Lower Your Unexpectations

“The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey”
Written by Fran Walsh & Philippa Boyens & Peter Jackson
Directed by Peter Jackson
Starring Martin Freeman, Ian McKellen, Richard Armitage and Andy Serkis
Rated PG-13
169 Minutes

Here it is at last; the long-awaited return to Middle Earth.  After the massive success of his “Lord of the Rings” Trilogy, Peter Jackson has finally delivered the first chapter of his cinematic adaptation of J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Hobbit.  Originally planned for two installments, Jackson somehow managed to stretch the narrative into three films, with the remaining two scheduled to release next year and the year after.  That baffling decision is only one of the reasons that “The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey” is anything but unexpected.  Instead, when compared to the majesty of Jackson’s “Lord of the Rings” epics, this first chapter of the new Middle Earth trilogy is indulgent, long-winded and uninspiring.

In the opening moments, there is a brief wave of nostalgia upon returning to the Shire and seeing Old Bilbo (Ian Holm) beginning to pen the adventures of his young life.  Indeed, “An Unexpected Journey” begins on the very morning that saw Gandalf’s (Ian McKellen) return in “The Fellowship of the Ring.”  As Frodo (Elijah Wood) scampers off to surprise him, the narrative dissolves to sixty years previous, when Bilbo Baggins (Martin Freeman) is just a young lad with his whole hobbit life ahead of him.  At first, it is a pleasure seeing Freeman capture similar mannerisms to Ian Holm’s portrayal, and his interplay with Gandalf is a nice match to the early moments in “The Fellowship of the Ring.” 

Aside from the initial visual match, “An Unexpected Journey” soon starts putting as much distance between itself and the “Lord of the Rings” films as possible.  Considering that The Hobbit is essentially a children’s novel, Peter Jackson fully embraces that idea with an overload of tonally awkward humor.  The narrative this time concerns thirteen dwarves that have lost their home in the Lonely Mountain to an evil dragon known as Smaug.  These dwarves are really something.  Not only can they wreck and clean a home in mere moments, but they can sing sweetly while doing it.  They’d like Bilbo to come along with them as a ‘burglar’ to reclaim their home and slay the dragon.  They are led by the great Thorin (Richard Armitage), who doubts Bilbo will be of any real help in their journey.  Armitage’s portrayal is something akin to Viggo Mortensen’s Aragorn and is a nice fit for Jackson’s established universe.

Unfortunately, once the titular journey gets underway, it follows a rinse and repeat pattern of predictability and an over-abundance of disastrously obvious CGI.  Filming on location in New Zealand again, it’s as if Jackson forgot what made his “Lord of the Rings” pictures so marvelous; he used the locations to great effect and as much as possible, filmed on practical sets with real actors in fantastic makeup.  The Orcs in “An Unexpected Journey” are entirely CGI, taking away the fierceness that an actor can portray under several pounds of incredibly detailed effects work.  Key locations like Rivendell look like something out of George Lucas’ “Star Wars” prequels, as do silly animal creatures in an early subplot that could easily be excised.  Gone too are the gloriously staged battles, instead replaced with quick-cutting computer imagery.

At 169 minutes, there is something about “An Unexpected Journey” that feels so slight when held up next to “The Lord of the Rings.”  Perhaps the nature of the story hinders itself by following this one group comprising Bilbo and the dwarves the entire time, leaving the larger narrative to feel numbingly inconsequential.  Each chapter of “The Lord of the Rings” follows various races and regions of Middle Earth, creating a cinematic world that feels completely alive and enveloping; but here we are left to endure a series of generic capture and escape set-pieces, the monotony of which is only broken by the always-welcome appearance of Gollum (Andy Serkis in all his motion-capture glory). 

 Stretching out The Hobbit novel to three films smacks of indulgence and Hollywood greed, which is a shame because until now, Peter Jackson has always made magnificent movies.  Alas, you can also catch “The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey” in 3D and the new 48 fps frame rate.  In 2001, “The Fellowship of the Ring” was nominated for its incredible effects work at bringing to life the characters and locations of Tolkien’s universe.  To accomplish this, Peter Jackson didn’t reinvent the wheel on anything; he used good old fashioned film making to create a groundbreaking epic fantasy.  Will anyone be able to say that about “An Unexpected Journey” in eleven years?  My fear is that these new technologies meant to “improve” the cinema experience will make obsolete the very things that make movies magical.  They sure don’t make them like they used to.