{"id":5893,"date":"2012-12-18T05:13:42","date_gmt":"2012-12-18T05:13:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.hotnerdgirl.com\/?p=5893"},"modified":"2024-02-28T17:08:51","modified_gmt":"2024-02-28T17:08:51","slug":"the-hobbit-an-unexpected-journey-reviewed","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.hotnerdgirl.com\/index.php\/2012\/12\/18\/the-hobbit-an-unexpected-journey-reviewed\/","title":{"rendered":"The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey Reviewed"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

I\u2019m ready Gandalf, let\u2019s go on an adventure!<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

I really need to stop burning the candle at both ends. I woke up Sunday morning with a horrible sore throat and a pounding headache that is making my head feel like it weighs about 800 lbs. But nothing was going to keep me from seeing\u00a0The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey.\u00a0<\/i>\u00a0Nothing. So I opted to see it in 2D because of my head. I\u2019ll go back and see it in 3D once I\u2019m feeling better.<\/p>\n

WARNING:<\/strong>\u00a0I geek out a bit so expect spoilers. But really, y\u2019all should have read the books so I really shouldn\u2019t be spoiling anything for you.<\/p>\n

[youtube:http:\/\/youtu.be\/nOGsB9dORBg]<\/p>\n

\u2013<\/p>\n

The movie takes us through the first 6 chapters of\u00a0The Hobbit or There and Back Again\u00a0<\/i>by JRR Tolkien which means that it took them just under 3 hours to get through approximately 100 pages of a children\u2019s novel.\u00a0 I\u2019ve been arguing since 1999 that\u00a0The<\/i>\u00a0Lord of the Rings\u00a0<\/i>should have been six movies instead of three. People who haven\u2019t read\u00a0The Lord of the Rings\u00a0<\/i>might not know that it\u2019s actually six books in three parts. The movies were great, I can\u2019t even count how many times I\u2019ve watched them, but they would have been even greater had they been able to stretch out a bit more. Cuts had to be made, like Tom Bombadil, and that\u2019s fine but a bit sad for those of us who love the books.\u00a0The Hobbit\u00a0<\/i>\u00a0could probably have been done in two movies as opposed to three, but I, for one, am glad that they aren\u2019t limiting themselves this time around. It means less changes while they try to squeeze in major plot points. They do still make a few changes, which I\u2019ll mention later, but it\u2019s mostly additions that I didn\u2019t mind.<\/p>\n

It starts much like\u00a0The Fellowship of the Ring<\/i>\u00a0did, with a back story setting up the adventure that\u2019s about to happen. In this case, it\u2019s the story of how the House of Durin discovered and claimed Erebor, or The Lonely Mountain, as their home. Erebor is pretty rad. It\u2019s got a ton of precious gems and metals and giant hammers that come down from the ceiling and slam together to make golden blocks of something kick ass. They also have the Arkenstone, which is basically like the greatest diamond ever found, second only to the Silmarils (which were made, but that\u2019s a different story). King Thr\u00f3r, or as I now like to think of him, the Dwarf with the Awesome Beard Bling, becomes so obsessed with his wealth that he starts going a bit batty. His Grandson, Thorin, is the only one who seems to notice this but says nothing. Apparently, insanity attracts evil because one day Smaug, a Fire-drake (or Uruloki) left over from the days of Morgoth, decides that Thr\u00f3r\u2019s treasure would make a mighty fine mattress. *Totally random side note \u2013 maybe it\u2019s because of my life-long obsession with Norse mythology, but did anyone else ever notice that a UruLOKI stole everything from someone named THrOR?<\/p>\n

But I digress.<\/p>\n

There are a few things that are different from the book; for example, the way in which Bilbo decides to join the adventure at the last minute, the whole Radagast part, the way the Dwarves leave Rivendell, the Orc hunting party, the scuffle with Azog during the burning trees bit, the way the group finds themselves in the hall of the Great Goblin. But you know what? None of that bothered me. Because they are splitting the book into three parts, they are able to keep the storyline line almost entirely intact. Unlike with\u00a0The Lord of the Rings<\/i>\u00a0trilogy in which they had to cut a lot of my favorite parts out and therefore, modify parts to make it all flow. Which they did quite nicely considering it had to be squeezed into such short films (yes, I said short).<\/p>\n

