Looking back on the first The Hobbit movie made by Peter Jackson there’s much to love, although the film is flawed. Still, I’d argue compared to the deluge of slop and tripe that’s been released in the last several years and is likely to keep coming, the movie and its sequels are worth enjoying.
Until recently, I hadn’t rewatched The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey since I first saw it on the premier day when it released back in 2012. I’ve read The Hobbit, the novel, well over thirty times since it’s one of my favorite books. In other words, I’m quite familiar with the source material for the film.
Just like with The Lord of the Rings movies, The Hobbit trilogy isn’t a strict retelling of the novel on the movie screen. Jackson added considerable additional items, some directly from if not inspired by other things Tolkien wrote, such as the appendix in Return of the King. For those only familiar with The Hobbit and not Tolkien’s other works, it might appear that Hollywood just made up new characters like Azog the Defiler and Radagast, but big Tolkien fans will balk at such assertions.
Also, the inclusion of the Necromancer might feel strange. While I’m not a huge fan of how that plays out in the movie, it’s not an invention of Peter Jackson.
I do love how Jackson took the time to give each of the thirteen dwarves his own personality and unique costume. They’re all well cast and while in the first movie we only get to know some of them well, from what I recall in the subsequent two films each one gets more screen time and character development.
Of course, the return to Middle Earth comes with all kinds of cinematic eye candy. It feels like there’s more CGI in this movie than in the LOTR films, something which I’m not wild about, although it’s not horrible. We’re awash in too much goofy CGI these days and I really miss all the cool, creative practical effects used in the past. Still, the CGI isn’t horrible in this movie, but it doesn’t hold up as well versus the LOTR trilogy.
The biggest thing that bothered me about The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey this time around, as well as the first time, is the film’s tone. Jackson tries to copy the more childish, silly tone from the source material, which I think is a good move. But that’s not the problem.
He also calls in thematic elements from the LOTR trilogy, affecting the overall tone. I’m sure the studio demanded that be done and I can see from a business perspective why. After all, the previous movies were wildly successful. But part of the reason why they did so well was the tone matched the source materials. It’s a mismatch with The Hobbit.
What you get is a degree of tone confusion. The Hobbit is a fun little story about Bilbo joining the dwarves and Gandalf to retake Erebor from Smaug the dragon. It’s a fairly light, entertaining novel older kids can enjoy. But Jackson keeps pumping in elements to make it more of an epic tale on the same level as The Lord of the Rings and it absolutely doesn’t work.
Some of that is done by making Azog the big bad in the movie. While I can see how that translates into greater storytelling cohesion for a film, which necessitates some narrative difference versus a novel, I don’t like that it takes some focus off the messaging from the novel that sometimes life itself can be the obstacle to reaching one’s goals. This problem of the focus being more on Azog is true only to an extent, with the Orc not being blamed for every last challenge, so it’s not a huge annoyance.
I have a few other small gripes, like how Thorin is a little more aggressive towards Bilbo than in the book. But my biggest complaint is how the chapter Riddles in the Dark where the hobbit finds the One Ring and meets Gollum gets hacked down in the name of time (how ironic) so Jackson can shoehorn in the extra stuff in the film’s narrative. That chapter in my opinion would translate into film perfectly, and it’s so iconic, so I don’t get why it had to be truncated and altered as it was. The result is that portion of the movie is good but not nearly as great as it should and could have been.
While I would give the LOTR trilogy an A+ grade, I would give The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey a B. It’s still a good film and definitely worth watching, if not owning (I own it now), but it wouldn’t make my top twenty all-time favorite movies.
Image via Warner Bros. Pictures
Steven Symes 