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Poster Description: The Hobbit adorns the top of the image with An Unexpected Journey in much smaller lettering below it in capitals. Bilbo (Martin Freeman) looks stony-faced, holding his silver sword, Sting, against his shoulder. His corduroy jacket is dark, dirty, and tattered. He wears a green cravat beneath a yellowed shirt. The landscape behind him is green beneath heavy grey storm clouds. |
Somewhere in the ten years since its theatrical release, I’d forgotten JRR Tolkien never intended for The Hobbit to be a prequel to Lord of the Rings. The book was published twenty years before the trilogy and began as a bedtime story for Tolkien’s kids. I read it aged thirteen as a perfect Christmas present, and its lighter tone surprised me – heck, Sauron isn’t even mentioned; what Bilbo finds in Gollum’s cave is just a conveniently magic ring.
Looking back over my 2012 review of An Unexpected Journey, I was shocked by how little I had to say about it. Honestly, I wanted to love it but couldn’t, though failed to put my finger on why. So, this is me, stabbing an angry finger on it.
(As ever, my thoughts from 2012 will be in blue).
I’ve gushed about Fellowship of the Ring, but my question remains: why wasn’t The Hobbit made first? It turns out that director Peter Jackson and co-writer Fran Walsh had ideas for it way back in 1995, accompanied by, er, Lord of the Rings Part 1 and 2. Eventually, The Hobbit’s initial pitch was two movies directed by Guillermo Del Toro, which could have been a match made in heaven. He can balance child-like whimsy and shocking pathos and make it look easy (looking at you, Pan’s Labyrinth), but this fell through for reasons of time and finance. Lord of the Rings had one studio (New Line Cinema), yet The Hobbit movies had FIVE, including MGM and Warner Bros. (which is renowned for meddling with its projects, like 2016's Suicide Squad and 2017's Justice League). The messy pre-production of the Hobbit trilogy has been explored to death (you can watch some excellent YouTube videos about it here and here), but it is important to consider when discussing the end products.
2012: I saw [The Hobbit] in IMAX, so the experience was further heightened by deafening surround sound and having to turn my head to accommodate all that was happening on an absolutely massive screen. Not that I was complaining…though my neck certainly was!
2022: That’s not forgetting the motion sickness! I haven’t dared watch an IMAX film since The Desolation of Smaug.
2012: Made in 3D and at twice the normal frame rate (which I am still unsure about), the Hobbit in question is Bilbo Baggins (Martin Freeman), a tubby little fellow who, like all hobbits, lives in a Hobbit-hole in the lush country of the Shire.
2022: The change in frame rate makes the otherwise impressive landscapes look blurry. As casting choices go, Freeman is perfect as a young Bilbo Baggins. There is something so awkward and so irrevocably British about his performance that is instantly endearing.
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Look at the excitement on his face! (shame it won’t last, eh?) Image Description: Bilbo hurries away from The Shire with a large backpack on his back. He carries the contract written up by the Dwarves, which is a long spool of parchment that flaps in the air. |
2012: He lives a comfortable, but rather dull life, until he is visited by a very familiar-looking wizard named Gandalf (Ian McKellen), who asks Bilbo to join him on an exciting adventure… Bilbo politely turns down his invitation, and sends the wizard on his way, believing this will be the last time he sees Gandalf…so imagine his surprise when thirteen, battle-ready Dwarves turn up on his doorstep…and start eating all his food!
2022: Sir Ian McKellen is still magnificent as Gandalf. His character is more cantankerous, surrounded by so many stubborn Dwarves. Unfortunately, unlike Lord of the Rings, McKellen’s scenes in Bag End were filmed entirely with green screen, with photographs of the other actors, and that was all he had to go on. It got so bad that McKellen – one of Britain’s best classical actors of all time – began to cry, saying, “This is not why I became an actor.” It doesn’t get more heart-breaking than that.
2012: [The Dwarves’] leader is Thorin Oakenshield (Richard Armitage), a Dwarf-Prince who proposes they (and Bilbo) go on a quest to reclaim his grandfather’s kingdom, Erebor. A fearsome dragon by the name of Smaug attacked and invaded their home many years before, taking all the gold for his own, including a large diamond called the Arkenstone, and naturally, Thorin wants it all back.
