The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey (2012)
Directed by Peter Jackson
Bilbo Baggins, a hobbit enjoying his quiet life, is swept into an epic quest by Gandalf the Grey and thirteen dwarves who seek to reclaim their mountain home from Smaug, the dragon.
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What critics say influenced The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey
The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring (2001)
Directed by Peter Jackson
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Complicated copyright ownership prevented him from making The Hobbit first and so he started with the LOTR films.
I think it plays during their absurd charge through a theme-park-style fight scene amid thousands of adversaries in the bowels of Goblin-town — a sequence that looks as if Peter Jackson is trying to outdo the Mines of Moria from The Fellowship of the Ring , but with all the conviction and danger of an action sequence in a Pirates of the Caribbean sequel.
In a way, this is soothing: one recalls the last time Jackson and company opened up a fantasy trilogy in 2001, with The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring , that movie was hectic and frenzied in its attempt to cram an incident-heavy plot - the busiest of any individual volume of The Lord of the Rings - into just a bit under three hours.
Missing are all semblances of character development, along with any attempts at creating tight emotional bonds on a level matching Sam and Frodo, who provided the heart and soul of “LOTR.”
Opting to divide J.R.R. Tolkien's The Hobbit — a slim work when compared to the gargantuan LOTR — into three films reeks of a cash grab even more than splitting the final Harry Potter and Twilight books into cinematic two-parters, but considering the piece gathers steam after a lethargic opening, it seems likely that the subsequent entries will maintain the stride and emerge more balanced.
In this mission — merely a field trip, compared with the earth-saving pilgrimage undertaken in The Fellowship of the Ring — Thorin enlists Gandalf, who brings along young Bilbo (Martin Freeman), whom he advertises to the dwarves as a pre-eminent burglar.
A life-or-death chase where orcs pursue Radagast and his rabbit-drawn sledge turns into a giddy, gibe-strewn event that strongly recalls the pod race in The Phantom Menace , and not just because it’s almost entirely CGI.
But the first one, for all its indulgences, is far superior to another much-hyped prequel — George Lucas’ “Star Wars: The Phantom Menace.’’
Like George Lucas, with “The Phantom Menace,” he is constructing a six-film saga in peculiar order.
Clearly a new approach was needed this time around--one that del Toro presumably would have supplied had he remained at the helm--and seeing how the original story was initially designed to be a lighter work aimed at younger readers, a sunnier take could have been utilized without getting the fan base unnecessarily riled up with accusations of selling out to the kiddie market as George Lucas did with "The Phantom Menace."
In other words “An Unexpected Journey” may as well be “The Phantom Menace” and God help us all if the next two movies aren’t better than this one.
…fter years stuck in development hell due to the MGM bankruptcy crisis, the most anticipated prequel to come out of Hollywood since “The Phantom Menace” has finally arrived in theaters, although not exactly in the manner that most people were expecting.
Jeff Overstreet has compared the Moria sequence to the best action scenes in Raiders of the Lost Ark ; if so, the Goblin-town fight plays like the silliest stunts from Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom .
Liberties taken in the name of high adventure to up the action stretch credibility, including a running escape sequence that repeatedly feels inspired by Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom, but this isn’t too much of a problem since the characters on screen have no sense of their guaranteed survival.
Let’s face it: after “The Godfather: Part II” and “Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom,” the list of successful prequel movies is pretty short.
We saw this pattern play out once, with "Star Wars," and now, alas, it begins again, with "The Hobbit," a movie that is exactly one Jar Jar Binks away from being as bad as "The Phantom Menace."
So while I trusted Jackson I also had flashes of George Lucas' prequel trilogy misfire to his (now Disney's) "Star Wars" saga.
And as big-screen prologue moments go, Bilbo's acquisition of Gollum's precious ring of power may be second only to Darth Vader's first hissy breath at the end of George Lucas' "Star Wars" prequels.
The Great Goblin may bear a bit of a resemblance to Jabba the Hutt in "Star Wars," but he's a memorable character as voiced by Barry Humphries (aka Dame Edna).
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Francis Ford Coppola has made some film masterpieces but they are often compared, unfairly, to “The Godfather.”
There is a legendary story that in adapting the novel "McTeague" to the screen in a little film called "Greed," director Erich von Stroheim was supposedly obsessed with the idea of literally filming every single page of the book.
Look also at the dull, flat orange taint that is meant to approximate candle light in numerous scenes, and compare that with the glow you find in "Barry Lyndon," or "Fanny and Alexander," or your own birthday snaps.
Look also at the dull, flat orange taint that is meant to approximate candle light in numerous scenes, and compare that with the glow you find in "Barry Lyndon," or "Fanny and Alexander," or your own birthday snaps.
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There was a time when the prospect of Peter Jackson making a movie version of J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Hobbit would have been cause for celebration—say, right after the final installment of Jackson’s wonderful Lord of the Rings trilogy swept the Oscars in 2004.
The scenes of the dwarves throwing plates around in Bilbo's house look like something from Disney's "Snow White"; the wizard Radagast (whom, we're told, is too fond of mushrooms, nudge nudge) comes across like a crunchy hippie clown.
The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey THE HOBBIT: AN UNEXPECTED JOURNEY Two stars (out of four) Martin Freeman, Ian McKellen, Cate Blanchett PG-13 for action violence 2 hours 50 minutes Opens Friday at Point, Eastgate, Star Cinema and Sundance For fans of: “Lord of the Rings,” “The Chronicles of Narnia,” “Snow White” with more beheadings…