The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey (2012) is a fantasy adventure film directed by Peter Jackson, who was also director of The Lord of the Rings trilogy. It is the first movie of a three-part film adaptation on the novel ”The Hobbit” by J. R. R. Tolkien.
The story takes place in Middle-earth sixty years before the events of The Lord of the Rings. An unexpected Journey tells the tale of Bilbo Baggings (Martin Freeman), who is convinced by the wizard Gandalf the Grey (Ian McKellen) to join group of thirteen Dwarves, led by legendary warrior Thorin Oakenshild (Richard Armitage). Their quest is to reclaim the Lonely Mountains from the dragon called Smaug. The movie follows Bilbo’s unexpected journey through lands swarming with Goblins and Orcs, deadly Wargs, Giant Spiders etc.
The Hobbit movies have been praised for the amazing visual effects and for all the new movie technology used while making the movie(s). For example The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey had HFR (high frame rate), which means the movie used a shooting and projection frame rate of 48 frames per second, instead of standard 24 frames per second. In fact this movie was the first feature film with wide release to do so. Because of HFR the movie looks smoother and on top of that the movie has stunning graphics. But to me graphics count for nothing. The reason I watch a film is primarily for a great story and well written characters. I don’t get dazzled by graphics anymore. It just gets to a point where better graphics doesn’t matter anymore.
Even though the movie was visually great, the writing wasn’t at the same level. First of all the introduction was little too long. And all together the whole Hobbit trilogy is way too long for three hundred pages book, and just to maximize profits by having three films at three hours each. Another way to notice movie is poorly written when your heroes are saved at the last minute in multiple scenes. Where does that leave us? It leaves us with all main characters intact and no dramatic tension. Albeit the main story wasn’t well written, the movie characters were very well made and their personalities really shone.
In conclusion the movie was fairly good, I personally liked it though I expected something more. It is worth of watching if you haven’t already seen it.