MikePA's Movie Review of The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey

Review - The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey
MikePA - wrote on 12/15/12

Peter Jackson's The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey is a visually spectacular experience, jam-packed with tons of action and adventure. While it doesn't have as much clarity as the Lord of the Rings films, it's still a totally solid epic.

Like many of Peter Jackson's films, there are moments of greatness and moments of tediousness and boredom, notably in the first hour of the film. This leads me to the central problem with the movie - poor narrative structure. Jackson decides to stretch many of the sequences that play very little part in the rest of the movie. I remember saying to myself, "alright come on, let's get going," a couple times. Jackson and the script put a lot of depth in Bilbo and the leader of the thirteen dwarves, Thorin, but the supporting characters (mainly the rest of the dwarves) just feel like background dancers, throwing in burp gags and other random things when needed.

However I'm still recommending you see the film. Martin Freeman is fantastic as Bilbo who carries most of the movie, Ian McKellen is better than ever as Gandalf, and Richard Armitage is perfectly decent as Thorin, giving his character power and force, which makes for a supreme bad ass. The battle sequences are a lot of fun and the score is epic. There is a spellbinding scene which takes place in the Goblin Caves between Bilbo and Gollum. This scene is very intense, terrifically written and wonderfully performed by the always-reliable Andy Serkis as Gollum. The visual effects are gorgeous. There may be a little too much CGI this time around, but the pieces of CGI that is put on display here is simply astonishing. From the motion-capture orks and goblins to the fantastical kingdoms and Gollum, there is always something great to look at.

Go see The Hobbit, especially if you like the Lord of the Rings movies. It's not without flaws, but it's an exciting and honorable chapter in the series (if you want to include this in the Lord of the Rings series). But please do me a favor and see it in 2-D. Having viewed the film in IMAX 3-D, I can tell you that the 3-D is useless and it does not add much dimension.

3/4