The Hobbit: An
Unexpected Journey is the latest visit to Middle Earth and is based on JRR
Tolkien's book of the same name. As usual, I saw the 2D version as I'm not
willing to spend money on an experiment that might not work (that’s my use
of the 3D glasses, not 3D film – that seems to be a lost battle:-)).
As the film opens
we're in the Shire with Old Bilbo (Ian Holme) and
Frodo (Elijah Wood) talking about Bilbo's adventures in the East and a
description of the Dwarven kingdom that once ruled there, followed by its fall
without a mention of a ring given to the line of Dain. We don't get to see
Smaug properly, normally just a shadow on the ground quickly followed by a
blast of fire...
We then go to the
opening of the story proper with Younger Bilbo (Martin Freeman) sitting on his
doorstep and ending up in a discussion of the various uses of 'good day' with
Gandalf the Grey (Ian McKellan) and Gandalf getting annoyed with the stodgy
person that Bilbo was becoming. The dwarves were introduced in small groups
with Bilbo becoming more unsettled as the evening passed. Finally all the
dwarves and Gandalf are assembled and after a truly heart stopping scene where
the dwarves are clearing up the pottery in a fashion guaranteed to give Bilbo a
heart attack. They then settle in for a bit of strategizing and planning about
taking back the Mountain from the dragon. Bilbo basically doesn't impress the
dwarves as he collapses when presented with the contract detailing his
potential injuries. He was going to be hired as the burglar but he hadn't
impressed anyone yet...
For most of the film,
they've stuck very closely to the book in terms of both action and dialogue.
Some of the dwarves are less serious than presented by JRRT and less noble,
though in a Henry the Fifth moment, Thorin Oakenshield (an impressive Richard
Armitage) tells his company that they are his true companions, especially as
the rest of the dwarves were a bunch of craven cowards, refusing to risk facing
the dragon. The major departures from the book were the subplot where the orc
Azog (Manu Bennett) and his merry band chase the dwarves all over New Zea...,
ah, I mean Middle Earth was an embellishment on the book. We also see Radagast
(Sylvester McCoy), transposed from the LOTR trilogy. From the BBC Radio 4
broadcasts of LOTR I see Radagast as a young wizard but in this, he's of an age
with Saruman and Gandalf, if a little more addle-pated (much more reasonable
really). The White Council meeting wasn't mentioned directly in the book, just
in passing and they managed to insert the lore of the istari quite neatly.
This film takes us
through the Misty Mountains and an encounter with the creature Gollum, and the
finding of a plain golden ring. Rather than the (by now leaderless} goblins of
the mountains chasing them down the mountainside, Azog catches them up once
more and the dwarves, Bilbo and Gandalf are treed, only to be rescued by the
eagles who take them straight to the Carrock and their first sight of the
Lonely Mountain, where the credits roll and we have to wait for another year to
see how things continue. Bilbo makes one of those comments you know that you
are going to really, really regret – ‘Well, the worst is over now.’ before
we’re
transported to the halls inside of which, a dragon is waking up...
When I heard that they
had spread the story out over three three-hour films and scavenged the LOTR
appendices to fill out the time, I was wondering how well it would hold
together, but if they can maintain the quality of this film, then we should be
in for a real treat over the next few years (the BBC production was around four
hours). As an aside, Thorin in the film is pronounced as TH whereas the Beeb
used the pronunciation Torin and, as one of their arts and entertainments
editors shares the name, I’d probably have gone with that...
