The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey (2012)
USA, New Zeland; 169min
Adventure, Fantasy
Director: Peter Jackson
Writers: Fran Walsh, J. R. R. Tolkien (The Hobbit)
Stars: Martin Freeman, Ian McKellen, Richard Armitage

The perfect visual impression, excellent music and great scenery are fully anticipated positives of the last Jackson's movie adaptation of Tolkien's works, but that is, more or less, where the positives stop.

 After a slow and uninteresting, but visually and emotionally nice beginning, in which we see how and why did dwarfs went on their journey and how Bilbo ends up with them, story evolves in even more slower and not too interesting bunch of relatively unconnected adventures. Book intended to be children story and this movie as children movie would be great, but Jackosn's too serious and too dark approach, like one in Lord of the Rings which are more darker stories, made most of the movie torn between something like half comedy children story and dark and strong wannabe Lord of the Rings story.

Indestructibility of group of dwarfs is also terribly unserious even despite it is a fantasy film. Forest wizard with sleighs which are driven by big rabbits and big thick goblins who perform strongly and fall from one touch while telling a joke, just aren't characters for the movie Jackson wanted to made. There is also too often use of deus ex machina which is making the movie even less serious. Comedy sequences are great and very funny and they even fit in dark atmosphere, but basically they are just one more element which is making this story childish.

 A lot of attention was given to unimportant dialogues and scenes while many details are left vaguely, as eagles that help only partially, Saruman and Elvish opposition to return of dwarves, Gandalf power in a one and weakness in other situations, and even the choice of Bilbo.

While the CGI scenes were done almost perfectly, the one without it look amateurish. Camera often hides more than shows, and type of filming dialogues is like one in the soap operas. These were a huge disappointments. On the other hand, acting deserves applause,  although not too big.

Too serious and dark approached in screening of novel which just isn't nor serious nor dark is a fundamental mistake. Despite big backlog when compered with first trilogy, The Hobbit, if anything else, brings beautiful visualization and solid entertainment.

Perfektan vizualni dojam, te izvrsna glazba i scenografija su potpuno očekivane prednosti posljednje Jacksonove ekranizacije Tolkienovog djela, ali tu se više manje s prednostima može i stati.

Nakon sporog i nezanimljivog, ali lijepog početka, kreće još sporija i ne pretjerano zanimljiva radnja koja djeluje kao hrpa kratkih relativno nepovezanih pričica i dogodovština za djecu, te bi kao dječji film funkcionirao izvrsno, kao što je i knjiga zamišljena. Neuništivost skupine patuljaka je također strašno preneozbiljna pa i unatoč tome što je to fantasy film, te se uz likove sa šumskim saonicama koje voze veliki zečevi i velikim debelim goblinima koji snažno nastupaju pa padaju od jednog dodira uz šalu ne može ići na mračni skoro pa triler. Prečesto korištenje deus ex machine i konstantna patetika uzrokuju svojevrsnu odbojnost i gorčinu, ali humoristične sekvence lijepo prijaju i izvrsno su ubačene.

Puno se pažnje pridonjelo nebitnim dijalozima i scenama dok su mnoge pojedinosti ostavljene poprilično nejasne poput spasonosnih orlova koji pomažu samo djelomično, Sarumanovo i vilenjačko protivljenje povratku patuljaka, Gandalfova moć u jednim i nemoć u drugim situacijama, pa čak i sam izbor Bilba.

Dok su scene kojima dominira CGI režiserski odrađene izvrsno, one odrađene klasično djeluju amaterski. Rad kamere koji više skriva nego pokazuje, te način snimanja dijaloga poput onog u sapunicama je veliko razočarenje iako je sama gluma na visokom nivou. Također trolovi kojima nestaju velike ozlijede, orci koji lete metrima u dalj kad na njih skoči hobit isl. lako upadaju u oči.

Preozbiljno i mračno se pristupilo ekranziaciji književnog djela koje jednostavno takvo nije. Unatoč povećem zaostatku za prvom triologijom The Hobbit ako ništa drugo donosi stvarno prekrasnu vizualizaciju i solidnu zabavu.