In Search Of…. –Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey-(2012)-A Film Review

DVD Review

By Sam Lowell

Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey, Ian McKellen, Martin Freeman, Richard Armitage and a cast of thousands including those dreaded no good orcs that disturb one’s dreams, directed by Peter Jackson, 2012   

Anybody familiar with The Lord of the Rings trilogy directed by the same director, Peter Jackson, as in the film under review, the first in the three part Hobbit series, An Unexpected Journey knows that Hobbits, or better a Hobbit played a central role in beating the hard-core selection of bad guys and monsters in that series. Well the brethren or rather one such member of the clan, Bilbo (played by Martin Freeman), will be dragged kicking and screaming from peaceful, tranquil, boring nine to five Hobbitsville to avenge all evils some sixty years before the action in Rings. So the same sense of the fantastic, the weird, and the down-right unfair will drive this ploy sequence.          

Old man Tolkien was on to something back in the day when he wrote all of this material. He knew at least by allegory and metaphor that the various tribes, kingdoms, nations, races had many-faceted relations with each other and among themselves. Something replicated in real life. So while the kids can go crazy with the six million fights and slayings there is some kind of lesson to be learned for the whole thing.     

Here’s the play on this first film in the series and why I liked it. Hey I am a guy who supports national liberation struggles as a rule (okay, okay kingdom liberation for the literally-minded) so what is not to like when our little man Bilbo gets waylaid into traveling with a band of thirteen dwarfs in order to act as a burglar of the precious stone that will solve all Middle-Earthly problems. The reason they need his services is because some time before a dragon who loved gold descended on their gold-rich kingdom dwarf kingdom and killed or made the residents flee. That situation required vengeance and the need for Bilbo’s services. The main actor in getting Bilbo off his comfortable butt is the magician Gandaph, played by Ian McKellan, who has his own agenda. These freedom fighters led by their exiled leader Thorin, played by Richard Armitage, don’t immediately trust Bilbo’s abilities or motives but by the end of the film he is a regular member of the tribe despite his alien status.           

Needless to say the fight to get back to the Lost Mountain where their kingdom was located and where that nasty dragon was sleep-guarding the filthy lucre will test the lot of them. After getting the no alliance needed from the elves a little higher up the chain they go through the forest and have a series of battles of arms and wits with dim-witted trolls, feisty goblins and worst of all their hereditary enemies the dreaded Orcs led by the maniac Azog the defiler so you know what he and his tribe are about. Funny about those allegedly fierce and war-like Orcs-the wee people seem to be able to handle them with ease by a little cunning and sword-thrust so that menace in the end you know will be conquered. By the end of film number one though it is far from obvious whether they will get to that Lost Mountain in order to go mano a mano with that flame-throwing dragon. Stay tuned.