revjohn
An Unexpected Journey or How Peter Jackson turned one reasonably small book into three huge movies with spoilers.
Posted on: 12/17/2012 15:53
Hi All,
We are recently back from The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey. And we quite enjoyed it didn't we precious? Oh yes, we did.
The film opens with a brief exchange between Ian Holm and Elijah Wood reprising their roles as Bilbo and Frodo Baggins respectively. And it occupies a moment in time just prior to the opening of The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring and ends with Frodo runing off to meet Gandalf who is coming to help Bilbo celebrate his Eleventy first birthday.
Flashback begins and
Suddenly Ian Holm is Martin Freeman as a much younger (60 years younger) Bilbo Baggins taken very much by surprise by the Grey Wizard Gandalf. Brief conversation ensures during which Bilbo is very uncomfortable and Gandalf is somewhat critical.
Bilbo flees to the safety of his Hobbit hole to avoid further interaction with Gandalf. The wizard scratches a rune into the fresh green paint and much hilarity ensues.
Most of which surrounds Bilbo hosting the company of Dwarves who arrive in dribs and drabs at his door. A delightful scene of the Dwarves tossing about Bilbo's flatware while singing "That's What Bilbo Baggins Hates" was stunningly done and a great delight to watch (even in 2D).
A pounding on the door signifies the arrival of the Dwarven King Thorin Oakenshield who wears the weight of the world heavily and somewhat awkwardly on his shoulders.
As the evening progresses there are several moments where Bilbo finds out that he has been presented to the Dwarves as an expert burglar. Gandalf is apparently the source of this grossly inaccurate rumour. Bilbo is greatly alarmed to find out that he has been implicated in a scheme to retake Ereborf from the Dragon Smaug for which he will be awarded 1 14th share of total plunder minus expenses incurred along the way (Which hardly seems fair the way the Dwarves decimated his pantry).
Bilbo faints at the prospect of being scorched by Smaug awakens to overhear the Dwarven King openly scoffing at the notion that Bilbo would be a help. Listens to another Dwarven song about the fall of Erebor, argues with Gandalf some and then pads off to sleep.
Awakening the next day he finds Gandalf and the Dwarves gone, decides he wants the adventure and sets out in pursuit. Gandalf and the Dwarves are thrilled that he wants to accompany them. Thorin scoffs some more.
At camp that night the tale is told of how Thorin Oakenshield came by his, er, oaken shield and how he and orcs do not get along at all well.
Trolls capture the party, save for Gandalf who wandered off somewhere for reasons of his own and Frodo, overhearing that sunlight will turn the trolls to stone, attempts to stall for time by offering the Trolls instructions on how to properly cook a Dwarf. The ruse works and the trolls are turned to stone.
Thorin scoffs some more at Bilbo's uselessness. Gandalf points out that Bilbo was the only one who thought to stall for time and what a fortuitous plan it was. Thorin broods, the rest of the Dwarves grow in their fondness for the Hobbit. The trolls treasure cave is ransacked and three elvish blades are recovered. Gandalf keeps the sword Glamdring, Thorin keeps the sword, Orcrist and Gandalf offers an elvish dagger to Bilbo.
Bilbo is reluctant to take the weapon, he wouldn't know how to use it. Gandalf is firm and gentle with him at the same time. It is the first moment of real beauty in the film (which says a lot because the New Zeland scenery is spectacular.) "True courage," counsels the wizard, "is not about about knowing when to take a life, but when to spare one"
From there we get a scene with Radaghast the brown wizard, one of Gandalf's fellow Istari. Who is a very amusing fellow. Radaghast brings some unwelcome knowledge regarding the necromancer by way of a flashback and an encounter with the spirit form of the Witch King of Angmar without all his Nazghul buddies.
A band of warg riders close on the Dwarves, Radaghast creates a diversion and the Dwarves find a cavern to tumble into just as an Elvish warband arrives and kills most of the warg riders.
This takes us to Rivendell and we find out why King Thorin likes Elves as much as he does Orcs. While at Rivendell we get to see a meeting of the White Council and some of the tension between Saruman and Gandalf. Having already seen where that leads we are not surprised to find Saruman to be oily.
We also get to watch as Elrond identifies the swords for Gandalf and Thorin, Bilbo gets excited to think that he too may have a famously named weapon. As he prepares to present it to Elrond for identification he is stopped by Gloin who states swords get names, not letter openers. Bilbo is crestfallen to realize that his sword is much too small to be an actual sword.
Taking their leave from Rivendell the party blunders into the middle of a fight between rock giants which was quite a spectacle. Thorin is forced to save Bilbo who nearly falls to an untimely demise. This gives Thorin another opportunity to belittle the Hobbit.
