I found the mixed reaction to An Unexpected Journey a little surprising, as to me it came across as a lot more faithful to the tone of J. R. R. Tolkien’s work than Peter Jackson’s own Lord of the Rings trilogy.
Even though I really liked LotR, what bothered me about Jackson’s treatment of it was that great wads of story were left out in favour of tiresomely endless action set pieces that originally may only have taken up a paragraph’s worth of material in Tolkien’s prose, so with the decision to expand The Hobbit into three films Jackson is proving that – had he had the chance to make nine LotR films – they probably would have been a lot more satisfying to the Tolkien purists.
Basically, The Hobbit feels like how LotR should have felt – like a travelogue; a sprawling collection of notes about a journey and the peoples encountered on that journey with the odd sprinkling of peril thrown in.
The Desolation of Smaug starts off how I thought AUJ should have started off: with Gandalf and Thorin Oakenshield meeting at The Prancing Pony for the first time, however the decision to move it to the second film provides the audience with a reminder of what’s going on and why. A clever device, for sure, but it still feels a little strange tacked on to the start of this episode.
The first quarter or third of the film worried me enough to think I was about to experience a repeat of the mess that was The Two Towers, but once the scenes with Beorn are out of the way (The Hobbit’s answer to Tom Bombadil – an odd character who doesn’t serve much purpose to the overall thrust of the story… and a character that’s hard to bring to life on screen, at that) the film hits its stride perfectly.
The spider attack in Mirkwood forest made me turn away just like I thought it would (luckily my failing eyesight cut out a lot of the really yucky stuff for me) and the barrel riding sequence surpassed my expectations and won me over by providing a real rollercoaster ride of a chase without feeling like it was dragging its heals.
The mean elven king Thraduil (played to villainous glee by Lee Pace) was marvellously devilish and the addition of Evangeline Lilly as the likeable and spunky Tauriel to girl-up the testosterone heavy cast was a brilliant choice. Luke Evans’ Bard is understandably given more to do considering the key role he should be playing in the third film and Evans carries the weight well. Such beefing up of the characters and plot is entirely justified considering the very slender series of events and characterisations that appear in the book.
I was surprised to find Jackson and his team pinching amiably (but most likely unconsciously) from both Alien 3 and Ninja Scroll when it came to the dwarves tackling Smaug the dragon in the Lonely Mountain, but it was a pleasant surprise of a sequence that added yet more meat to the bone.
I was expecting more of Martin Freeman in this one, but he’s yet again sidelined in what has now officially become The Richard Armitage Show. That’s not to say Freeman isn’t good, he just has a lot to do but not much to say, making his character crucial but lacking the memorable lines and humour that the dwarf pack are blessed with. In fact Bilbo is painted with much darker shades now that he’s become a Ring Bearer and unaware of the trouble he’s found himself in until it’s too late. He’s a tragic figure here, even more so than Frodo in that he has no idea what’s happening to him, whereas Frodo did.
So yes, after an unassuming start the film rises to the perfect pitch that An Unexpected Journey managed and gives those who felt Jackson
