The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey -- A Review from A Reasonable Tolkien Fan, Pt. 1

First off, pardon me if this doesn't entirely make sense.  I'm a 37.5 year old man, and I went to the midnight showing of The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey, which meant getting there around 9:30 pm, waiting in line, rushing to my desired seat (back row middle...in an IMAX theater), and then sitting for two hours.  When you add in all the trailers, including the 9 minutes of Star Trek Into Darkness, I wasn't home in bed until 4 am, didn't really fall asleep until 5 (too much caffeine), and I was to work by 8:37 am.   Add in the fact that I am still trying to get over a bad cold, the bottom line is that you should cut me some slack.

Before I do dig into the movie, I want to talk about the trailers a minute.

• Oz: The Great and Powerful:  I wasn't sold on this from the online trailers.  I still have ill will towards Sam Raimi from Spiderman, and I am not a big fan of James Franco.  Anyway, seeing the trailer in 3D made a huge difference in my interest level.  I am not sure if it is a "must see" yet, but if I do, it will be in 3D.
• Jack the Giant Slayer:  This is a movie that has a troubled history.  It was supposed to be released earlier in 2012, but it kept getting pushed back until it eventually got bumped to March.  That is never a good sign.  A twist on the Jack and the Bean Stalk fairytail, my take away was during a battle, Ewan McGregor's character actually said "Let's cut them down to size."  *groan*
• Man of Steel: I was blown away by the trailer online, and while I cannot say 3D added much to it, I am still cautiously optimistic about this.  Of course, Zack Snyder has cut an awesome trailer before (re: Watchmen, Sucker Punch, even 300), only to have the movie not live up to that presentation.  I am hoping that Christopher Nolan has a good influence on him here, even though I count among the group that doesn't really need another origin story.  Henry Cavill in a body hugging costume is enough for me to see it! ;-)
• Star Trek Into Darkness:  I loved loved loved JJ Abrams' take on Star Trek.  So, I was all in before seeing a frame of footage.  We still do not know who the villain is, but my notion from the 9 minutes is that there is definitely a connection to the Genesis project from the original Star Trek: Wrath of Khan.  I still do not think we are dealing with Khan, but JJ also likes to play with us.  This comes out on my birthday.  So, it might be another midnight trip!

The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey - Non-Spoiler Review

I wanted to start out with a non-spoiler review before I dig into major spoilers from both the books and the movie.  I tremendously enjoyed The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey.  Did it touch and move me like Cloud Atlas? No, but that was never Tolkien's intent.  The Hobbit was merely a fun story he wrote for his children that eventually spawned The Lord of the Rings.  It is a slighter, less serious, and whole lot funnier book, and anyone who is expecting LOTR level of drama is going to be sadly disappointed, which I think is why there are a lot of negative reviews.

While I am not going to make arguments for or against making The Hobbit into three movies, the main issue with An Unexpected Journey is also a problem with the novel -- not a lot happens until Thorin & Company reach Rivendell.  So, you are faced with a first part of the movie that seems a little forced.  Sure, it gives you ample time to meet the dwarves (Balin is still my favorite from both book and screen) and establish Bilbo as a character, but since we all know Bilbo is going to go on the journey, it is a bit anticlimactic.

The framing device that sets up the story is pretty awesome, and the prologue explaining how The Lonely Mountain (Erebor) fell is better than this Tolkien geek could have ever wanted.  It is on par with the prologue in The Fellowship of the Ring.  The iconic introduction to Gollum is also everything I could have hoped, though I still have a bit of a problem with the audience finding him a more comic than tragic character.  Some of the additions the creative team made, specifically Dol Guldor and The White Council, add a lot to the overall story, but others fall pretty flat.  A couple I would consider creative missteps, but your mileage may vary.  I will be going into more detail with those in the spoiler filled review.

Overall, I would recommend The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey for everyone who loved the books or is just familiar with the LOTR movies.  In a lot of ways, it is more faithful to the written word than LOTR, but in this case, it might also be considered a slight debit.  If your only experience is with the previous movies, then you just need to prepare yourself for the fact that this is a rather lighthearted movie.  There are many laugh out loud moments.  The rest of the technical aspects are beyond reproach, though there are a few choices made to be total CGI that would have benefited from being an actual actor in makeup.  Howard Shore's score is tremendous, too.   If you are wondering whether to see it in 3D or digital, I will have a final verdict after I see it in the 48 frame HFR 3D over New Years, but in IMAX 3D, I do not believe there was a lot added to the proceedings.  Though I did get a nifty series of exclusive posters for my two extra dollars spent.

All in all, I loved it, but I don't think anyone really expected me to hate it.