Let\u2019s explore the characters, shall we?<\/p>\n

Bilbo Baggins<\/strong><\/p>\n

The first time I saw\u00a0Martin Freeman\u00a0was when he was playing Tim in the original British version of\u00a0The Office\u00a0<\/i>\u00a0and I remember thinking, how can you not love this guy?? What is wrong with you Dawn! GO GET HIM!! (If you haven\u2019t seen it, you really need to, it\u2019s brilliant).\u00a0Steven Moffat\u00a0once said that Freeman has a way of making \u201cordinary people fascinating. He finds the poetry in just being ordinary, and that\u2019s an extraordinary gift.\u201d And it\u2019s true. When I found out that Freeman would be playing Bilbo I literally sqee\u2019d. It\u2019s like he was born for this role. He is, quite simply, a revelation. And I don\u2019t say that lightly. Every word, every movement, every mannerism is perfect. It\u2019s lovely to see\u00a0Ian Holm\u00a0on the morning of his birthday party at the beginning of the film but I couldn\u2019t wait until they went back to 60 years prior and the introduction of Freeman as Bilbo. Right from the get go his performance is charming and emotionally gratifying. Even when he\u2019s covered in Troll snot. When Galadriel asks Gandalf why he brought Bilbo along he\u2019s baffled and haltingly replies \u201cWhy Bilbo Baggins? Perhaps it\u2019s because I am afraid and he gives me courage.\u201d Indeed, Bilbo is simultaneously the mascot, the cheerleader, the little brother and, in many ways, the most capable member of the group, all of which the Dwarves slowly begin to realize the closer they get to Erebor. One of the minor alterations made by Peter Jackson is the way in which Bilbo tries on the ring for the first time. Instead of just slipping it on like he did in the book, they decided to mirror it with Frodo\u2019s first time by having Bilbo trip and fall. As the ring flies through the air, IT makes the decision to slide onto Bilbo\u2019s finger.<\/p>\n

Gandalf<\/strong><\/p>\n

Speaking of people who were born to play a role, the same could be said about\u00a0Ian McKellen\u00a0and the role of Gandalf the Grey. He\u2019s here in all his pointy grey-hatted glory. One of the biggest differences between the book and the film is the way that the Dwarves leave Rivendell. In the book they depart with Elrond\u2019s blessing on ponies packed with provisions that he has provided. In the movie they slip away in the middle of the night while Gandalf distracts Elrond, Galadriel and Saruman with a Morgul blade and tales of the Necromancer. As per usual, he saves the day on more than one occasion, the most notable of which is with a repeat of Gandalf the\u00a0Moth Whisperer\u00a0from\u00a0LOTR: The Fellowship of the Ring.\u00a0<\/i>But the best example of Gandalf\u2019s magic? The fact that he never loses his hat. For real, it\u2019s like it\u2019s sewn onto his head.<\/p>\n

Thorin<\/strong><\/p>\n

I never understood why Marian went for Robin instead of Guy of Gisbourne. I mean seriously, just look at\u00a0Richard Armitage, the guy (heehee) is drop dead. I first saw him in the BBC mini-series\u00a0North & South.\u00a0<\/i>\u00a0Which you should totally watch if you\u2019re at all into British period drama\u2026which I totally am.\u00a0North & South\u00a0<\/i>\u00a0is my favorite of all the ones I\u2019ve seen and I\u2019ve seen pretty much every one that Netflix has to offer. Then, of course, he was Gisbourne in the BBC series\u00a0Robin Hood.<\/i>\u00a0A show that I found totally hokey at first but that I ended up being completely addicted to. Seriously dudes, the end of the final episode made me cry the ugly cry. Twice. Armitage has a tendency to play brooding characters and Thorin Oakenshield, the King in exile, is no different. He\u2019s stubborn but magnetic and majestic for a Dwarf. If you\u2019re an Armitage fan like I am, you\u2019ll be thrilled by the countless close-ups of Thorin with his hair blowing in the wind. No joke, they pop up about every 10 minutes or so. Let me tell you, he has nailed the art of gazing just to the right of the camera and looking all inspirational and stuff.<\/p>\n

