You may remember Jackson's last crack at the J.R.R. Tolkien books, The Lord of the Rings trilogy. The series was near-perfect, and while the last movie had eight different endings his hard work was rewarded in the form of being named the Best Picture of the year by the academy.
It has been nine years but Jackson has now returned to Middle Earth to tell the story that happened before Frodo set off to destroy the one ring. And while each movie in his previous trilogy was one movie set to one book he has broken the smallest book from this world into three different movies. For example Fellowship of the Rings was 400 pages and all fit into one movie, meanwhile the first Hobbit instillation covers the first 100 pages. Perhaps worried that he would offend Tolkien by leaving out a comma from the source material. To no one's surprise the movie does tend to drag a little.
How does six chapters become a three hour epic, by adding tons of back story. The result is a lot of exposition that didn't need to be included. Jackson spent what seemed like the first hour of the movie having Bilbo answer the good 13 different times to introduce each dwarf that would be joining the journey. Each indistinguishable from the next, the only dwarf that seemed pertinent to the story was the dwarf king Thorin.
He also adds characters to the movie, such as Frodo who never appeared in The Hobbit but somehow took up 10 minutes of screen-time to set up a frame story that was completely unnecessary. Jackson takes literal footnotes from the book and makes the main antagonists when the story has a way better villain we never meet A TALKING DRAGON. For those who appreciate that kind of detail I expect you will love The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey; but whatever you do, DON'T SEE THIS MOVIE IN 3D.
Peter Jackson chose to shoot the movie at 48 frames per second this allows the 3D visuals to pop more on screen. There are many in the industry who believe this is where film-making is going. But with any new technology there are a lot kinks to it and it takes a while for the audience to get used to it.
The shooting style makes the movie look more like a well-done video game. From the opening scene in the Shire when all the actors are standing and talking, it looks like the movie is on fast forward. None of the characters move naturally, its like they are all on five hour energies.
Jackson doesn't allow any of his scenes to breathe. You would think at that length a couple more minutes wouldn't matter. Shooting at this speed is supposed to help the action sequences but it just makes them all look like cartoons. This technique detaches the audience from the movie and that is the last thing you want in an epic at this length people checking their clocks.
If you can somehow get past these enormous problems you come to find the The Hobbit has a rich story with fantastic action and wonderful acting. Martin Freeman is the perfect Bilbo as he blends a charm with nerves to mail the character. He is a believable as a a hero just coming to terms with the task ahead of him. Ian McKellen returns a Gandolf the Gray and it seems to be more of the same from the original.
That is really where this movie fails from the first three. More of the same. No one was expecting the kind of world, the story arc that Jackson was able to craft in the original, it all came as a magical surprise. Here we already know what is coming and that leaves the audience wanting.
When the movie comes out to DVD you know what would be nice if instead of an Extended Director's Cut (which to me seems impossible there would be any scenes that were left out) it came out as an Editor's Abbreviated Cut. There is a good movie in here, it just needs a concise retelling and the special effects to be left out. If 2-D was good enough for Frodo, it should be plenty good for his Uncle Bilbo. C-
