmicks that defeat the purpose of why movies are shot on film stock in the first place (which is why the majority of upcoming flicks are now being shot by digital cameras... Thankyouverymuch, George Lucas and company). Yes, I am a film purist. One of my friends whom I saw The Hobbit with got extremely defensive about HFR when I criticized it after the movie ended. He pointed out how it's a "new art form," and if you're a gamer like he is (my friend supposedly spent around two thousand dollars fixing up his computer so he could play StarCraft on it last year), you'd appreciate the video game quality of The Hobbit in HFR. Um— NO! Just because HFR is a new art form doesn't mean that it's a good art form. I'm sure the vandals who spray graffiti on freeway overpasses in the middle of the night consider their work an art form as well. And if I wanted to see a video game, I'D PLAY a video game... I have no intention of seeing quick and unnatural movements by characters outside of cut-scenes for Call of Duty, Assassin's Creed or HALO. Anyways... Onto reviewing the movie itself.
If you saw The Lord of the Rings trilogy, then you shouldn't be surprised with how The Hobbit turned out: Long running time, awesome helicopter shots of characters live-action and whatnot running across picturesque New Zealand terrain, the aforementioned characters breaking out in random chants and stuff, and numerous epic battle scenes throughout the flick. Unlike the first three films, however, The Hobbit has much more humor in it. Which is welcomed. An Unexpected Journey's lighthearted tone is not a surprise considering the fact that the only thing at stake with this installment and the next two movies is the young Bilbo Baggins (respectably played by Martin Freeman) successfully helping Thorin (Richard Armitage) and his fellow dwarves take their hometown of Erebor back from a dragon named Smaug (who is not fully seen in this film, not unexpectedly). The current danger to Middle-earth is so low in An Unexpected Journey that Gandalf the Grey (Ian McKellen) has time to bicker with Thorin over seeking help from the Elves of Rivendell (who Thorin and his people despise for not coming to the dwarves' aid when Smaug arrived at their village on Lonely Mountain to wreak havoc years prior), and taking a roll call of the thirteen (or is it twelve... Not counting Thorin) dwarves helping Gandalf, Bilbo and Thorin reclaim Erebor once more.
The main highlight of The Hobbit is Bilbo's scenes with Gollum. Andy Serkis once again does an excellent job providing the movement (even in the crappy HFR format) and voice of the One Ring-obsessed denizen. Just like in The Two Towers, Gollum's schizophrenic persona is wonderfully conveyed as he decides whether he should help Bilbo find his way out of the cave that the two are mingling in, or just eat the little Hobbit. Yea, you heard me. Eat. When Bilbo does find his way out of the cave (which he was able to do as he escaped from Gollum after the creature-formerly-known-as-Sméagol discovers that the One Ring was stolen from him), it is at the expense of incurring Gollum's wrath...which Frodo Baggins (Elijah Wood) would unfortunately face when the two meet decades later in The Two Towers.
I've never read The Hobbit, but I've heard that Peter Jackson added a lot more elements from The Lord of the Rings to the story about Bilbo Baggins than what was originally written by J. R. R. Tolkien. The giant eagles that save Gandalf, Bilbo and the dwarves from Azog, the Orc Chieftain—for example—were supposedly not in The Hobbit. Ironically, just like at the climax of The Return of the King, the eagles coming to the rescue of our heroes pose a problem in terms of story logic. In The Lord of the Rings, why didn't Frodo and the Fellowship of the Ring just use these giant creatures to fly all the way to Mordor? Instead of waging countless of battles that cost the lives of thousands of folks across Middle-earth, Frodo and company could've just flew over Mt. Doom and drop the One Ring into the mouth of the volcano and boom, problem solved. In An Unexpected Journey, why didn't Gandalf have the giant raptors take him, Bilbo and the dwarves all the way to Lonely Mountain...instead of landing on some hill dozens of miles away so the group could reminisce about the good ol' days at Lonely Mountain from afar? You probably didn't think that story point through, Mr. Jackson. In terms of other elements from The Lord of the Rings that were incorporated into The Hobbit, I was also going to mention the Necromancer [the shadowy figure who lunges at the wizard known as Radagast the Brown (Sylvester McCoy) in that dilapidated fortress]...but upon doing research online, it turns out that the Necromancer is actually Sauron, the Dark Lord, in spirit form. Pretty cool.
Nine years after the release of The Return of the King, it is cool to see Hugo Weaving reprise his role as Elrond, Cate Blanchett as Galadriel, Ian Holm as the old Bilbo Baggins and of course, Christopher Lee as Saruman the White. It is interesting to watch Saruman confer with Gandalf as an actual friend, and not a traitor that he would become when Sauron enters the scene in The Fellowship of the Ring. To bring up the Star Wars prequels, this is akin to seeing Ian McDiarmid portray Senator Palpatine as a merely-ambitious politician in The Phantom Menace before he starts to become a galactic, lightning-shooting tyrant in Revenge of the Sith. Don't know if we'll see Saruman again in the next two Hobbit films, but it'll be awesome if this treacherous wizard shows up once more before this trilogy comes to an end. On another note, it's cool that Howard Shore returned to compose the music score for The Hobbit. Don't know why he wouldn't, though. Then again, Danny Elfman ended up not doing the score for Spider-Man 3 even though he worked on Sam Raimi's first two Spidey flicks, so things are never guaranteed.
All-in-all, The Hobbit is a good film. I have NO intention of watching any other movie in 48 frames per second on the big screen after the debacle presented by An Unexpected Journey, but I'd still watch this flick again...this time in the normal, 24-frames-per-second format. The 3-D aspect of The Hobbit was cool, though. My friend (yes, the same one who wants to see films become more like multiplayer games on Playstation 3 and Xbox) pointed out that the artist who worked on The Hobbit's storyboards actually drew them in 3-D, to make it easier for Peter Jackson to previsualize scenes before production started. Needless to say, this effort paid off well on the big screen. So in regards to bringing the majesty of The Lord of the Rings back to cinemas everywhere, Jackson succeeded—for the most part, that is. In terms of revolutionizing digital projection at the movie theaters the same way Lucas um, tried to do with Attack of the Clones in 2002, I say: Better luck next time. Or just give it up altogether. HFR blows... But welcome back to Middle-earth, folks!
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