An Unexpected Journey needs no introduction for many but for those few somehow unaware it is the first in a trilogy of Peter Jackson’s film adaptations of the outstanding Tolkien Novel ‘The Hobbit’ ,arguably the most hyped movie of 2012 based on the roaring success of PJ’s ‘The Lord of the Rings’ trilogy – did An Unexpected Journey meet its franchise expectations or should Bilbo have stayed in his hole in the ground?
In my mind ‘An Unexpected Journey’ did more than meet franchise expectations set by LOTR; instead the film masterfully set itself apart in its method of story telling from LOTR, despite sharing the same fantasy world, embracing its own persona – a cinematic experience for one of the greatest children’s stories of all time. I feel that is what made this film so purely and wholly charming, fun and exciting for the most part. In my screening of the film the audience and myself got plenty of laughs out of An Unexpected Journey which is honestly not something I expected to take out from the film going into it. A few of the highlights include spoilers: the Gollum vs Bilbo riddle battle – one of my favourite scenes of the year in film thanks to a once again, godlike performance from Andy Serkis. Bombur being hit by a sausage and falling through the table also had me cracking up and lastly the introduction of the legless goblin messenger flipping his shit whilst traveling along his little zip wire provided a huge unexpected slap to the face of sheer hilarity. end of spoilers The simplicity of the gags perhaps sounds poor on paper but I’m 100% certain that anyone who has seen the film would tell you, that simplicity is what makes the comedy fit flawlessly with An Unexpected Journey’s children’s fantasy tale.
Although I made the profoundly regrettable decision to see An Unexpected Journey in the standard 2D, it was strikingly obvious that Andrew Lesnie (Head of Photography) really pulled the cat out the bag and produced a collective of absolutely stunning shots for An Unexpected Journey – two of my favourites can be seen above. Everything from shot lighting to shot framing and even shot motion was seamless artistry, I don’t doubt for one second that if I had made the wiser choice to watch it in the i max screening I would have been completely blown away by his work. Though having not seen the film for sometime, the soundtrack from what I remember was a wonderful, tense and dramatic ensemble featuring the unforgettable dwarf anthem, the Misty Mountain song (21:55 in the video below.)
An Unexpected Journeys plot and characterizations also played out marvelously. Seeing Bilbo’s sincere mercy in sparing the creature Gollum added that needed depth to Bilbo’s character, hats off to Martin Freeman for doing such a great job managing to provide some of the years best acting in that scene. Seeing the dwarfs for the first time, becoming aware of their boisterous antics, rowdy nature and perhaps even a certain simple mindedness and how later in the heat of the action these traits make them into some of the fiercest fighters known added an interesting touch as well; even more intriguing was the somewhat tragic back story of Thorin Oakenshield, his tense and unresolved rivalry with the foul White Orc and his souls desire to return to his peoples home in the Mountain and slay the dragon Smaug who was the cause of most all the devastation. Best of all was the mystery surrounding the devious necromancer discovered by the ever so strange, mushroom fanatic Radagast the brown, it will be interesting to see how that all unfolds in The Desolation of Smaug later this year.
Final thoughts: Going into An Unexpected Journey my expectations couldn’t have been higher and honestly I can’t say it disappointed in the slightest, aside from its length I’m not sure there is much wrong with An Unexpected Journey, a film choc-a-block with touching characters, captivating story telling and great technical ability to bring it onto the screen – it definitely has a place on my list of best films of all time. Heres to the agonizing wait for The Desolation of Smaug coming later this year!
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