The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey Review | An Adventure Worth Taking

<p>After the unprecedented success of <i>The Lord of the Rings<&sol;i> trilogy&comma; adapting <i>The Hobbit<&sol;i> into a film must have seemed like a daunting task to Peter Jackson and company&period; Not only because there was a lot of hype and pressure to live up to&comma;  but also because <i>The Hobbit<&sol;i> isn&&num;8217&semi;t as rich in lore and back-story as The <i>Lord of the Rings&period; <&sol;i>Less to work with could easily translate to a less interesting film and anything less than superb may seem like a disappointment after the success of the original trilogy&period; All these factors&comma; coupled with some early grumblings by other critics&comma; left me a wee bit apprehensive as I sat in the theater&comma; waiting for the movie to start&period; I&&num;8217&semi;m happy to say though&comma; that as soon as the credits began to roll at the end&comma; I thought to myself that I would have gladly sat through the next two installments right then and there&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>&nbsp&semi;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<figure id&equals;"attachment&lowbar;33408" aria-describedby&equals;"caption-attachment-33408" style&equals;"width&colon; 959px" class&equals;"wp-caption aligncenter"><a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;bagogames&period;com&sol;the-hobbit-movie-review&sol;tumblr&lowbar;lwj9wcwotp1qjaa1to1&lowbar;1280&sol;" rel&equals;"attachment wp-att-33408"><img class&equals;"size-full wp-image-33408" src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;cdn&period;bagogames&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2012&sol;12&sol;06071318&sol;tumblr&lowbar;lwj9wcwoTp1qjaa1to1&lowbar;1280&period;jpg" alt&equals;"tumblr&lowbar;lwj9wcwoTp1qjaa1to1&lowbar;1280" width&equals;"959" height&equals;"509" &sol;><&sol;a><figcaption id&equals;"caption-attachment-33408" class&equals;"wp-caption-text">Bilbo&&num;8230&semi; meet Sting&period; Your new best friend<&sol;figcaption><&sol;figure>&NewLine;<p>Splitting <i>The Hobbit<&sol;i> into three films may have seemed like a strange decision from the outset&period; After all&comma; it is itself a shorter book than any one of the entries in <i>The Lord of the Rings<&sol;i> trilogy&period; After watching the first installment of the planned trilogy for <i>The Hobbit<&sol;i> however&comma; the advantages of splitting it up are immediately apparent&period; Tolkien fans who were upset about the omissions made to the first trilogy will find a lot to be happy about here&period; Splitting the book into three films allows for far more storytelling and a deeper look into the characters and their plight&period; A movie about a bunch of dwarves going to fight a dragon is a bit of a tough sell but the more time we have to get to know these characters&comma; the more audiences are going to care about them&period; I know that I felt more emotionally attached to the story than I ever have&comma; even after reading the book several times&period; The three movie decision has also allowed for more direct book-to-script dialogue&period; There were several scenes that were word-for-word translations of conversations in the book and as a fan&comma; it was a treat to see these scenes played out while knowing that much of it wouldn&&num;8217&semi;t have made it into the finished product had this been a one film deal&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<figure id&equals;"attachment&lowbar;33406" aria-describedby&equals;"caption-attachment-33406" style&equals;"width&colon; 650px" class&equals;"wp-caption aligncenter"><a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;bagogames&period;com&sol;the-hobbit-movie-review&sol;goblin-king&sol;" rel&equals;"attachment wp-att-33406"><img class&equals;"size-full wp-image-33406" src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;cdn&period;bagogames&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2012&sol;12&sol;06071340&sol;goblin-king&period;jpg" alt&equals;"goblin-king" width&equals;"650" height&equals;"366" &sol;><&sol;a><figcaption id&equals;"caption-attachment-33406" class&equals;"wp-caption-text">The Goblin King is both disgusting and hilarious<&sol;figcaption><&sol;figure>&NewLine;<p>Acting is&comma; as expected&comma; brilliant from top to bottom&period; Martin Freeman is a perfect choice to play the fish-out-of-water hobbit&period; Much like actors such as Elijah Wood and Viggo Mortensen before him&comma; he has quickly cemented himself as the only actor you&&num;8217&semi;d ever want to see play Bilbo &lpar;except of course for Sir Ian Holm who makes a cameo as older Bilbo&rpar;&period; The rest of the newcomers are just as good&period; Sylvester McCoy gives an over-the-top turn as the slightly loopy Radagast the Brown in a performance that in lesser hands&comma; could have been too silly&comma; but here&comma; it works beautifully&period; Thorin&comma; the dwarf leader&comma; is