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Michael cieply: participant sank when everyone jumped in, oscars: the road to ‘the hobbit: an unexpected journey’.

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Nearly 10 years after The Lord Of The Rings trilogy wrapped its record- breaking run with a best picture Oscar and more than $3 billion in worldwide ticket sales, director Peter Jackson has done the last thing he expected: He got the band back together for  The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey .  “I came away from Lord Of The Rings with 266 days of shooting three movies and thought I’d never do that again in my life,” says Jackson. “Then we sat down at the first production meeting on The Hobbit , and I flipped to the last page of the schedule, and it was 266 days! It was exactly the same length of time! And I just said, ‘I cannot believe I find myself back at this place again.’ ”

The first in a new trilogy adapting the first book in J.R.R. Tolkien’s classic Middle Earth mythology, Jackson and his crew’s steady hand on The Hobbit offers reassuring creative continuity while pushing the technical envelope by adding stereoscopic 3D and, most controversially, shooting at 48 frames per second.

Related: OSCARS: The Directors

But much like Bilbo Baggins’ own journey, the 10-year road to making The Hobbit followed a wandering path on its way to the screen. Originally pitched to Miramax in 1995 as a standalone film that could lead into The Lord Of The Rings , The Hobbit rights were split between the Saul Zaentz Company and MGM, and a fix was not possible at the time, Jackson says.

Those issues remained even after the Rings trilogy was completed in 2003, though Warner Bros. tapped Jackson and cowriters and producers Fran Walsh and Philippa Boyens a few years later to develop the film anyway in the hopes that a deal would be reached.

Related: Golden Globes Film: Tightest Awards Race In Years

“We would have worked on it for probably two years without a green light, which was a bit soul-destroying really because if you’re committing to something you want to know it’s happening,” says Jackson.

On the creative end, adapting The Hobbit proved a very different animal, says Boyens. Often thought of as a children’s book, The Hobbit also is very episodic, features a lot of characters, and has a tone that darkens considerably as it progresses.

Thinking a different sensibility would freshen up things, Jackson ceded the director’s chair to Guillermo del Toro. “We thought it would be interesting to have another director come onboard with a different sensibility, for the same reasons as they use different directors on Bond movies,” he says.

Related: OSCARS: Handicapping The Screenwriters

But with MGM in bankruptcy and no rights deal in sight, del Toro exited in 2010, prompting Jackson to take back the reins. “We felt a responsibility as producers and also, having developed the project with Guillermo, we had come to realize that his could be a really cool movie,” Jackson says.

Boyens says they started over on the script to tailor it both for Jackson and the cast, which includes returning members Ian McKellen, Andy Serkis, Cate Blanchett, and Hugo Weaving alongside newcomers like Martin Freeman as Bilbo. Of del Toro’s version, Boyens says the biggest change is the portrayal of Bilbo.

Related: OSCARS: Handicapping Lead Actor Race

“It shifted and changed into someone who, rather than being slightly younger and more innocent in the world, once had a sense of longing for adventure and has lost it and become fussy and fusty,” she says.

That led Jackson to Freeman. “We needed a dramatic actor because it is ultimately a dramatic role, but Bilbo Baggins is a much funnier character than Frodo was,” says Jackson. “There’s very few dramatic actors who can do comedy very well, but Martin seemed to possess the perfect qualities.”

Reuniting almost all of the crew from Rings gave Jackson, Boyens, and Walsh freedom to focus on the creative side, with first assistant director Carolynne Cunningham and unit production manager Zane Weiner stepping up to add producer duties and handle logistics.

“Peter’s got so much to worry about with directing that he relies on other people to sort out some of the other problems for him,” says Cunningham.

Drawing on material published in the appendix of The Return Of The King , in addition to the dense text of The Hobbit itself, the project expanded from the original two-film adaptation to a trilogy. Boyens says this was entirely a creative decision and came from structuring the story to work onscreen. “It was really about what we would not be able to tell, what we’d have to leave out of the story,” she says.

Shooting at a high frame rate is something Jackson says has intrigued him for a long time, and he liked the look of the footage he made at 60 frames per second for Universal Studios’ King Kong theme-park ride. Early reaction has been split, however, earning accolades for its remarkable clarity and criticisms for the video-like quality of motion.

Related:   OSCARS: Distinguishing The Best Visual Effects

“It’s certainly different, and people are accustomed, obviously, to 24 frames being the look of film,” says Jackson. “But at the same time, do you also say that we achieved technical perfection in 1927? I mean, with all the technology that exists today, with all the ability we have to shoot 4K images and to project at high frame rates with these huge screens, the sound systems, do we settle for the 1927 standards, or do we say, ‘How can we use this technology to enhance the cinemagoing experience?’ ”

The frame rate had little effect on the 2,176 visual effects shots, says visual effects supervisor Joe Letteri. “There’s more work to be done, but a lot of what we do is independent of the frame rate,” he says.

The switch to 3D meant effects previously done with miniatures had to be done digitally, and advancements in technology meant nothing could be reused from earlier films. The main beneficiary was Gollum, who was completely rebuilt using new techniques to create anatomically correct musculature and more detail without changing the character’s look.

