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.

The Hobbit (1977)

I thought it appropriate to watch this 1977 animated version as preparation for the Peter Jackson extravaganza that is now hitting theaters. The story opens with a narration by Gandalf (voiced by John Huston) to explain just what a hobbit is and what Middle Earth is. It then jumps into the arrival of Gandalf and the 13 dwarves at Bilbo's door. The dwarves need a burglar and Gandalf had suggested Bilbo (Orson Bean) for the post. Though he is clearly not excited by the idea, especially since the contract offers to pay funeral expenses, he accepts. The following morning, they set out.

The dwarves prove to be utterly and completely incompetent. The first big encounter is with trolls who scoop up the unarmed dwarves with little trouble. The dwarves are saved from becoming stew by the return of Gandalf. However, as luck would have it, the troll cave is filled with booty and there are swords to be had. Thorin, the leader of the dwarves, takes a blade. So do Gandalf and Bilbo. The other 12 dwarves are content with their level of disarmament.

The band arrives in Rivendel to consult with Elrond. He identifies Thorin's sword as the Orcrist the Goblin Cleaver and Gandalf's as Glamdring the Foe Hammer.

Back on the road, the band take shelter in a cave and are soon overwhelmed by goblins who easily capture our unhappy band while, once again, Gandalf is away. The lead goblin is about to slay Thorin for the crime of carrying Orcrist when Gandalf arrives to save the day. Gandalf is not done saving them yet, having to summon eagles to snatch them away from pursuing goblins on worgs. Now tired of rescuing this pathetic party, he places Bilbo in charge of future rescues.

In Mirkwood Forest, Bilbo has to save the dwarves from spiders and wood elves. It doesn't hurt that he has the One Ring and is, unlike most of the dwarves, armed with a blade which he names Sting. As if he hasn't done enough already, the dwarves send him alone into the bowels of the Lonely Mountain to `burgle' something from the Dragon Smaug's lair. Bilbo pesters Smaug in perhaps the best part of the movie. Smaug (voiced by Richard Boone) is pretty full of himself and rather entertaining.

Having reclaimed the treasures of the Lonely Mountain, the dwarves are finally in proper armor and armed when the humans (who killed Smaug) and the Wood Elves (from whom they escaped thanks to Bilbo) arrive and demand a cut of the treasure. Thorin says no and plans to fight the two armies with his band of 14. Oh, that should work out well. Three more armies arrive before the battle so that it becomes the Battle of Five Armies. Bilbo demonstrates his wisdom by sitting on the sidelines with his invisibility ring and watching the carnage.

The movie is a bit short. It sometimes feels rushed and there are parts that are clunky, most notably the hostility of the elves since the scene of dwarves crashing the elf feast were cut out. The music is often terrible. There is a song (which is so 1970s that it hurts) that repeats throughout. It has the melancholy quality combined with epic daring which doesn't work well. Also, there are times when the music drowns out the dialogue. This is most notable when Bilbo talks to Thorin on his deathbed. I watched the scene twice and still didn't get what he said.

The artwork is just okay. It is odd to see the differences between Elrond and the Wood Elves. The Wood Elves are green-skinned, long-legged, claw-footed, German-accented drunkards. Don't seem elvish at all. Some of the dwarves looked more like gnomes.

I must say I far prefer Bilbo to Frodo. Bilbo is a daring adventurer who went there and back again; Frodo is a reluctant victim who stumbles along to be repeatedly saved by his companions. Frodo was whiny and woe is me. Bilbo was can do. Really, there is no comparison between the two. I remember back when I first read the books that I would have preferred that Bilbo had gone instead of Frodo.