a role that needed to be cast very carefully and Richard Armitage embodies absolutely every aspect of Thorin Oakenshield with stoic determination&period; In fact&comma; all of the dwarves are perfectly cast&period; Being that there are thirteen of them&comma; it&&num;8217&semi;s understandable that you don&&num;8217&semi;t get to know all of them intimately the first go round but some of them have a few moments to shine such as Ken Stott&&num;8217&semi;s brilliant performance as the legendary Balin and James Nesbitt&&num;8217&semi;s hilarious turn as the fun loving Bofur&period; All of the returning cast is&comma; of course&comma; in top form&period; Sir Ian McKellen&comma; who at this point can hardly be separated from the image of Gandalf&comma; is beyond description as he embodies the very essence of the old wizard&period; Gollum&&num;8217&semi;s appearance&comma; too brief as it is&comma; is once again knocked out of the park by Andy Serkis in the iconic first meeting between Gollum and Bilbo which becomes one of the best scenes in the movie&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>I think what most impressed about this movie though&comma; is that Peter Jackson has taken what is basically a children&&num;8217&semi;s book and successfully blended it into the darker story that he brought to the screen in <i>The Lord of the Rings<&sol;i> trilogy&period; There are&comma; to be sure&comma; far more light-hearted moments in this movie &lpar;as there should be&rpar; but it never seemed like a separate world from his original trilogy&period; There are several darker moments too though&comma; such as the introduction of the Necromancer who will eventually become you-know who&comma; and the cameo from the Ringwraith&&num;8217&semi;s&period; Also&comma; the battle between the dwarves and orcs in which Azog the Defiler wreaks his havoc is as dark and disturbing as anything from <i>The Lord of the Rings <&sol;i>films&period; With all that taken into account though&comma; this is still a more light-hearted film than the others&period; You really get the sense while watching this movie that you are experiencing the world that you know and love&comma; but experiencing it while it is still largely innocent and untouched by the evil that you know will eventually attempt to cover it&period; It&&num;8217&semi;s a testament to the talent of the filmmakers that they have been able to bring audiences back into a world that can seem so familiar and yet&comma; so different at the same time&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<figure id&equals;"attachment&lowbar;33405" aria-describedby&equals;"caption-attachment-33405" style&equals;"width&colon; 1920px" class&equals;"wp-caption aligncenter"><a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;bagogames&period;com&sol;the-hobbit-movie-review&sol;16gloin&sol;" rel&equals;"attachment wp-att-33405"><img class&equals;"size-full wp-image-33405" src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;cdn&period;bagogames&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2012&sol;12&sol;06071353&sol;16gloin&period;jpg" alt&equals;"16gloin" width&equals;"1920" height&equals;"816" &sol;><&sol;a><figcaption id&equals;"caption-attachment-33405" class&equals;"wp-caption-text">Hey&comma; look&excl; It&&num;8217&semi;s Gimli&&num;8217&semi;s dad&excl;<&sol;figcaption><&sol;figure>&NewLine;<p>To compliment the top-notch acting and sure-handed direction is the soundtrack which has once again been given to us courtesy of the always fantastic&comma; Howard Shore&period; His Oscar winning soundtrack for the <i>Lord of the Rings <&sol;i>trilogy was sweeping and beautiful and he has once again brought his A-game to <i>The Hobbit<&sol;i>&period; There&&num;8217&semi;s a decent mix of new music written for this new trilogy&comma; as well as plenty of returning themes any fan of the films will recognize&period; An audio treat in every sense of the word&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>At this point I feel as though I may be just gushing&period; I am what many refer to as a &&num;8216&semi;Ringer&&num;8217&semi;&comma; which is a term to indicate someone who is obsessed with all things Middle Earth&period; Knowing that might help someone to understand why I love this movie so much but to assume that it&&num;8217&semi;s the only reason would be a disservice to this fantastic film&period; This is movie-making magic at its best and it&&num;8217&semi;s a film that should be experienced by everyone&period; If I had to level a complaint against it&comma; I suppose it would have to be that we have to wait a year to see the next installment&period; Until then though&comma; we can enjoy the first entry into what will undoubtedly be another fantastic film trilogy based on the greatest fantasy fiction that has ever been put on paper&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><strong>Best movie or greatest movie ever&quest; Tell us in the comments section below&period;<&sol;strong><&sol;p>&NewLine;