And so the story begins with the cliched 'once upon a time' influence that starts off most fantasy adventures. The film starts where the LOTR trilogy left off with Old Bilbo Baggins (Sir Ian Holm) writing the Hobbit novel to pass onto his nephew Frodo Baggins (Elijah Wood). Subsequently, a flashback entailing the contents of the Hobbit book occurs by depicting the young Bilbo Baggins (Martin Freeman), Gandalf (Sir Ian Mackellan) and the 14 Dwarves on reclaiming their lost Kingdom and treasure from the Dragon Smaug. However, this is only the first part of the series and so the characters do not get as far as to meeting the Dragon yet.
Much of the New Zealand, on which the film was shot, landscape and setting are very beautiful to behold. New and old settings are used from the LOTR trilogy to give viewers a sense of ideal nostalgia along with the discovery of new surroundings.Computer Generated Imagery (CGI) has played a big part into bringing the setting and battle scenes to life. Battle scenes are portrayed in epic proportions in slow motion sequences that make up the rising viewing pleasure of the audience. Thorin Oakenshield's (Richard Armitage) battle with Azog the Defiler (Manu Bennet) is a stellar example of the epic struggle of good versus bad. It harks back to the battle between Isildur (Harry Sinclair) and Sauron in the LOTR Fellowship Of The Ring film. The director Peter Jackson uses the same effective cutting of the hand as a way of denoting defeat of both villains.
The cast has also new and old faces that have been used in the LOTR series. They make up the star studded cast that made the LOTR series such a success. Stars such as Cate Blanchett (Galadriel), Christopher Lee (Saruman) and Sir Ian Mackellan (Gandalf) are prominent figures in the film industry. New characters such as the 14 Dwarves are not as recognizable in name but fit well with the parts that they play. Unless you have foreknowledge by reading the book then it is hard to keep track of all the names of each character. Even more so with the non-linear narrative. Acting performances of each character are what the audience come to expect as some of them. Overall, the acting envelopes the viewers into believing the fantasy of their roles and shrouds the villains in menacing or barbaric connotations.
Much of the film holds true to the Hobbit novel as a clear adaptation. A viewer does not have to read the book before seeing the movie but it does help to familiarize yourself with the genre and the characters involved. However, there are some small changes from the book to the movie that makes the film more insightful. The flashbacks are very detailed and give the viewer all the information they need to build a solid foundation for the rest of the story. These are not described in the book and so the movie adapts to a wider historic knowledge of the Dwarves, Orcs and Elves in flashbacks. In terms of differences of the book and motion picture, there a few that become apparent. Azog the Defiler is chosen as the overawing villain of the piece but he does not appear so regularly in the book. I guess Peter Jackson had to implement the hero and villain approach that has been ever present in any genre of the film industry.
The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey was a joy to watch as a cutting edge piece of epic fantasy adventure genre. Hopefully, the following films in the series are as enjoyable and open up a new landscape for viewers to enjoy.
Links to all films mentioned above:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jDnd8Rt2Q90 (The Hobbit 2012 opening scene)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cMHoNiaLCnk (The Hobbit 2012 battle scene)
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