The Hobbit's really only has one problem, but it's a substantial one: It's a god damn snorefest. During it's 169-minute runtime, next to nothing happens. I mean seriously if there wasn't any action, I would've fallen asleep in the theater (Hell I might even have drifted off once or twice unbeknownst to me .) It seems that ever since the second half of Return of the King Peter Jackson has loaded his films with filler. This film never reaches the level of filler or overall boredom of his 2005 King Kong remake, but it does suffer from the same lack of excitement problem. Most of the first hour of this film is made up of the group of dwarves that Bilbo accompanies on the titular journey and Gandalf eating a meal at Bilbo's house. I know that sounds absolutely ridiculous, but that is not an exaggeration. After what seems like the longest dinner scene in movie history, It doesn't really get much more exciting. The film is essentially Bilbo and Gandalf assisting the aforementioned dwarves reclaim their home after it's taken from a dragon named Smoag. Along the way they run into trolls (which makes for one of the film's many pitiful attempts at humor), get hunted by orcs, Bilbo has an encounter with Gollum, and they set up the next film with the cheesy and somehow very popular "Villain that was presumed dead waking up> Roll credits." That pretty much sums up the movie so you don't even need to read the Wikipedia summary. This somehow chews up almost three hours of screen time (although it feels like an eternity). Although I've never read the book, Jackson shows with this bloated film that it's stupid to push out a 310-page book into a trilogy. There is probably a little under an hour of legitimate content here amongst the time-wasting pointless conversations and previously mentioned marathon potluck supper.
What almost single-handily saves this film from being a complete waste of time is the action scenes. These sequences are really the only time flashes of the original trilogy shine through. Hopefully there is more of a focus on the orc, troll, dragon, etc battles in the next two instead of the mindless, plodding, empty storytelling that plagues most of this film. I also have to praise the casting. Martin Freeman is perfectly cast as Bilbo and Ian McKellan is a great presence just as he was in the originals as Gandalf. The visuals are also impressive, but were kind of bogged by down the high-frame rate 3D format that I saw it in. The technology is pretty damn impressive, but at the same time it makes it look too realistic and I didn't like slo-mo effect it gave the film. It made some of the effects look like pure shit as well, which is kind of a shame because most of the effects are great.
The Hobbit isn't a terrible film, It's just an incredibly boring one. Peter Jackson really needs to cut down on the length and just get to the damn story and not stuff to the gills with pointless shit. I'm not writing off the franchise just yet and I'll see the other two, but An Unexpected Journey is an overlong and average film with some great action scenes.
2.5/5 Stars
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