2022: Thorin Oakenshield is the oldest of the thirteen Dwarves in the novel. Narratively, his considerable age helped to raise the stakes and justify his prideful nature – this Dwarf is done waiting to claim Erebor! In the film, however, some genius thought, “Nah, we need a younger, more rugged model to get the ladies in cinema seats.” Now, as a female fan, yes, eye candy is always a bonus, but I resent the demeaning sentiment all the same.
The same applies to Thorin’s nephews, Fili and Kili (Dean O’Gorman and Aiden Turner), who look about as dwarfish as a certain Ranger in the North. I’m cynical enough to think the make-up artists had to ensure all the “important” dwarves look as aesthetically pleasing as possible, because God forbid a hero can have a bulbous nose and forehead! Nevertheless, Balin (Ken Stott) is the kindest, most grandfatherly figure to Bilbo. It’s almost as if something awful will happen to him in the future! It’s manipulation at its most blatant and leaves a nasty taste in the mouth.
Despite Sir Ian McKellen’s emotional state while filming it, our introduction to the dwarves is pretty charming. We sympathise with Bilbo’s frustration and confusion as they turn up at his house, empty out his parlour, and tease him through song – in fact, two numbers come directly from the novel. Yes, “Blunt the Knives…” doesn’t fit with the epic tone the filmmakers are trying to achieve here, but it’s fun and playful enough. “The Misty Mountains Cold” is goosebump-inducing at the expense of the film’s pacing, but it makes us and Bilbo root for the dwarves’ plight. Their harmonies are exquisite, but I bet you can’t name any of the others I haven’t mentioned.
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GIF Description: The Dwarves clunk their wooden tankards together, sitting back in their seats to messily slurp their drinks. You can almost hear their hearty bellowing! |
Moreover, I’d forgotten how awkward and cartoonish the action sequences are, from the stilted chase against the Wargs, the goblins, to the ridiculous storm giants. No one would have survived that encounter. No. One. Indeed, the film’s tone fights itself constantly, swinging between a light-hearted adventure for a worthy cause and an intense quest against some half-baked bad guys. If the filmmakers wanted epic, they should have looked toward The Silmarillion instead.
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I couldn’t resist… Meme Description: It’s a meme from Fellowship of the Ring. There are two panels. At the top, we have Frodo (Elijah Wood) looking anxiously down at a photoshopped picture of The Silmarillion book. The yellow subtitles say, “I can’t read it.” Below, Gandalf (Sir Ian McKellen) looks grave. His subtitles say, “There are few who can.” It’s funny cos it’s true! |
Elrond is the only proper returning character from LOTR because the Dwarves stop off at Rivendell for a rest. It could have been a perfect opportunity to develop the other thirteen Dwarves as individual memorable characters worth caring about. Instead, to stretch out its wince-worthy runtime, we have shoehorned conflicts and tacked-on references. They were so desperate to keep audiences invested that Peter Jackson and the other screenwriters forgot – or ignored – that The Hobbit is Bilbo’s story. We have Azôg the Defiler hunting down Thorin to try to avenge his arm (or something to that effect). The orcs in this film are almost entirely CGI and offer no menace. Imagine that! The creatures that terrified me as a child are now just…meh.
In keeping with the novel, Gandalf briefly goes away – because Dwarves are occasionally insufferable to live with, and it’s a Wizard's prerogative to be something other than a weary teacher doing headcounts on a school trip. Except Gandalf's subplot with Radagast the Brown is entirely superfluous, and the only positive thing is that Sylvester McCoy looks like he’s having fun. Later, Gandalf chats with Galadriel (Cate Blanchett) and Saruman (Sir Christopher Lee) about a Morgul blade because it links us back to the other trilogy. If I wanted to watch that, I would! I’d feel much better for it, too. Worse, there’s a hint of…history between Gandalf and Galadriel.
No.
No.
Why?! Is this another sexist ploy? Most women who enjoy Tolkien’s work do not go into it for romance. Yes, this is foreshadowing for The Desolation of Smaug. Help, nineteen-year-old me, I’m spiralling into despair.