Taking refuge in a cave the party falls asleep. Bilbo, convinced that he is not fit to be with the party decides to leave without a word. Bofur, on watch challenges him which leads to a very touching scene in which Freeman is wonderful, as is James Nesbitt as Bofur. The theme of their conversation is home-sickness and the longing each has for their own home. Bilbo is shamed when reminded that he at least has a home to go to, Bofur's home was stolen by Smaug. I think that this was the second most beautiful moment in the movie.
Then there is a Goblin ambush, Bilbo is separated, fights a goblin all on his own and meets with Gollum. The riddle scene just after Bilbo finds the one ring was amazingly well done. The Great Goblin, played by Barry Humphries (Dame Edna) is wonderfully revolting. Gandalf arrives in time to rescue the Dwarves. Bilbo, now wearing the ring and completely invisible is cut off from Gandalf and the fleeing Dwarves by Gollum. Approaching the wretched creature from behind Bilbo considers using his sword to put an end to Gollum when pity stays his hand. Jumping past Gollum, Bilbo joins the Dwarves outside and due to being rendered invisible by the One Ring he overhears Thorin once more denounce his participation in the whole adventure.
Suddenly warg riders are back on the trail of the Dwarves and they are forced to climb trees to escape, there is a desperate fight, Thorin Oakenshield meets the Orc Azog who had beheaded his father some years earlier. Ummmmmmm nope. Thrain was blinded not beheaded and Dain Ironfoot slew Azog. Artistic license? I guess. It does set up a scene where Bilbo tackles an orc about to behead Thorin just as Gwaihir and his Eagles arrive.
And a later heartfelt apology from Thorin to Bilbo is cheese. I gave it the bronze medal in beautiful moments.
And with the party standing precariously on a rocky spire they survey the lonely mountain on the horizon and Mirkwood between them and their goal.
And that is it for the first installment.
Because of time constraints we could only catch a 2D viewing. My son and I plan to go back next weekend to catch the 3D version. The Dwarven song at Bilbo's with all the plates and cups and bowls flying about will be a treat and we expect that as revolting as the Great Goblin was in 2D he will be much more so in 3D.
My wife couldn't figure out why Radaghast was necessary. They had to haul in quite a bit of material from the unfinished tales to make it worthwhile and of course, that is really to forshadow the events from the Lord of the Rings which we have already seen.
Ian Mckellen is a treat as Gandalf and all of the Dwarves are great fun as comic relief.
Tolkien's story touches heart strings (mine at any rate the rest of the family didn't seem to have the same tender spots I had). Not as dark and dreary as any of the Lord of the Rings films, though as a children's book the tone should be lighter.
All told it was an enoyable afternoon.
Grace and peace to you.
John
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Comments
Mendalla
Posted on: 12/17/2012 17:26
Thanks for the movie review, John. I've been waffling on whether to see it so I'm glad to have an opinion from someone I know rather than a professional critic. I love The Hobbit but I'm also a fan of the old Rankin-Bass cartoon which actually did a good job of the story even if the animation isn't really current standard. My brain is still having problems wrapping itself around why Jackson is turning a novel that's the less a third the length of the Lord of the Rings into an LOTR style epic. There's a really good movie in The Hobbit, maybe two if you include absolutely everything, but three?
I'll see what my son thinks. He's studying the novel in school right now and his class are supposed to get together sometime this week to see the movie (on their own, the teacher isn't allowed to do it as a field trip because of work-to-rule). OTOH, he's odd where fiction is concerned. He's gone from being a huge Harry Potter and Percy Jackson fan (he first read The Hobbit after reading HP) to having no interest whatsoever in fantasy fiction (or fiction in general; he mostly reads political non-fiction right now). I, on the other hand, still regard fantasy as pretty much my favorite genre of fiction (I'm just starting to take another shot at A Song of Ice and Fire/A Game of Thrones though, as usual, it's hard to find time to focus on it).
Mendalla
SG
Posted on: 12/17/2012 17:35
This is on our agenda for the weekend.
revjohn
Posted on: 12/17/2012 21:23
Hi Mendalla,
There's a really good movie in The Hobbit, maybe two if you include absolutely everything, but three?
Yeah I thought so too.
Jackson is padding the Hobbit with bits and pieces from "The Unfinished Tales." I expect that is so one could start from The Hobbit movie 1 and progress through all of the Hobbit and LOTR movies and have the story down pretty cold.
Throw in a few frenetic fight scenes and you can pad your time totals as well. I expect that the next movie will be Beorn through to the arrival at Dale on the Water and the final movie will be a Smaug spectacular.
