Official Synopsis
The adventure follows the journey of title character Bilbo Baggins, who is swept into an epic quest to reclaim the lost Dwarf Kingdom of Erebor from the fearsome Dragon Smaug. Approached out of the blue by the Wizard Gandalf the Grey, Bilbo finds himself joining a company of 13 Dwarves led by the legendary warrior, Thorin Oakenshield. Their journey will take them into the Wild, through treacherous lands swarming with Goblins, Orcs and deadly Wargs, as well as a mysterious and sinister figure known only as the Necromancer.
Although their goal lies to the East and the wastelands of the Lonely Mountain, first they must escape the Goblin tunnels, where Bilbo meets the creature that will change his life forever…Gollum.
Here, alone with Gollum, on the shores of an underground lake, the unassuming Bilbo Baggins not only discovers depths of ingenuity and courage that surprise even him, he also gains possession of Gollum’s “precious” ring that holds unexpected and useful qualities…A simple, gold ring that is tied to the fate of all Middle-earth in ways Bilbo cannot begin to know.
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The Hobbit fits nicely in with the Lord of the Rings trilogy. Cut out of the same Peter Jackson molding as his previous three films, The Hobbit is a spectacular adventure from beginning to end. And it’s tough to do that four times, let alone six times (ask George Lucas how that has worked out). Amazingly, if you watch The Hobbit and then the three LOTR films, there’s no hiccup or burp between them. Same style of shooting, same detailed attitude and same respect for fans of the book. Don’t get me wrong, he took some liberties with the book, but nothing so disruptive that it makes people scratch their heads and wonder ‘how could he do this to us’. It is all done well and the construct makes complete sense — at least in the first film.
The Hobbit really constructs a very kind and innocent world that hasn’t been ravaged by minions of Sauron (that’s coming, of course, as you see some well placed foreshadowing). It starts off with a nice backstory that leads into Bilbo (Martin Freeman) getting a visit from Gandalf (Ian McKellen) and offered (or forced) an adventure. Reluctantly declining, Gandalf brings him a band of dwarves who have the terrible task of reclaiming their kingdom from a dragon named Smaug. After much consideration, Bilbo declines… then changes his mind and accepts the next day.
It’s a fantastic beginning of a film and there isn’t much left out. Jackson established the desperation and desolation that the dwarves feel having been forcefully removed from their homes. On top of it all, he also shows how much pride has been damaged by Smaug’s intrusion into their hillside manor. It’s a brilliant way to start an adventure and it really gets things going.
Once the story is on the way, Jackson wastes no time in building obstacles that stand in front of them. Starting with the infamous troll scene from the book, which is mentioned by the older Bilbo in Fellowship of the Ring, you get a taste of things to come later in the movie. Detailed, CGI’d and misplaced from their homes, the trolls are done extremely well and very well represented from the book. A side note, the troll scene was Andy Serkis’ second unit directorial debut and he did a fantastic job with it. So, if you’re scoring Serkis’ career so far: fantastic actor, creepy Gollum motion capture and voice over guy, and now a director. I think he’s going somewhere in Hollywood… just saying. I digress, after the troll scene, the action just keeps on coming with a brief stop in the elven kingdom.
The end of this movie will leave you wanting more, which is appropriate for Jackson’s way of treating the J.R.R. Tolkien property.
Shifting gears just slightly, let me just add how glad I am that Jackson chose Martin Freeman as the lead for this adventure. Not only does he have some resemblance to Ian Holm’s Bilbo, but he also brings some good physical comedy to the mix. He carries the aurora of Bilbo and completely owns him. By the end of this film his transformation to relaxed, happy Hobbit to adventurer and burglar is simply amazing; all credit goes to Freeman’s talent in understanding Bilbo’s character.
So are there any so-so points in the film? Honestly, you want the story to keep moving once they hit the elven kingdom. It stalls a bit at this point, but as soon as you’re wondering when the adventure is going to kick in (and by the way, the elven kingdom scene is very important to the story arc) it certainly does kick and we’re back in the driver’s seat going 100mph. This is a very nit-picky sort of complaint to this film, but you’ll feel it a little bit.
Having said that, I’m not quite sure why some critics didn’t like this film. My theory is that people tend to eventually get worn down by praising the success of others. Maybe it’s something to do with a critic’s reputation of being ‘critical’ and if they like something too much then their reputation gets sullied a bit. Whatever the case, the arguments are clearly invalid because The Hobbit is one of the best films to arrive out of 2012. Peter Jackson didn’t miss a beat with this one, much like he didn’t with the previous LOTR films.
As for the Blu-ray portion of the film, it’s damn good. You get all the little details that you should get from the HD transfer. From the intricate scratches on the door that Gandalf leaves on Bilbo’s door at the beginning to the leathery scarred face of Azog in the final battle scene; you get some very well done HD on Blu-ray. Having said that, while there isn’t any graininess or artifacts, or even color banding issues with the film, the color correction of the movie seems a bit white. In the features, they’ll show you how the film was adjusted because of weather in New Zealand. The result of it might bring some heavy greens out, which are noticeable in the first part of the film, but the whites seem overly heavy. It almost looks like a white screen has been laid down in open sky areas. Going back and looking at the LOTR trilogy, I can tell they had the same style to them, but it’s still noticeable, and at least it’s consistent. Does that take away from the presentation? Just a bit, but for the most part you get some very high-quality HD out of this movie, especially during the CGI scenes. The CGI scenes are a little bit more ambitious and far less clunky than the first films.
The film comes to you in 7.1 DTS-HD and with a film aspect ratio of 2.4:1.
Finally, as for features, they are divided into two. The first feature will give you a short ‘making of’ with the film. The second set of features, the real beef to the release, are all the video blogs they released while The Hobbit was being made. They are pretty darn lengthy as a whole and much better when you see them all straight through. Having the ability to watch the production come together, being made and then how it’s presented is pretty amazing. The location scouting and how the production moves from point to point in New Zealand is quite amazing. All of these things, including a red carpet premiere, is well done for these blogs. Makes you respect Jackson’s process and how much he and his crew go through to get this film made.
Overall, it’s good stuff and they compliment the film. I would have loved to hear some commentary, though.
In addition to these features, the disc also contains a code that will allow you to join Peter Jackson on March 24th for a sneak peek of The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug. Pretty sweet deal for fans of the books (and the movies).
“The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey ” available on Blu-ray Combo Pack, Blu-ray 3D Combo Pack and 2-disc DVD Special Edition on 3/19!