The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey (Peter Jackson, 2012) Review

I knew it was a good idea to watch The Lord of the Rings trilogy this year. I knew that my friends wanted to see this film so I thought "eh, might as well catch up" and, in case you missed my reviews, I loved the trilogy. Now it's time to go back 60 years before the events of the trilogy because...it was a book, I guess. Better than forcing sequels I guess. Anyway, is this one as good as the rest of the series? Let's find out.

So 60 years before the events of Lord of the Rings, Bilbo Baggins (Martin Freeman) is greeted by Gandalf the Grey (Ian McKellen) who wishes to find someone to help the Dwarves reclaim their land from Smaug the Terrible who is...a giant dragon. Kind of hard to fight off. That night, a group of Dwarves enter Bilbo's home and are joined by Gandalf. They try to convince Bilbo to join them but is reluctant until he finally agrees and the group go off to fight Smaug. On their journey, they have to face the Orc army who are out to stop them. Now Bilbo, Gandalf and the Dwarves must make it to Erebor in one piece so they can reclaim their land.

Now I know that the Tolkien fan boys will love this film and think it'll be the best film of the year. Yeaaah...nooo...maybe? I went in wanting to see certain things and, while I got what I wanted, there were a few things that left be thinking "Oh...that's a bit stupid". Certain character such as Radagast the Brown (Slyvester McCoy) were just annoying and it does start off too slowly and drags a bit but once they get to Rivendell, things REALLY pick up!

I make it sound like it's a bad film. NO! No, of course not. It's a great film. Martin Freeman is great as the new (er...old?) Bilbo Baggins and it was nice to see old Bilbo (Ian Holm) in the prologue. Gandalf is my favourite character in this film because we get to see more of him here than we do in the first trilogy which means he gets some really amazing moments. Speaking of amazing moments, this film has them. Two of my favourite scenes are the 'Riddles in the Dark' scene with Bilbo and Gollum (Andy Serkis) and the EPIC ROCK GIANT FIGHT!

The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey is a good film but it's a little bit underwhelming at times. I think there have been better films this year such as Skyfall and Looper but this is still a good watch. If you haven't seen it, I would recommend it but it's not a must see. It's just a good time. Now, how far should I run to escape the Tolkien fan boys because I'm sure they'll be mad that I didn't give this the utmost praise? I'm sure I'll be around to review another Christmas film for you.

Verdict:
8.5/10
A LITTLE bit underwhelming but the rest was exactly what I wanted to see. Martin Freeman is great as the lead and the things seen on the journey are pretty damn amazing.