‘The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey’ Adds Content Without Skimping on the Book

Movie going for the sake of geeking out over the long awaited prequel to the Lord of the Rings trilogy is probably not a good reason to go see “The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey” which opened up in theaters this weekend. And by that I mean picking apart every single detail and how incomprehensible it seems when compared to the original story or how poorly it holds up as a good movie.

The fact that director Peter Jackson made a movie trilogy out of a 305-page book all because it is the prequel of a trilogy that is in fact three books long might not translate well with J.R.R. Tolkien fans. It having been shot 48-frames-per-second really doesn’t help the fact that some of the scenes in the movie are just plain boring. The action scenes, which run true to the original story for the most part, are the ones that benefit most.

There is the scene where Bilbo and the group get captured by mountain trolls after trying to steal their gold and the thunder-battle scene in the Misty Mountains. There’s the scene where Bilbo and the Burglars get kidnapped by Goblins and are forced into combat at the exposure of Orcrist the goblin slaying sword. Lastly, there is the scene where Bilbo escapes from Gollum and reunites with the party outside only to be chased into a tree by goblins on wargs.

Those scenes remain pretty true to the original story while being enhanced in a way that only Jackson’s technique could accomplish. The scenes of the party forming inside of Bilbo’s home and the riddles in the dark scene were also pretty true to the original story. The argument could be made that it sort of slowed things down in the end and only added fluff that was incredibly boring to watch but at least they weren’t cut from the movie entirely in order to save on time for the rest of the more action-packed scenes. Maybe that’s why Jackson decided to turn this book into three movies, incorporating extra content and a more complicated plot, because he didn’t want to miss one single detail.

It’s the added content that slows down the pace at which the original story unfolds the most. For example, the scene at the very beginning where a grey-haired Bilbo sends his adopted son Frodo off to the market might be a little unnecessary as it is not where the original story starts and completely unnecessary to help viewers figure out time-wise that the events that are about to unfold came before The Lord of the Rings.

The meeting between Gandalf, Saruman, Elrond, and Galadriel was also a little overworked but an integral part of the added plot line that Jackson is using to connect the original hobbit story to the lord of the rings storyline and the introduction of the dark force of the necromancers.

The added character Radagast the Brown Wizard is probably the only changed element to the story that offers somewhat of a relief from the otherwise ominous introduction of necromancers. He is shown hustling about the forest on a sleigh pulled by rabbits. However, he isn’t a wizard in the book and he isn’t introduced in the books story as early as he is in the movie.He is introduced as Beorn in chapter seven where this movie ends.

Despite these changes to the original story, the movie stays true to The Lord of the Rings mood of impending doom while not sacrificing the The Hobbits gay sense of humor and adventure, as it clearly exists in the book. After all it wasn’t all impending doom in the original hobbit story. It was mostly a tale of courage and hope in the reclamation of the Lonely Mountain from the dragon Smaug. It is about the reclamation of a lost home.