The Dwarves<\/strong><\/p>\n

This jovial band of brothers and cousins is filled primarily with relatively unknown actors from New Zealand and Great Britain, there is one that you might recognize, not only because he starred in another favorite BBC series of mine, but also because the makeup people just couldn\u2019t seem to bring themselves to cover up such hotness and he\u2019s got the least amount of prosthetics of any of the dwarves. I\u2019m referring, of course, to\u00a0Aidan Turner, our favorite tormented vampire from\u00a0Being Human<\/i>\u00a0who plays Kili. The only other name I even recognized was\u00a0Graham McTavish\u00a0and that\u2019s mostly because of my love for gratuitous violence. There are a couple of stand outs though. One being Balin (spoiler alert: the Fellowship finds his tomb when they\u2019re walking through Moria) played by\u00a0Ken Stott. Stott does a masterful job of being a wise and calming influence for Thorin.\u00a0 If you\u2019re not a Tolkienite, it can be easy to miss Gl\u00f3in\u00a0son of\u00a0Gr\u00f3in (bottom right in the picture collage). He doesn\u2019t feature prominently in either the book or the movie, but he\u2019s notable in that he is Gimli\u2019s Daddy. Gimli, of course, being the\u00a0sole Dwarf\u00a0in the Fellowship of the Ring. As a whole they provide some very memorable and chuckle-worthy moments, including a burping contest and a kitchen clean-up job the likes of which have not been seen onscreen since\u00a0Beauty and the Beast.<\/i>\u00a0\u201cBlunt the Knives,\u201d the comical clean up song, is quickly followed by a haunting rendition of \u201cMisty Mountains.\u201d Both songs are in the book and it\u2019s highly satisfying to actually hear them for once. Many of the songs in the book get left out of the film, but the ones that are scored are brilliant.<\/p>\n

Radagast<\/strong><\/p>\n

I think that Peter Jackson felt guilty about leaving Radagast out of\u00a0The Lord of the Rings<\/i>\u00a0because he made the part of Radagast the Brown much, much bigger in\u00a0The Hobbit.\u00a0<\/i>In fact, if I remember correctly, I think he\u2019s only mentioned in\u00a0The Hobbit.\u00a0<\/i>You probably know\u00a0Sylvester McCoy\u00a0best as the\u00a0seventh incarnation of the Doctor\u00a0(the one who got his wardrobe cues from\u00a0The Riddler). As one of the five\u00a0Istari\u00a0or Wizards of Middle Earth, Radagast is the one who is utterly obsessed with animals. He has virtually no contact with other humanoids and names the animals of the forest he protects. He even lets birds nest under his hat and crap down the side of his face. This is both hysterical and disgusting. He\u2019s got a sled pulled by Rhosgobel rabbits who can outrun Wargs and, according to a disdainful Saruman, he eats lots of shrooms. Jackson uses Radagast to introduce the Necromancer. If you\u2019ve read the books then you know who the Necromancer is, but just in case you haven\u2019t, I\u2019m not going to spoil it here.<\/p>\n

Gollum<\/strong><\/p>\n

Along the treacherous road to Erebor, the company stumbles on three Trolls. After defeating them by allowing the dawn to turn them to stone, Gandalf and company find the Troll\u2019s cave and three very important swords, Orcrist the Goblin Cleaver, Glamdring the Foe-Hammer, and Sting. When Gandalf hands Sting to a reluctant Bilbo he encourages the Hobbit by telling him that \u201ctrue courage is not knowing when to take a life, but when to spare one.\u201d If you\u2019ve seen\u00a0The Fellowship of the Ring<\/i>,\u00a0<\/i>then you know that Gandalf alludes to this moment when he scolds Frodo for wishing that Bilbo had killed Gollum when he had the chance. Gandalf replies, \u201cPity?\u00a0It was pity that stayed Bilbo\u2019s hand. Many that live deserve death. Some that die deserve life. Can you give it to them, Frodo? Do not be too eager to deal out death in judgment. Even the very wise cannot see all ends. My heart tells me that Gollum has some part to play yet, for good or ill before this is over. The pity of Bilbo may rule the fate of many.\u201d\u00a0Andy Serkis\u00a0returns as the strangely loveable\u00a0Stoor, Smeagol, in a performance that defies explanation. How someone can talk in that voice for that long is beyond me. Serkis mentioned on\u00a0The Colbert Report<\/em>\u00a0that the \u201cRiddles in the Dark\u201d scenes were the first to be filmed. You\u2019d never know it. It seems as though he and Freeman have been at it for ages.<\/p>\n