This trilogy will not be as dense as the LOTR trilogy. The acting has been pretty stellar so far, the Dwarves have been a big treat. Apart from Serkis as Gollum the other motion picture actors have not been completely digitally hidden, which is a neat trick. You'd swear it was make-up because you can sense an actual face being the foundation for the effect.
Grace and peace to you.
John
carolla
Posted on: 12/17/2012 22:17
I'm looking forward to seeing it - maybe after the holidays - so I must admit I just scanned over most of your earlier post with details of the film. I too was very surprised to hear it's been transformed into three movies! I watched quite a few of Jackson's blog videos on the making of it etc - quite interesting to see some of the 'behind the scenes' stuff.
GordW
Posted on: 12/18/2012 19:04
I would say one movie would do justice to The Hobbit. And I may see these on DVD but will not be going to the theatre. I fell less and less in favour with Jackson's treatment of LOTR with each successive movie.
ANd for the record....Azog beheaded Thorin's Grandfather Thror (who had been the King of Erebor before Smaug came and drove them into exile) when Thror thought he would singlehandedly try and reclaim Kazhad-Dum. THen came the War of the Dwarves and the Orcs in which Thorin won his nickname and Dain killed Azog in the final battle.
Rowan
Posted on: 12/19/2012 17:26
I saw it the other day and I thought it was very well done. The movie didn't feel 'padded' to me. I am definitely eventually going to buy it when it comes out on DVD but I will wait to see if they release an extended version.
Mendalla
Posted on: 12/19/2012 19:31
I saw it the other day and I thought it was very well done. The movie didn't feel 'padded' to me. I am definitely eventually going to buy it when it comes out on DVD but I will wait to see if they release an extended version.
This is Peter "If I can extend it, I will" Jackson. A more cynical version might "If I can milk it for all it's worth, I will". The shock would be him not doing extended editions The Hobbit movies. However, he may wait until all three are out to release them.
Mendalla
revjohn
Posted on: 12/19/2012 21:36
If Peter actually gets around to filming "The Dam Busters" based on Guy Gibson's book "Enemy Coast Ahead" I wouldn't mind if he made that into a trilogy.
I think he could turn Tolkien's "Leaf by Niggle" into a tremendous feature length film.
trishcuit
Posted on: 12/20/2012 00:16
What I am wondering is this: If the Mayans are right, we will never get to see the Hobbit installation with the great and terrible Smaug. That is what I wanted to see.
Panentheism
Posted on: 12/23/2012 10:33
Took our grandchildren to the 3d - both are teenagers- and they liked it. But found it long. My wife who is a fan thought it too long. When I use to read this to my children I kept falling asleep, so found it new to me. But he needed a good editor - even the good scenes like the gathering went on too long. I agree with the critics - worth seeing but man three movies out of a small book when one movie would have worked.
Mendalla
Posted on: 12/24/2012 14:15
But he needed a good editor - even the good scenes like the gathering went on too long.
Same problem as his King Kong remake, then. Wonderful, beautiful looking movie. Great version of the story. Good script (for a summer popcorn movie). But there are some sequences that just went on and on and on long after they should have been resolved. The dinosaur fight where Kong takes on a pack of T-Rex-like carnosaurs could have been about half as long and would have had more impact if it was. Compare the equivalent scene in the 1931 version where Kong dispatches one T-Rex in about five minutes of screen time. Jackson is looking more and more like Lucas all the time. Great at story and vision, but needs someone else's hand on the tiller to reign in his excesses.
Mendalla
Elanorgold
Posted on: 12/29/2012 20:03
Hubby and I saw the film on boxing day and we also thought it was to long. Bottoms getting sore by the end, starting to get bored.
We enjoyed it, and had gripes about all the yukky ork stuff and amazing escapes, and the loss of it's childrens' storyness (not suitable for young kids, nor our 11 year old), and also had much praise about the beautiful parts.
I loved the scenery of the Shire, and Rivendell never looked so beautiful and realistic. I was very eager to see Kate as Galadriel and was delighted she was so very regal, elegant, ancient, wise and mystically beautiful again, and thought she looked maternal this time, like she had a deeper wisdom, that would be due to Kate's life experience over the past decade and the few lines in her face that were visible. LOVED the dress. Great wig, better than before.
Hugo Weaving (Elrond) seemed to have put on some weight, which was being concealed in his costume (a pity) and didn't look as striking as he did before, but was still wonderful in his role and essential in the film of cource. Christopher Lee hadn't changed at all, and Gandalf, well, he was still Gandalf, and wonderfully so.
