The Hobbit- PG-13

Running Time: 169 min

Director: Peter Jackson

Lead Actors:  Martin Freeman, Ian McKellen, Richard Armitage

Lord of the Rings fans have long awaited the prequel, The Hobbit, to hit theaters.  J.R.R. Tolkien had no lack of inspiration when writing the prequel to his successful trilogy, and even more adventure was packed into The Hobbit than Tolkien had originally planned. So much more, in fact, that the three hundred page book will be made into three movies.

Set 60 years before The Lord of the Rings trilogy, the movie follows the story of Bilbo Baggins (Martin Freeman), a young hobbit. Gandalf (Ian McKellen) allows 13 dwarves, whose names make a wonderful tongue twister, to ransack Bilbo’s house and raid all of the food from his pantry. Bilbo gets wrapped up in the dwarves’ plan, led by Thorin Oakenshield (Richard Armitage) to reclaim the lost Dwarf Kingdom, Erebor, from the vicious dragon, Smaug. Throughout their journey they encounter trolls, moving mountains that chuck boulders at each other, goblins, elves, orcs, Gollum, and the wizard Radagast (Sylvester McCoy) who drives a sleigh of ferocious bunnies.

The White Orc, Azog (Manu Bennett), hunts the party down throughout the entire movie after placing a price on Thorin’s head because of their long time grudge. Azog, by the way, is hardly even in the book. This expansion alone was enough to provide the first Hobbit installment with much more screen time. The first quarter of the movie however, seems to consist merely of watching the dwarves eat, drink, sing, and merrily toss plates around Bilbo’s kitchen. If Jackson hadn’t expanded on anything in the series, viewers would be hard pressed to sit through three agonizing movies of unending fight scenes – not to say that the first Hobbit movie was anything but. However, there’s still hope for the next two movies.

Returning Lord of the Rings characters Saruman (Christopher Lee), Galadriel (Cate Blanchett), and Elrond (Hugo Weaving) all had wonderful performances despite their limited screen time. Andy Serkis, the actor who played Gollum in the Lord of the Rings trilogy and The Hobbit, very easily could have earned the most chuckles. He had his fair share of and laughable moments, even if some of them probably weren’t supposed to be humorous. In the scene where Bilbo first finds the one ring and runs into the inhumane creature, it was hard for audiences not to burst into laughter at Gollum’s expressions. Even though the scene was supposed to be dark and suspenseful, Serkis blunt tone and animated facial expressions made it difficult for viewers to take his character seriously.

Many aspects of The Hobbit however, did seem to cause a sense of déjà vu in the viewer. Not only did Gandalf call on eagles with the help of a moth again, but the opening scene is nearly the same as that of The Fellowship of the Ring. Frodo (Elijah Wood) runs off to meet Gandalf. Now that a part Bilbo’s tale has reached the big screen, fans can appreciate some of the Bilbo’s comments in the earlier movie. Sauran and the Ring Wraths are even hinted at, and there is no lack of bird’s eye view shots or chase scenes in the orc’s tunnels either. The song “Misty Mountains (Cold)” composed by Howard Shore was a chilling song, even if the composition of the music remained the same for most of the movie. However, it did an excellent job setting the scene and the tone.

Throughout the movie, there was many times where the film seemingly was winding down to the end, only to continue. This movie was lengthy just like all the other Lord of the Rings movies, but The Hobbit seemed to stretch on forever. It didn’t stretch on in a bad way, but there were at least three times when the movie looked like the credits would appear on screen, but they never did. The group would get attacked again, would run away, and then the movie started to slow once more. It was as if Jackson had directed multiple little films in one, with multiple climaxes and falling actions. Freeman’s hesitant character combined with the vivid personalities of the dwarves and the action packed battle scenes, makes for a real treat.