2012: ...To save himself from getting eaten, Mr. Baggins challenges Gollum to a game of riddles. This turns out to be one of Serkis’ finest, most entertaining performances, as Gollum (and Smeagol!) try to outsmart the hobbit, while arguing with himself constantly.
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Image Description: Gollum/Smeagol (Andy Serkis) sits on his haunches in a gloomy cave full of jagged rocks. His is a skeletal figure wearing just a loincloth with a few strands of hair on his bald head. His skin is grey, his ears are pointed, and his eyes are huge and blue with dark circles beneath them. Gollum/Smeagol looks up, confused and wary. |
2022: Ah, yes. Andy Serkis and Martin Freeman have great chemistry, throwing riddles back and forth. Finally, the playfulness and danger mesh together comfortably, and this butter-stretched-over-too-much-bread film gets briefly interesting when Gollum is on screen.
A comment made by the late great Sir Christopher Lee, has stuck with me. “If it means something in the story, and it’s what the director wants, and the audience remembers it, that’s what it’s all about.” With four years to prep for Lord of the Rings, it is clear that it was, ultimately, a labour of love. Sadly, The Hobbit didn’t have such luxury, and was shoved along by money-hungry studios with a director whose heart just wasn’t in it.
2012: The second part of The Hobbit is called The Desolation of Smaug, and will be on our screens on the 13th December 2013. The final part is There and Back Again, which is out on the 14th July 2014.
2022: They changed the third film’s name to The Battle of the Five Armies in that time. Three movies were announced in October, and An Unexpected Journey was released in December. Yikes. No wonder Peter Jackson was tired, and no, composer Howard Shore didn’t have enough time to create anything new, so – you guessed it – borrowed off Lord of the Rings in the hope that no one would notice. We did. Just because the Ringwraiths theme sounds epic doesn’t mean it fits with Thorin’s heroic rise to save his brethren from orcs. It confuses the tone completely.
Before rewatching it again for this review, I remembered very little of An Unexpected Journey. I enjoyed returning to the Shire, but knowing what I know now hurts me to think about what could have been. Had Del Toro been given the time to do what he wanted, the first film would have been very different beast. Thorin’s respect for Bilbo would have felt earned, and his dramatic change in behaviour in later films would have been more shocking. Instead, for all its action and hamfisted references to its predecessors, An Unexpected Journey is actually very boring.
2012: I do still have my doubts about the book being stretched across not just two, but three films. To fill them out, Jackson delved into some of the appendices of the Lord of the Rings book series; the result was that some of the added scenes…gave the film a rather bloated feel.
2022: I feel bad for my younger self; how hopeful I felt. Middle Earth is a universe I love, but only if I pretend these Hobbit films don’t exist. Under the thumb of panicked, greedy studios, An Unexpected Journey is forgettable. The Dwarves deserved character development, the references to Lord of the Rings should have been used sparingly, and damn it, the focus should have stayed on Bilbo. Now, like rewatching Game of Thrones, it pains me to think what’s coming next because it’s going to get so much worse…
2012: 4 STARS OUT OF 5
2022: 2.5 STARS OUT OF 5
My Sources:
Poster - https://pics.alphacoders.com/pictures/view/359430
Video: Nerdstalgic – The Real Reason Guillermo Del Toro Left The Hobbit: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5VE-ppk7XOI
Videos: Lindsay Ellis -The Hobbit: A Long-Expected Autopsy (Part 1 of 2): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uTRUQ-RKfUs
The Hobbit: Battle of the Five Studios (Part 2 of 2): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ElPJr_tKkO4
The Hobbit: The Desolation of Warners (Part 3 of 2): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qi7t_g5QObs
Image: Bilbo runs towards adventure - https://www.thehikingsociety.com.au/2017/05/03/bilbo-baggins-and-gandalf-the-ultimate-adventurers/
Sir Ian McKellen broke down during filming?? - https://www.themarysue.com/ian-mckellen-hobbit-cry/
GIF: The Dwarves get drinking - https://tenor.com/view/dwarves-party-drinks-celebrating-gif-21781133
Image: Try reading The Silmarillion if you can! –
https://www.reddit.com/r/lotrmemes/comments/jx3ws6/reading_the_silmarilion_be_like/
Image: Gollum…or Smeagol? - https://tolkiengateway.net/wiki/Riddles_in_the_Dark
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