Last night we went to see The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey, the first film in what is now a trilogy of films based around the book The Hobbit and leading into the Lord of the Rings trilogy.
The first thing I'll address here is the High Frame Rate (see earlier post "A word of warning on The Hobbit High Frame Rate version for background). I was nervous about seeing the film in the HFR version off the bat as I had planned to see it in 24fps first then 48fps second for comparison. Not to be though as the boy only wants to see it once and in 48fps. The very first scene of older Bilbo writing his memoirs seemed very smooth but my worst fears were realised straight after as the opening flashback scenes of Smaug the dragon brutalising the dwarven city of Erebor looked terrible. The HFR undoubtedly does create a smoothness, clarity and beauty to the visuals but it also brings a new level of real-ness. This means that the CGI stuff looks even more CGI and fake than it did in the standard 24fps. Uh oh, I think I'm going to regret seeing this version. However, for some reason the rest of the action scenes didn't seem as bad and in any other scenes I thought it was definitely a superior technology. I don't think I suffered too much in the way of being distracted by the detail (a common criticism I've seen) though the boy says he noticed a lot of the sets looking more artificial but I did not notice this at all. For me I think I'll reserve judgement on HFR until we see more movies, it definitely shouldn't be used where you want realistic action scenes that are created by CGI.
Now, the movie. I really liked it and think it is the perfect way to start another trilogy of epic fantasy films. For those one or two people not familiar, The Hobbit follows a quest by a group of dwarves, led by Thorin Oakenshield, to reclaim the city of Erebor from the dragon Smaug and provide a true home for their people. This quest is not going to be easy though and the dwarves have got Gandalf the Grey on side but he thinks they need another piece in the puzzle, someone who may be able to get into places unnoticed. His approach to the hobbit Bilbo Baggins though is a little too subtle and it takes the whole troop of 13 dwarves to convince him to leave Hobbiton and go on an adventure with them. Once the group sets off, a whole series of scrapes and misadventures occur as they encounter many foes and friends, and some who may be either.
An Unexpected Journey is part one of this tale and covers the beginning of The Hobbit but also mines some detail out of the Appendices to the Lord of the Rings book. Some have complained that this film is unnecessarily long and goes off on tangents and that 3 movies are not needed. However, I disagree. I believe that this film does a great job of setting up the quest and the characters, getting to know the different dwarves and our hero Bilbo. Without getting to know the characters so well, I feel that you would not care very much about what happens to them. This is a key part of why a film succeeds and becomes something you watch over and over again. Having watched Snow White and the Huntsman the night before, I know the result of stringing together a decent story and bunch of action scenes but giving you no reason at all to care about the lead character or understand why relationships form between certain characters. The result is that the movie falls flat and you don't feel like watching it again.
The so called tangential scenes are good because they are basically setting up the events of the Lord of the Rings (as Gandalf and other powerful people in Middle Earth start to see signs of a dark power starting to take hold of the land) which should provide fantastic continuity for the events of The Fellowship of the Ring and Sauron's return once we have a chance to watch all the films in chronological order in 2014. The scene where Bilbo meets Gollum, finds the One Ring and escapes with it after a battle of riddles is already rightfully being mentioned as a highlight, and I think it's largely due to the continuity angle and deeper exploration of the familiar characters.
So we get a long scene at Bilbo's house as the dwarves try to persuade their new friend to join them, a flashback to how Erebor was lost and how Thorin encountered Azog the Defiler (head orc), meet Radagast the Brown (another powerful wizard) and see his exploratory trip to Dolghuldur where the scary Necromancer is biding his time, and sit in on a meeting of the White Council (Gandalf, Elrond, Galadriel and Saruman) to decide whether to allow the dwarves quest. All of these scenes enhance and expand the Middle Earth universe no matter how slow you may think they are. I for one enjoyed it all.
The adventure scenes are all great fun, with the escape from the Goblin Kingdom being particularly fun and the pursuit and running battles with Azog and his army of wargs and orcs being pretty scary. Azog has a personal beef with Thorin and will not give up until he has the dwarf's head. As with LOTR, Gandalf keeps the magic in check until absolutely necessary which gives the dwarves a chance to wow us with their swordplay, fist-fighting and bow and arrows.
While seeing the familiar faces is comforting (and the effects team have done a great job of de-ageing Ian McKellen, Hugo Weaving, Christopher Lee and Cate Blanchett by 60 years) , it's meeting the new fellowship that creates magic. Richard Armitage imbues the leader Thorin Oakenshield with gravity, fierceness and mistrust of outsiders - particularly the elves which provides a few comedic scenes - but mixed with a strong belief in his cause and concern for his group, it's a winning combination. The actors playing Kili and Fili have described them as "the Prince William and Prince Harry" of the group and it's very apt. Bifur (James Nesbitt) is funny as he joins in with Kili's teasing of Bilbo by describing all the ways that the quest can go wrong. Dwalin is the enforcer and Balin is the older and wiser who gives us some history lessons. Ori is the youngest and most trouble prone. So far Bofur, Bombur, Nori, Dori, Oin and Gloin (dad of Gimli from LOTR) haven't made much impact but this should change as the series wears on. It's a fun group and there are a lot of laughs to be had. Martin Freeman has the tough role of Bilbo Baggins and does a brilliant job. Watching as the shackles of Hobbit habit fall off is fascinating and his courage and fortitude even in the face of Thorin's open distrust is admirable. This could just be how the character was written by Tolkien, but Freeman also contributes with a good line in humble bravery and impish enjoyment of the adventure.
Suspend any cynicism, pack a good lot of supplies (2 hours and 50 minutes plus previews and ads) and get to your local cinema for this journey that is every bit as good as you could have expected from the man who gave us the epic and much loved Lord of the Rings trilogy.
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