Thranduil<\/strong><\/p>\n

I don\u2019t know if\u00a0Lee Pace\u00a0got a new agent or what, but he has certainly been making the movie rounds lately. His adorkable face is showing up in the most random places. If you\u2019re like me your first exposure to Pace was\u00a0Pushing Daisies,\u00a0<\/i>\u00a0a brilliant and gorgeously shot TV series about a man who can bring people back to life with a touch, but if he touches them a second time they are dead for good. Then I didn\u2019t see him for a few years and I couldn\u2019t help but wonder what had happened to him. Then 2012 rolls around and he\u2019s suddenly in the last\u00a0Twilight\u00a0<\/i>movie,\u00a0Lincoln,<\/i>\u00a0and now\u00a0The Hobbit\u00a0<\/i>\u00a0trilogy as none other than the Elvenking Thranduil (aka\u00a0Legolas\u2019 Daddy). I gotta admit, his looks are very Elvish and even though the extent of his part in\u00a0An Unexpected Journey<\/i>\u00a0involves him riding a giant moose and cocking his head to one side while looking bemused, I know from past experience that he\u2019s a great actor. I look forward to seeing more of him in\u00a0The Desolation of Smaug<\/i>\u00a0in which he\u2019ll play a much bigger role.<\/p>\n

The White Council \u2013 Elrond\/Galadriel\/Saruman<\/strong><\/p>\n

There are a few people on this Earth who are chosen by a higher power to be a part of multiple nerdtastic franchises.\u00a0Mark Sheppard\u00a0is one,\u00a0Benedict Cumberbatch\u00a0is quickly becoming another, and they are ruled over by\u00a0Hugo Weaving. As Elrond, he helps the Dwarves discover hidden text on Thror\u2019s Map written in Moon-letters, the Middle-earth equivalent of invisible ink. He brings his usual gravitas to the role. Galadriel shouldn\u2019t even be in this movie but I can\u2019t say I blame Peter Jackson for doing it. I can seriously watch\u00a0Cate Blanchett\u00a0and her pre-raphaelite hair all day long. Sheesh she\u2019s pertiful. Also, she has mastered the art of the\u00a0dress swirl. You know, where she\u2019s standing with her back to you and then she smoothly spins around to face you which causes her dress to do an awesome swirly thing that is the envy of brides everywhere. Saruman is only mentioned in\u00a0The Hobbit<\/i>\u00a0when Gandalf is describing his fellow Istari (there are also two mysterious Blue Wizards who journeyed to the East after being brought to Middle-earth) but again, why pass up a chance to watch\u00a0Christopher Lee?? The White Council\u2019s surprise regarding the Necromancer is yet another variation from the book but I\u2019m not going to get into that here because this review is getting crazy long as it is.<\/p>\n

Lindir aka Aegnor aka Figwit<\/strong><\/p>\n

Way back in 2001 a random elf showed up\u00a0next to Elrond\u00a0at the Council in\u00a0The Fellowship of the Ring<\/i>.<\/i>\u00a0He didn\u2019t appear for long and ended up becoming affectionately known by fans as \u201cFigwit.\u201d The name came from three people who worked on the film who remarked in the commentary \u201cFrodo Is Great, Who Is That??\u201d Voila! F.I.G.W.I.T. was born. His popularity and the mystery surrounding him grew so much that Peter Jackson brought back the young brunette elf and gave him a speaking part. He became Arwen\u2019s Elf Escort and called after her when she ran away and\u00a0returned to the\u2026uhmmm\u2026well, King. Nearly 10 years later, Figwit shows up in\u00a0The Hobbit<\/i>\u00a0as Elrond\u2019s representative and he\u2019s got an actual name this time, Lindir (he was randomly dubbed Aegnor, aka one of Galdriel\u2019s brothers, in a card game tied in with the trilogy). Then it hits me like a ton of bricks. OMFG, it\u2019s\u00a0Bret McKenzie\u00a0from\u00a0Flight of the Conchords.\u00a0<\/i>I have no excuse as to why I didn\u2019t realize it was him in the bazillion times I\u2019ve watched the\u00a0LOTR\u00a0<\/i>triology since\u00a0Conchords<\/i>\u00a0came out other then the fact that I\u2019ve never seen someone look so different without beard stubble. Turns out\u00a0The Fellowship of the Ring<\/i>\u00a0was Bret\u2019s big break and he\u2019s the son of the guy who played Elendil (Aragorn\u2019s\u00a089-great-grandpa). Just thought you should know.<\/p>\n

