In Search Of…. –Hobbit:
An Unexpected Journey-(2012)-A Film Review
DVD Review
By Sam Lowell
Hobbit: An Unexpected
Journey, Ian McKellen, Martin Freeman, Richard Armitage and a cast of thousands
including those dreaded no good orcs that disturb one’s dreams, directed by
Peter Jackson, 2012
Anybody familiar with
The Lord of the Rings trilogy directed by the same director, Peter Jackson, as
in the film under review, the first in the three part Hobbit series, An
Unexpected Journey knows that Hobbits, or better a Hobbit played a central role
in beating the hard-core selection of bad guys and monsters in that series. Well
the brethren or rather one such member of the clan, Bilbo (played by Martin
Freeman), will be dragged kicking and screaming from peaceful, tranquil, boring
nine to five Hobbitsville to avenge all evils some sixty years before the action
in Rings. So the same sense of the fantastic, the weird, and the down-right
unfair will drive this ploy sequence.
Old man Tolkien was on to something back in
the day when he wrote all of this material. He knew at least by allegory and
metaphor that the various tribes, kingdoms, nations, races had many-faceted
relations with each other and among themselves. Something replicated in real
life. So while the kids can go crazy with the six million fights and slayings
there is some kind of lesson to be learned for the whole thing.
Here’s the play on this first film in the
series and why I liked it. Hey I am a guy who supports national liberation
struggles as a rule (okay, okay kingdom liberation for the literally-minded) so
what is not to like when our little man Bilbo gets waylaid into traveling with
a band of thirteen dwarfs in order to act as a burglar of the precious stone
that will solve all Middle-Earthly problems. The reason they need his services
is because some time before a dragon who loved gold descended on their gold-rich
kingdom dwarf kingdom and killed or made the residents flee. That situation
required vengeance and the need for Bilbo’s services. The main actor in getting
Bilbo off his comfortable butt is the magician Gandaph, played by Ian McKellan,
who has his own agenda. These freedom fighters led by their exiled leader
Thorin, played by Richard Armitage, don’t immediately trust Bilbo’s abilities
or motives but by the end of the film he is a regular member of the tribe
despite his alien status.
Needless to say the
fight to get back to the Lost Mountain where their kingdom was located and
where that nasty dragon was sleep-guarding the filthy lucre will test the lot
of them. After getting the no alliance needed from the elves a little higher up
the chain they go through the forest and have a series of battles of arms and
wits with dim-witted trolls, feisty goblins and worst of all their hereditary
enemies the dreaded Orcs led by the maniac Azog the defiler so you know what he
and his tribe are about. Funny about those allegedly fierce and war-like
Orcs-the wee people seem to be able to handle them with ease by a little
cunning and sword-thrust so that menace in the end you know will be conquered.
By the end of film number one though it is far from obvious whether they will
get to that Lost Mountain in order to go mano a mano with that flame-throwing
dragon. Stay tuned.
