The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey

The first film of a trilogy set in the same world, looking back before it. Bilbo is sitting at home and does not want to go anywhere. One morning a wizard arrives at his door, then thirteen dwarves. The dwarves have an aim. A mountain, a kingdom, and a dragon that took that kingdom years ago. Bilbo joins the journey as a burglar. From there the film is a journey. Three trolls, a fight between stone giants, a goblin city and a cave. The best section takes place in the cave. Bilbo plays a game of riddles with a creature in the dark, and that scene carries the whole trilogy on its own. What the narrative is interested in is not treasure but home: Bilbo explains once why he came, and the answer has nothing to do with fighting and everything to do with having a home. The structure is the real problem. A short children's book was stretched over three films and the narrative was padded with additional material; some of the subplots are not in the book at all. It was shot at forty-eight frames per second. That speed had not been tried in cinema before and it was shown in that format in some venues; the result divided viewers, and many found the image too smooth and television-like. The project was in another director's hands for a long time. He spent two years in preparation and left, and the director of the earlier trilogy took over. It was shot in New Zealand. Martin Freeman, Ian McKellen, Richard Armitage, Andy Serkis and Sylvester McCoy are in the cast. Peter Jackson directed. Who it is for: anyone who wants to return to the same world. Who it is not for: anyone expecting the weight of the earlier trilogy; the film is lighter, longer and unnecessarily spread out.