A member of the Baggins family is persuaded by Gandalf to join a crew on an adventure to a dangerous location out of sheer selflessness, then they encounter unexpected attacks from Orcs and other supernatural inhabitants of Middle Earth only to become battered, but intact. The film ends on an extremely long shot showing the desired destination, and that they are still quite a ways from reaching it. This is both the plotline to The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey and The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring. While this isn’t the worst scenario in the world, it certainly wasn’t the best either.
Can a prequel of a beloved series ever live up to the hype? I was asked a question shortly before seeing The Hobbit and I didn’t really have a definitive answer. I say yes because I truly feel that it is possible to do so, but I also say no because it hasn’t really worked out yet. Reboots have been successful (Star Trek, Batman Begins) but not prequels. With The Hobbit there was hope to break this chain. Peter Jackson was very hands on in the pre-production process even before he decided to come back and direct. Considering the last time Jackson entered Middle Earth he walked away with Oscars for Best Director and Best Picture this seemed to be a very promising sign. The pitfall, however, seems to be that this wasn’t something new for Jackson and the final product feels like he simply went through the motions.
The first scene of the film is an extended version of the beginning of The Fellowship of the Ring, with Ian Holm reprising his role as Bilbo Baggins sitting down to write his memoir of the new trilogy we are about to embark on, and includes Elijah Wood’s very brief cameo as Frodo. The scene plays out to show that this is occurring right before Gandalf shows up at The Shire “precisely when he plans to.” The reason I bring up this scene is it’s completely unnecessary and only used to give the audience the feeling that these stories are connected. If Jackson would have simply shown some patience, he would have seen this to be completely redundant towards the rest of the movie. Looking back, I find Fellowship to be my least favorite of the Lord of the Rings trilogy due to its slower pacing and the fact that it is essentially just a set up for the other two. Before the remaining films came out though, I was enthralled with the movie. The reasoning for this is straightforward enough: this was a whole new world, something that had never been seen on the big screen before and there were dozens of major characters to become acquainted with. In this iteration of a new trilogy Jackson relies too strongly on the same tricks and structure but although the dwarves are new, Thorin Oakenshield (played brilliantly by Richard Armitage) is the only one who truly gets any sort of background or specific personality. Aside from him, too many of these characters are old news. It was exciting to see Hugo Weaving and Cate Blanchett back as Elrond and Galadriel respectfully, but it wasn’t enough to support a movie of characters we already know beginning on this journey.
Don’t get me wrong, there are definitive bright spots to the movie as well. The aforementioned Thorin, Martin Freeman was a fantastic choice for the young iteration of Bilbo, the music was improved on, there were shots that were absolutely gorgeous, and Ian McKellan’s Gandalf is always a welcome sight. I would even recommend seeing the movie in theaters due to its scope and spectrum, just don’t expect a reinvention of the wheel. This is definitely more of a retelling of the wheel. The real question is whether the movies can pick up steam like they did for The Lord of the Rings. Only time will tell if Jackson’s decision to turn the 300-something page book into a 3 movie, 9 hour experience will be the right call. Based on his previous trip to Middle Earth I am willing to give him the benefit of the doubt. One misstep of retread can be forgiven.
C+
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