The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey

The Hobbit opens with a lengthy history of the Lonely Mountain, the rise of its power, the greed of its king, and finally its fall to Smaug the Dragon.  Added to this you have the fact that the elves declined to aid the Dwarves in the fight against the mighty dragon, thus explaining Thorin Oakenshield’s animus toward elves.

 

With that prologue, the story picks up with Bilbo working on his memoir of his great adventure on the very day that Gandalf is expected for his birthday party (see the beginning of Fellowship of the Ring).  It was fun – though unnecessary – to see Frodo (Elijah Woods) as he leaves Bag End to intercept Gandalf.  More importantly, this gave an opportunity for Bilbo (Ian Holm) to provide a bridge to his younger self (Martin Freeman).

 

Finally, our story begins.  Gandalf and the dwarves arrive at Bilbo’s home and enlist him into the cause of reclaiming the Lonely Mountain from Smaug.  Bilbo refuses but then chases after them to join.  The plot generally follows the book though it is massively augmented with other events in Middle Earth.  This is useful in a big picture sense but detracts from the story, especially since this is supposed to be Bilbo’s memoir.  Furthermore, many events are turned into huge battles.  The flight from the goblin caves is turned into a running fight where all of the dwarves survive essentially unscathed.  No sooner are they out of the caves than some orcs on wargs show up and the dwarves are helpless and must climb trees.  Really?

 

The band is safely carried away from the orc threat by giant eagles and deposited on a picturesque peak where they can see the Lonely Mountain in the distance.  The dwarves talk among themselves that perhaps Smaug is dead, as he hasn’t ventured out in many decades.  The movie ends with the great piles of gold suddenly disturbed to reveal the head of a dragon; Smaug yet lives.

 

Though generally enjoyable, this isn’t The Hobbit.  This is a prequel to Lord of the Rings, bringing in characters who have no business in the story and outlining events that are referenced in other works.  Radagast the Brown Wizard never appears in The Hobbit but he has a sizable role here.  Saruman (Christopher Lee) scolds Gandalf and Galadriel (Cate Blanchet) gives him tentative support.  In the book, Gandalf often vanished from the party without much explanation but the movie version isn’t going to leave that a mystery.  It is no wonder that Peter Jackson is stretching this into a three movie epic.  The Hobbit was a modest book, smaller than any of the three books of Lord of the Rings and yet we are promised as much film time as the trilogy.  Of course, the trilogy left out some things; that certainly won’t happen with The Hobbit.

 

One of the benefits of being so long is that all those dwarves get a bit of personality.  Thorin was noteworthy in the book for being the dispossessed King of the Lonely Mountain and Bombur was a plump fellow who cooked but the rest were just a collection of names.  Now Balin is an old veteran who is an adviser to Thorin.  Dwalin is a monster fighter with a bad attitude, Bofur is an amiable dwarf and friend to Bilbo, Kili is a master archer, Ori is the youngster of the bunch, and so forth.  I expect some of the ones I haven’t mentioned will get their due in the next two movies.  Each dwarf is very distinctive in appearance so that it is hard to confuse them.  I wonder if these personalities are taken from the writings of Tolkien or are they from the imaginings of Peter Jackson.

 

Despite its flaws, it is a fun movie; too much movie but still enjoyable.

 

Though I wrote this review in November 2013 - nearly a year after the movie was released, I have not seen the two other movies in the trilogy.  The first trilogy saw me in the theater during opening week but this one didn't even get me to go for that first one.  I saw it on HBO or pay per view.  Just not all that eager to see the over-inflated Jackson version of The Hobbit.

Robin Hood (Movie)

The new version of Robin Hood views the story from a new angle, placing the action after the ascension of King John (Oscar Isaacs). The story opens with Robin (Russell Crowe) as an archer in the service of King Richard the Lion-hearted, who was returning from the Crusades and laying siege to a castle in France on the way. This is very like how Robin and Marion (with Sean Connery and Audrey Hepburn) opened. In the wake of King Richard's death, Robin returns to England. However, he assumes the identity of a knight he finds dying on the road, a man named Robert Loxley. Much of the identifiable Robin Hood tale is missing or hardly touched upon. His only robbery is to steal some bags of seed for the fields of Nottingham. The Sherriff of Nottingham is mostly a comic figure who proves generally incompetent and not at all intimidating. Really, this movie is about Robin helping to unite the barons with King John to defend against a French invasion fleet.

It is posited that Robin's father proposed the Magna Carta and, in the movie, the King is forced to accede to the demands of his barons to consider such a charter to win their aid against the French invasion. Of course, the moment the invasion is thwarted, he burns the charter. Yes, it will be another 15 years before it is forced upon him. Back to Robin, it is odd that a humble archer of the 12th/13th Century is literate. Even the noble knights were often not literate, but an orphan left on his own since age six is literate. This is unusual enough that it should have been explained.

One peculiar bit was the existence of the orphans in the forest. In the opening of the movie, children in crude masks ransack the Loxley barn. Later, we see these youths steal from Robin and his men while they slept in the wilds. These lost boys are runaways from Nottingham, living a Lord of the Flies existence. Marian (Cate Blanchett) works her way among them through force of will while Robin makes the same journey as an unconscious captive tied to a branch like some felled deer. Even so, Robin wins their respect.

Robin has his crew. Little John is a common soldier who wields a huge hammer. The two brawl in the beginning but it is not with staves; strong friendship ensues. There is also Will Scarlet and Allan A'Dayle. Friar Tuck is the newly installed priest at Nottingham, a beekeeper who likes his mead (wine made from honey). All are fairly well-developed for supporting characters.

I tire of female warriors. I liked Xena and I've enjoyed Lara Croft but this is getting out of hand. In King Arthur (2004), we had Guinevere: Warrior Princess. In Pirates of the Caribbean, we had Emily Swann: Pirate Princess. In the British TV version of Robin Hood, Maid Marion is a vigilante in ninja garb. In this movie, we have Maid Marian donning armor, leading the orphan brigade against the French invasion, and daring to engage Godfrey in single combat. You have got to be kidding. Yes, there are historical examples of women warriors but they were the exception, not the rule. Today, it seems no period movie can do without transforming the women into warriors. I can hardly wait for the epic story of the Civil War where we meet Mary Todd Lincoln: Warrior First Lady.

Godfrey (Mark Strong), the movie's primary villain, was robbed. English archers were the dominant force of European battlefields for centuries but, if forced into a swordfight with a knight, they would be dead very quickly. Robin should have been no match for Godfrey in a sword fight. That the entirely untrained Marian unhorsed him was just a travesty.

The movie does overlook a few things. King John did marry Isabella of Angouleme. She was 12 years-old at the time, much younger than the 25 year-old Lea Seydoux who plays her. What happened to the King Richard's army? It was left in France and yet France is able to stage an invasion of England rather than engage the English army still in France? Considering that the movie takes place immediately upon the death of Richard, there should be mention of Arthur. John's older brother, Geoffrey, had a son named Arthur. Arthur had a legitimate claim to the throne – arguably a better claim than John – and he romped around English holdings in France during the initial years of John's reign. Rebellious barons would certainly have called for the overthrow of John in favor of Arthur. At one point in the film, there is a funeral. A funeral pyre is lit. Catholicism frowned on cremation, viewing it as a pagan practice.

Robin is not declared outlaw until the movie ends. We see him living a life of contentment somewhere in Sherwood Forest. Perhaps this is meant to setup a sequel that will be more in line with the traditional stories of Robin Hood.

 

Though written in jest, Mary Todd Lincoln: Warrior First Lady did come to pass a mere two years later in Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter.