The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey

Last night my family and I went to see The Hobbit. It was a fairly big deal – we’ve not been to the cinema together since Prince Caspian (sensing a theme?). I love the humour of The Hobbit’s narration and knew the film would raise some laughs but was intrigued to see how they‘d stretch the story out over 3 full length films. 

And that was the sticking point; I couldn’t shake off the sense of the story having been over-stretched. I tried to sit back and enjoy it- but I couldn’t ignore the fact that it took over half an hour for Bilbo to leave his hole. As enjoyable as the dwarf songs and slapstick humour was, it ruined any chance of Bilbo’s exit feeling rushed. His panic is integral to the story, and without it the plot lost momentum and purpose. 

The action scenes were drawn out and shot so quickly as to mostly be a blur. I’m pretty certain my Dad dozed off for the majority of the fighting scenes without missing much of the plot. As he pointed out, with the exception of the tree/wolves scene, there’s very little character development that takes place during the high-adrenaline scenes. 

It felt like the story was being moulded into a cookie-cut adaptation in order to appeal to an imagined, short attention-spanned audience. Peter Jackson doesn’t pull it off because the fighting scenes are so frequent and drawn out that they loss their tension. It’s blinding clear that all the characters will pull through. I can't help thinking that newcomers to the story will lose interest and Tolkien fans will only notice the inconsistencies. 

I won’t pretend I'll avoid the next two films, but I’m not convinced they’ll be worth the admission cost. It’s ironic that a film about greed has been ruined by an attempt to prioritise revenue over quality. Yes, The Hobbit is a jam-packed book to adapt. But dragging it out over 3 films has meant a lack of direction, tension and purpose. Not to mention losing that satisfying sense of a story well told. This hobbit is unimpressed.