The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey (2012)

An epic setup with voiceover followed by a hobbit at his most peaceful home? Peter Jackson sure plays it close to home as he takes over from Guillermo Del Toro late in the game. Del Toro had dabbled with this trilogy for a long time before admitting failure and handing the reigns to the very Shire-friendly hands of Peter Jackson.

Therein lies a bit of the flaws and successes of this first part. Though Peter Jackson knows the world of Tolkien like the back of his hand, it all feels very familiar. And after 14 hours of LOTR, something a bit fresher might be welcome. That also applies to Howard Shore's score, which is a mere continuation. The tone and humour with Jackson is largely identical to the former trilogy. Thankfully, it was all good then, and not vastly inferior here.

Perhaps the very best thing here is the re-acquaintance of Gandalf and the old Bilbo. McKellen and Holm bring such a warmth to their characters. They even have a couple of degrees extra if Elijah Wood joins them on-screen. Though that only happens for seconds.

The dwarves are a bit of a problem though. Particularly in the first hour, they are little more than a nuisance. Not only to Bilbo Baggins, but to the viewer. The singing is dreadful and fits in no way into the film, nor any of the moods. Generally the dwarves are stuck with the task of compensating for the lack of Tolkien as there is significantly less story for this trilogy. So also with Freeman's Bilbo at times. Freeman suffers under too much screentime, considering his character and dialogue. But he grows very nicely into the part over the course of this flick, though a more trimmed script would have helped him greatly.

Armitage as Thorin Oakenshield, however, is a sight for sore eyes. With the looming feeling of a poor man's Boromir about him from the start, they pull him slowly out of that mire, and into a dark, deeply split man with heroism, bitterness and prejudice in equal measures. Radagast is just a stupid and unnecessary character though. Time wasted in every way unless you like really cute CGI-animals.

But though much is not quite as good as LOTR, "The Hobbit" still has fantastic scenery, utterly brilliant sound & picture and Peter Jackson does know his storytelling in epic tales by now. As he knows battles, large and small. Though many of the battles portrayed here are told as anecdotes, and therefore lack any real danger for our little friends.

Besides the pairing of Bilbo and Gollum in the cave is brilliant. In a rather noisy and chaotic film, the sobriety of a dimly lit scene where to little creatures play a simple game of riddles with all at stake is a most welcome variation.

So, it's still Middle-Earth, it's still Tolkien and it's still good. Just not as good as the original trilogy.

7/10