The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey Review - OR - Hairy Dwarf Jam

Plot

Bilbo Baggins (Martin Freeman) is a hobbit used to a life of peace, quiet and a jolly full pantry. Unfortunately for him however, inscrutable friendly Wizard Gandalf (Ian McKellen) has other plans, arriving unexpectedly one night at bewildered Bilbo’s doorstep with 13 rowdy, hairy and generally Celtic dwarves in tow. Led by would-be king Thorin Oakenshield (Richard Armitage), the raucous group is on a quest to the Lonely Mountain to defeat the vicious dragon Smaug and reclaim their birthright homeland. As well as all that lovely gold stuff. Bilbo, after some mentorly cajoling from the wise wizard, tags along for the adventure of a lifetime.

Porn budgets have gone through the roof.

Review

It’s been nearly a decade. Nearly an entire decade since the The Lord of the Rings film series concluded with the epic swan song that was The Return of the King. Just let that sink in for a second.

Since then there’s been games (and games) and enough television, film and general cultural references (note: the metric ton of memes) to boot Seth MacFarlane into a premature retirement. Now, back under the steady hands of Peter Jackson, there is a new trilogy this time based the The Hobbit.

13 dwarves, 1 toilet.

If there was a singular ‘best decision of the cinematic year award’ (and there really should be) there can only be one choice this year: Martin Freeman. Never before has an actor been so divinely suited for a role. Freeman’s nuanced fustiness, his undeniable likeability epitomised by a pithy exasperation taken almost frown-for-frown from The Office, suits the courageous resourcefulness of Bilbo down to his hairy toes. His endearing normality, a perfectly pitched ‘everyman’, makes him a rock for a sometimes disparate film clearly spinning the many sub-narrative plates necessary to turn this children’s bed-time favourite into a blockbuster cinematic trilogy.

Which raises an important point. There is a lot going on in An Unexpected Journey, little of which has much flesh on its bones. The plentiful fleeting references to important over-arching narrative and thematic devices are engaging, almost teasingly so, but feel a little out of place, like post-it memos for what to do later. The Necromancer, fortress Dol-Guldur, Saruman and the One Ring: all these splendidly garrulous devices-come-MacGuffins and more pepper Bilbo’s adventure like canned laughter on TVs newest doomed sitcom, seemingly there for the sake of it.

But, when it comes to Middle-Earth, such oppressive lore is part and parcel of the experience, an inevitability with the selfsame permanence of short hairy aggressive men. One of the major shameless qualities of An Unexpected Journey is its undeniable ‘fantasyness’, a quality rarely seen outside of Tolkein’s densely rich universe and one which would arguably have floundered under it’s own loquacious weight without the calm, passion and experience of Peter Jackson. As it is, the conflation of The Hobbit with the LotR appendices (from which Jackson has pilfered to buff The Hobbit into a trilogy) offers enough fantasy splendiferousness to make The Wizard of Oz look tame.

Production design is similarly commendable, not only in terms of its cinematic qualities – pushing the boundaries as always – but for its insistence on conflating set-based technology with natural locations; New Zealand has never looked so good. Old favourites such as Rivendell glow with an almost youthful luster, evoking the mythologised majesty so integral for that all-important ‘immersion’ factor. Newcomers equally impress, the presentation of the disputed city of Erebor and its abyssal golden ravines of every treasured gemstone imaginable doing a seminal job of adding credence to the dwarves’ seemingly suicidal undertaking.

This year's 'look the most constipated' competition
was a close one.

Aesthetically the film follows suit. Costuming and special effects again unite to juxtapose the primal brutality of the orcs (this time led by the deliciously unsettling ‘Pale Orc’) gobblins and trolls (a sort of Middle-Earthian slapstick comedy act) with the quaint rustic West-Country vibe of the hobbits, industrious rowdiness of the dwarves and surely satirical ponceyness of the elves.

However, An Unexpected Journey opts for a lighter, more playful experience than LotR and suffers tonally for it. The Hobbit unlike LotR is undeniably and unashamedly a children’s book and the film is testament to that. Sight gags, silly noises and general comedic inanity are often the order of the day (particularly with sideshow curio Radagast the Brown (Sylvester McCoy)) and, while not an overtly bad thing, contrast jarringly with the frequent, surprisingly quite violent, battle scenes. Ultimately, it seems as though An Unexpected Journey has been used as a field test, where every idea – including goofy hats and severed heads – are flung at a wall to see what sticks.

Verdict

An Unexpected Journey can be best summarised by its music: part bombastic rousing score of old, part chirpy tunes of a new direction. While still heavily dependent on the importance of ‘getting it’, An Unexpected Journey makes for a far less historically oppressive experience than its brothers. Equal parts coming-of-age-tale and frenetic chase movie, it is a film of varied aesthetic unified by a monumental central performance and absolute dedication to its own beauty. Peter Jackson, you did all right.

4/5

Go on an adventure (is what this by-line would say ironically):

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