Peter Jackson’s ‘The Hobbit’ is a movie I don’t really feel qualified reviewing. The J.R. Tolkein books were something I never really connected with as a child. I admired and respected the creativity, the scope, and the grandeur of the world Tolkein created, but it never resonated with me like with its’ legions of fans. To me, it was always just that tedious reading assignment from my high school British Literature class. If you enjoyed the ‘Lord of The Rings’ trilogy, then this is a welcome and respectable prequel addition. If you didn’t enjoy it, at least you know what to expect.
In the book series, “The Hobbit’ was almost a children’s tale, whereas ‘The Lord of The Rings’ expanded upon the world created in ‘The Hobbit’ and made the themes much darker and mature. The movie version of ‘The Hobbit’ continues ‘The Lord of the Rings’ dark atmosphere and admirably continues the franchise. It’s been said that Tolkein created ‘The Lord of the Rings’ as a metaphor for World War II. Whether you believe that or not, it definitely is a more violent and war based story than ‘The Hobbit’. This film is more of an epic quest than an epic battle.
The story follows a young Bilbo Baggins (Martin Freeman) who is reluctantly recruited by the wizard Gandalf I(an McCellen) to aid a troupe of dwarves on a quest to reclaim their mountain home from the dragon Smaug. Along the way we are given insight to the world laid out before us in ‘The Lord of the Rings’ and introduced to characters and things that will be major players in that future story. In some ways, I almost wish Peter Jackson would have followed suite with the books and made this a more kid friendly story, but who am I to argue with success? Peter Jackson is doing just fine without my advice.
Even though we visit familiar characters and locales, Jackson does a great job at making it all seem fresh. There is the same excitement and sense of adventure as from the ‘LOTR’ trilogy without any of it seeming recycled. Even though Frodo makes a brief appearance, he was not missed as Bilbo more than filled the role of reluctant hero. The troupe of dwarves, led by the King-in-waiting, Thorin (Richard Armitage), provided both comic relief and at the same time infinite respect for their courage and determination. They are fierce warriors in a land of giants.
The dwarves story of exile from their fortress mountain kingdom by the dragon Smaug provides the basis of the story. I wish they would have delved more deeply into the history of the dwarves as, the little bit we did see, I found it very compelling. Especially their estrangement from the etherial elves who abandoned them in their time of need. The strained relationship was hinted at in ‘LOTR’, but only elaborated upon a little in this story. And of course, we are introduced to Gollum (Andy Serkis), keeper and guardian of the ‘precious’ ring. Once again, the special effects used to create Gollum are impressive and Andy Serkis’s performance deserves Academy notice, even though he will always be overlooked because visually his character is digital. They once overlooked super hero movies for the Academy Award and Heath Ledger changed that. Maybe there will be hope for digital characters in the future.
Overall, if you are a fan of the series, you won’t be disappointed. The film is respectable in its’ epic scope and story telling. If you are not a fan like me, you will admire the achievement and complexity of story telling, but occasionally you will look at your watch to see when this thing ends.
I give this film *** stars
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