THE HOBBIT: AN UNEXPECTED JOURNEY (2012)

With the release of THE LORD OF THE RINGS: THE FELLOWSHIP OF THE RING in 2001, Peter Jackson gave birth to a cinematic cult that has had few equals in the history of movies. Taking a much-revered fantasy opus, Jackson wove magic out of his frames, bringing Middle-Earth to startling life on the big screen. Gandalf, Frodo, Aragorn, Gollum and Sauron were soon to become household names, a feat which Tolkien’s book alone never could have achieved. LOTR brought fantasy-geekdom into the mainstream, while at the same time, bringing in billions of dollars for the producers. With the spectacular end to the trilogy in the form of THE RETURN OF THE KING in 2003, it was only a matter of time before the franchise was restarted. But if THE HOBBIT: AN UNEXPECTED JOURNEY is any indication of what is to come for this once-illustrious franchise, I am scared. Scared because this Peter Jackson is tired. Far too tired to create anything of worth. 

I am a diehard LOTR fan, like many people who have watched the movie or/and read the book. I was perfectly prepared to be blown away by an epic tale of loyalty, belonging, heroism and Ian McKellen talking through a huge beard. What I got was an overlong movie which never even takes its own themes or characters seriously enough to make us care about them. The film is basically a collection of vignettes where a bunch of near-helpless, but exceptionally arrogant dwarves (who look far taller here than they have ever been in any movie I have seen) stumble around Middle Earth trying to go to their lost kingdom of ... something Lonely Mountain whatever, while Gandalf leaves them at periodic intervals only to come back just as they are about to be eaten/torn apart/impaled/incinerated and saves them all with a burst of white light. I tell you, the Balrog would fancy his chances of “pass”-ing against this Gandalf. I ruefully remembered the euphoric appeal of Gandalf’s appearance on a cliff at sunrise at the Battle of Helm’s Deep with the Eorlingas, just as Gondor was about to fall. Now, that was a Gandalf we all admired. When that Gandalf spoke of a “dark evil” spreading across the land, shivers went up your spine. This Gandalf is so much of a juvenile nincompoop that not even his dwarf fellowship members give his magical power much credit. I cannot forgive Peter Jackson for ruining Gandalf for me. And that is not the only sin of the film.

  AN UNEXPECTED JOURNEY did not work for me, for a variety of reasons. The lack of any imposing villains being prime among them. Although I have immense faith in Benedict Cumberbatch who is to play Smaug the dragon in this trilogy, he was nowhere to be seen throughout the duration of the film. But then again, we rarely saw Sauron throughout the entire LOTR trilogy too. But that didn’t stop the audience from fearing the malevolent Eye of Sauron. In the meanwhie, the Ringwraiths and Saruman served as excellent substitute villains. No such luck here. Here we have a laughable tubby little Goblin King, three stupid trolls and a pale Orc who seems to love saying “dwarf-scum” in Orkish. Another problem with the film is that its situations and events have no depth or heft. When Frodo and the Fellowship set out to throw the One Ring into Mount Doom, we were aware of the consequences of what they were doing. It was a heroic journey, a quest in the truest sense of the term. It drove the film and gave it a purpose. Here, a bunch of greedy dwarves set out to recover the gold the bad dragon stole from them. The climax of AN UNEXPECTED JOURNEY takes place on a cliff-edge where the majority of the protagonists are stuck in a tree which is steadily tipping over the edge of the cliff, which reminded me of similar situations in ludicrous Bollywood movies like RAJU CHACHA and WELCOME. There is not one scene in this pathetic bore of a film that matches the ferocious battle at the watch-tower of Amon Sul, or the grandeur of the statues of Parth Galen, or the showdown between Arwen and the Nazgul at the Fords of Bruinen. 

 The film perks up once Gollum enters, but well, that’s just for about one scene. Andy Serkis’ genius shines through in his limited screen time though.Martin Freeman too, does the best he can with his shoddy material. The cinematography and locations are top-notch as usual, but there may be one shot too many of a small line of dwarves and ponies on a snow-covered mountain. Indeed, the technical aspects of the film are as good as one can expect from a Peter Jackson film, but this visual magnificence is hardly used at the service of plot and characterization.

A badly-made fantasy sleepathon from a franchise and a director from whom we have come to expect great things. Terribly disappointing. 4/10.