The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey

Nine years. Nine long years since we have returned to J.R.R. Tolkien's legendary Middle Earth, and this journey doesn't disappoint. Directed by Peter Jackson, The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey is the story about an extraordinary hobbit by the name Bilbo Baggins. Bilbo was once an average Hobbit. He liked to relax, eat good food, and smoke a lot of weed. But one fair morning he meets Gandalf the Grey who asks Bilbo to go on an adventure. While Bilbo declines at first, Gandalf doesn't take no for an answer. Gandalf leads a group of dwarfs to Bilbo, lead by the rightful king to the dwarfs, Thorin. Gandalf tells Bilbo how the dwarfs home was taken from them by a greedy dragon named Smaug. Gandalf is afraid that Smaug could be used by evil forces as a weapon, so him and the dwarfs convince Bilbo to accompany them as their burglar. But Bilbo soon finds out that he may not be cut out for all this. Being home sick and kind of an outcast from the rest of the dwarfs takes a heavy tole on Bilbo. He is used to a nice and comfortable life style, and being thrown into the real world isn't easy. So he has a lot of personal obstacles to over come and get out of his comfort zone. And along this trip he takes on trolls, goblins, and a formidable little foe by the name of Gollum. Gollum (AKA Smeagol) is a pivotal character in the Middle Earth saga, and that role is brought on by Bilbo Baggins. After he gets separated from the group of dwarfs, Bilbo ends up in a cavern with a strange creature named Gollum (who wants to eat Bilbo). So Gollum makes a wager, he agrees to help Bilbo out of the cave if he wins in a riddle contest. But if he loses Golem gets to eat him. And while this is going on Bilbo finds something interesting, a ring. And little does he know that years later that ring will determine the fate of Middle Earth. The Hobbit is a great movie. From the excellent performances from all the actors, the beautiful visuals and cinematography, an epic score, and the directing style we've come to know and love from Peter Jackson. It is a welcome return to a great universe, but that does not mean it is flawless. The first thing that bothered me was the opening sequence, it was very long. It takes about thirty or so minutes to get out of the Shire. None of the Lord of the Rings movie's openings felt to long. Another problem would be Radagast the Brown (one of the five wizards), his character annoyed me. He was a mushroom eating hippie with bird sh*t on his head. I feel like they could have done a better job with his character. And speaking about characters, that is actually my biggest complaint about the movie. With the Lord of the Rings, every character was relevant, important, had personality, and you cared about each one by the end of the first movie. With the Hobbit it is Bilbo, Gandalf, and Thorin, no other character is really relevant. And that is what is keeping this from getting a perfect score. Is The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey as good as any of the Lord of the Rings movies? Not even close, but it is a damn fine film that every one should see. 4/5

Note: I saw the Hobbit in 3D at 48 frames per second (compared to the usual 24 fps we see in film). I thought the movie looked good and I will say that it looked very smooth with some great 3D. But I actually would recommend seeing it in the usual 24 fps. I feel like seeing it at 48 fps took me out of the experience because I was focusing on the frame rate. I don't think it looked bad by any means (although it did look like it was moving in fast forward at times). I would suggest you see it in the conventional 24 fps first, and if you really want you should see it in 48 fps just for the experience.