Andy Serkis was perfect. There were no changes in his portrayal of Gollum at all.
Also very much enjoyed the dwarves characters and costumes, though we both thought Thorin looked too much like a short man, rather than a dwarf. It seemed to me he was intended to play the Viggo Mortenson figure of the film. Not complaining though, he was nice to look at. My favourite dwarf though was the oldest one, the one with the beard that curled out at the ends. He was neat. They seemed to come from different cultures too, like German and Swedish dwarves, and an American wild west one. That was fun. Loved the two songs at Bagend.
Also loved the scenes in the mountain, the gold and the mining and the throne and arkenstone. All beautifully made. Excellent film making.
I don't think I'll buy the dvd though, too much orky stuff. Also I kept comparing it to the old cartoon which I like (better I think, storywise).
Rowan
Posted on: 12/29/2012 21:17
I was rather drawn to Kili, but that might be beacuse I was a fan of the actor when he played Mitchell in Being Human (UK version).
Judd
Posted on: 12/30/2012 00:10
I saw the movie too but your ability to relate the story far exceeds mine,
I agree with your descriptions and your observations.
Elanorgold
Posted on: 12/31/2012 18:14
Kili was a close second for me ; )
martha
Posted on: 01/04/2013 11:47
I took the 13 and 15 year olds to it over the break. Uttery indulgent, PeterJacksonian fantasy overload: LOVED IT!
So did the kids, by the way (disclosure: some moron in 1977 wrote that Star Wars was 'not suitable for children' and my mom wouldn't let me see it until the re-release 18 months later--I was 10 in '77--which Scarred Me For Life. I have a real problem imagining any North American child over 8 being unable to watch the Hobbit...but we all know our children best. Which is to say that I had already read the Star Wars book about 5 times before I eventually saw the movie, so my mom didn't know me well at all, now, did she?)
And we all have had tonns of fun 'finding' actors from other shows we like in the cast. (the Brown Wizard= Dr. Who #7? We haven't looked it up yet.)
Mendalla
Posted on: 01/04/2013 16:48
And we all have had tonns of fun 'finding' actors from other shows we like in the cast. (the Brown Wizard= Dr. Who #7? We haven't looked it up yet.)
Wow. You're right. It is Sylvester McCoy. Cool. I was thinking recently that Dr. Who was about the only British TV show that they didn't mine for cast and I'm glad to see I was wrong.
Mendalla
Panentheism
Posted on: 01/06/2013 09:53
Interesting point about star wars.... I quess I was a bad parent as the first one openned on my sons birthday and I took him and his friends to the first showing - he was born in 1970.
revjohn
Posted on: 01/06/2013 10:34
I took the eldest two of my three kids to the first retinkering (that I remember vividly) of The Empire Strikes Back. Both were less than 5 years of age. Fortunately none needed to visit the bathroom and we saw the whole thing.
I guess that makes me a worse dad than Panentheism.
GordW
Posted on: 01/07/2013 13:13
I must be the worst yet because I cannot convince my children to watch Star Wars at all....
Mendalla
Posted on: 01/07/2013 13:20
I must be the worst yet because I cannot convince my children to watch Star Wars at all....
MIne watched them at 11 or 12, which is definitely old enough IMHO since I myself was 12 when Star Wars came out in 1977.
We have a slight disagreement on which movie is the best, though we do agree that the original trilogy is better than the prequels. He like A New Hope (aka Star Wars) best while I give a slight edge to The Empire Strikes Back (though I waffle on that at times).
Mendalla
Kimmio
Posted on: 01/07/2013 20:19
Teehee. That's cute.
I really want to see the Hobbit. It was the first novel I read as a kid, together with my dad reading it with me, helping me out with the tough parts--impersonating Golum(not quite as creepy as the movie character), making me laugh. Bilbo was a hero of mine.Fond memories of childhood. And the movie just looks fun.
InannaWhimsey
Posted on: 01/19/2013 18:27
revjohn,
i have enjoyed again your mental journey :3
here's a review of the hobbit by Dr. Who/Dr. Doolittle/Radagast the Brown (kindred spirit to the Balrog, Marion the Admirable/Sauron, Saruman, Gandalf, Alatar and Pallando the Blue)
Tabitha
Posted on: 01/20/2013 22:18
I just saw it this weeknd-gorgeous scenery and the plot is well explained above. It could have been shortened a wee bit but I really didn't find it overly long. When is Hobbit 2 expected out?
revjohn
Posted on: 01/21/2013 06:54
Hi Tabitha,
When is Hobbit 2 expected out?
The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug is scheduled for a December 2013 release.
Grace and peace to you.
John