The Baddies \u2013 Azog\/The Great Goblin<\/strong><\/p>\n

Azog (aka the Pale Orc) played by\u00a0Manu Bennett,\u00a0should not be a contemporary character in this movie. Period. He does belong in the flashback of the\u00a0Battle of Azanulbizar\u00a0and he did behead Thror, but that was way prior to the climactic battle which he did not survive. He was beheaded by\u00a0D\u00e1in, a cousin of Thorin\u2019s. The Great Goblin Chieftain of the Misty Mountains played by\u00a0Barry Humphries\u00a0does belong, however. He is killed by Gandalf (albeit much earlier in the book than in the movie) and it\u2019s his death that spurs Azog\u2019s son Bolg, the Goblin King of Moria, to confront the Dwarves at Erebor in what becomes known as The Battle of the Five Armies (which you will see in Part 3\u00a0There and Back Again<\/i>).<\/p>\n

The movie ends with the thrush (if you\u2019ve read the book then you\u2019ll know what that signifies) and that\u2019s all I\u2019m going to say. Overall, the movie is far more mature than the book. Peter Jackson manages to adapt a children\u2019s novel into something that fits in seamlessly with the\u00a0Lord of the Rings<\/em>\u00a0trilogy he started working on nearly 15 years ago. The cinematography is stunning and the\u00a0wide shots\u00a0of the New Zealand landscape are, quite simply, breathtaking. It\u2019s a beautiful film and it needs to be seen on the big screen.<\/p>\n

4.5 out of 5 Sci-Fives!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I\u2019m ready Gandalf, let\u2019s go on an adventure! I really need to stop burning the candle at both ends. I woke up Sunday morning with a horrible sore throat and a pounding headache that is making my head feel like it weighs about 800 lbs. But nothing was going to keep me from seeing\u00a0The Hobbit: […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[5,28,11],"tags":[52,68,69,93,98,115,134,167,188,295,325,347,355,377,382,385,387,391,442,446,452,523,538,546,572,576,587,595,622,682,739,770,787,826,863,927,961,992,997,998],"class_list":["post-5893","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-fantasy","category-movie","category-reviews","tag-aiden-turner","tag-an-unexpected-journey","tag-andy-serkis","tag-azog","tag-balin","tag-bilbo-baggins","tag-bret-mckenzie","tag-cate-blanchett","tag-christopher-lee","tag-elrond","tag-figwit","tag-galadriel","tag-gandalf","tag-gimli","tag-gloin","tag-gollum","tag-graham-mctavish","tag-great-goblin","tag-hot-nerd-girl","tag-hugo-weaving","tag-ian-mckellen","tag-jrr-tolkien","tag-ken-stott","tag-kili","tag-lee-pace","tag-legolas","tag-lindir","tag-lord-of-the-rings","tag-martin-freeman","tag-necromancer","tag-peter-jackson","tag-radagast","tag-richard-armitage","tag-saruman","tag-smeagol","tag-sylvester-mccoy","tag-the-hobbit","tag-there-and-back-again","tag-thorin-oakenshield","tag-thranduil"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hotnerdgirl.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5893","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hotnerdgirl.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hotnerdgirl.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hotnerdgirl.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hotnerdgirl.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5893"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.hotnerdgirl.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5893\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hotnerdgirl.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5893"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hotnerdgirl.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5893"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hotnerdgirl.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5893"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}