The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey (2012)

Director: Peter Jackson

Now if you're a fan of the first Lord of the Rings trilogy then you're certain to find some enjoyment in returning to Middle Earth, as I did. The world of Middle Earth is as rich as ever. But The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey is certainly not the ideal introduction to this world and the story of the ring. It's a movie in which the stakes are not very high, especially when compared to Lord of the Rings. Bilbo Baggins has a strong character arc, the theme of taking back the homeland is also well established, but as of now there's no existential threat to the world as a whole, at least not to justify the extremely long running time. But at the same time it's difficult to judge the film because the movie is written almost as a miniseries. It's clear that Peter Jackson knew he was going to two more three hour long movies and so he took his time and included every side adventure from the book and much more that was never in the book.

The movie is the first of three movies, and unlike the fairly cinematic ending of The Fellowship of the Ring, the end of the The Hobbit feels very much like the ending of an important episode of TV. While I enjoyed the movie, the eventual three-part structure makes the movie hard to truly criticize because there's so much more. Certain scenes in the movie are meant to introduce a certain concept and then are not talked about it again, which would be a blatant flaw in any other movie but in this one you can't fault the film because obviously it will be brought up in the later films. If you don't compare it to the previous trilogy, this is a very satisfactory first film, though much of it could have been streamlined and cut out. But if the film was streamlined and only scenes that were important to the direct plot, the movie would not quite have felt like a part of Lord of the Rings, which is a series known as epic fantasy. Instead we've got the beginning of what I'm sure is going to end up an epic, but it just isn't quite there yet.

Grade: B-