“The amount of detail in Gollum’s eye is more than what we had in his entire body on the first film,” says Letteri.

Technology also made it easier for Andy Serkis to reprise the role. Where he had to perform scenes multiple times for the original both on set and in controlled motion-capture environments, new motion-capture techniques allowed him just to play the character on set with Freeman.

“We played that scene out in its entirety every time we shot it, and it’s a 13-minute scene,” says Serkis. “It’s like a theater piece really, and we just explored it and mined it for everything that it was worth, and Peter shot it from lots of different angles.”

While Gollum has only one scene in the trilogy, Serkis took on additional responsibility as second-unit director. “Pete wanted me to be there because I’ve been through the experience of working on The Lord Of The Rings trilogy and understand the rhythm and pace and stamina involved in keeping performance up during those films,” he says.

With all three films shot back to back, Jackson and crew are finishing The Hobbit: The Desolation Of Smaug for next December, and the concluding The Hobbit: There And Back Again for July 2014.

Jackson says he thinks making the trilogies in reverse order will make for a better, more cohesive six-film series in the end. “I think we got a much better unity shooting The Hobbit after The Lord Of The Rings , ironically.”

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The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey

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The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey is a 2012 fantasy drama film directed by Peter Jackson . It is the first of a three-part film adaptation of the 1937 novel "The Hobbit" by J. R. R. Tolkien, to be followed by "The Desolation of Smaug" and "There and Back Again", due for theatrical release in 2013 and 2014, respectively. The three films together will act as prequels to Jackson's "The Lord of the Rings" film trilogy.

• 1 Nominations

Nominations

• Best Makeup and Hairstyling — Peter King , Rick Findlater , Tami Lane
• Best Production Design — Dan Hennah , Ra Vincent , Simon Bright
• Best Visual Effects — Joe Letteri , Eric Saindon , David Clayton , R.Christopher White

The films follows title character Bilbo Baggins, who is swept into an epic quest to reclaim the lost Dwarf Kingdom of Erebor, which was long ago conquered by the dragon Smaug. Approached out of the blue by the wizard Gandalf the Grey, Bilbo finds himself joining a company of thirteen dwarves led by the legendary warrior Thorin Oakenshield. Their journey will take them into the Wild; through treacherous lands swarming with Goblins and Orcs, deadly Wargs and Giant Spiders, Shapeshifters and Sorcerers. Although their goal lies to the East and the wastelands of the Lonely Mountain, first they must escape the goblin tunnels, where Bilbo meets the creature that will change his life forever... Gollum. Here, alone with Gollum, on the shores of an underground lake, the unassuming Bilbo Baggins not only discovers depths of guile and courage that surprise even him, he also gains possession of Gollum's "precious" ring that holds unexpected and useful qualities... A simple, gold ring that is tied to the fate of all Middle-earth in ways Bilbo cannot begin to know.

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• 2 Quentin Tarantino

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The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey

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Watch The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey with a subscription on Max, rent on Fandango at Home, Prime Video, Apple TV, or buy on Fandango at Home, Prime Video, Apple TV.

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Peter Jackson's return to Middle-earth is an earnest, visually resplendent trip, but the film's deliberate pace robs the material of some of its majesty.

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Peter Jackson

Ian McKellen

Martin Freeman

Bilbo Baggins

Richard Armitage

Thorin Oakenshield

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'The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey' Is the Best 'Hobbit' Movie Because It's Actually About Bilbo

The first chapter of Peter Jackson's prequel trilogy is a strong introduction to a main character who is all but abandoned by the subsequent films.

It almost goes without saying that expanding The Hobbit into a trilogy was a mistake, and by all accounts the production was chaotic. Guillermo del Toro had developed the project for years before departing, and his exit put a time crunch on Peter Jackson to redesign the entire production shortly before filming began. Shooting without a completed script is generally not a good idea, particularly if it's one of the most expensive productions in history that also requires extensive visual effects work. To do so while also deciding at the last minute to make a two-part story into a trilogy is downright disastrous, and Jackson later admitted he was “winging it” most of the time.

It’s easy to list the issues these films have: shooting in a high frame rate was a gamble that didn’t pay off, the overreliance on CGI made the creatures look cartoony, and despite the excessive runtime, few characters had any depth. However, the film's success was limited from the beginning, as the simplicity of J.R.R. Tolkien ’s original novel doesn’t justify the same epic adventure of The Lord of the Rings . Certainly there are elements of the original novel that retroactively help foreshadow Jackson’s trilogy, including the first appearance of Gollum ( Andy Serkis ), and Gandalf’s ( Ian McKellen ) search for Sauron’s origins were included in Tolkien’s appendices. However, The Hobbit itself is a story about a mild-mannered homebody who gets caught up in a treasure hunt.

RELATED: 'The Lord of the Rings' Producers Reportedly Asked Peter Jackson to Kill Off a Hobbit

It’s almost unfair to call The Hobbit trilogy an adaptation of the 1937 novel, because in actuality it’s just a Lord of the Rings prequel that awkwardly foreshadows a more exciting adventure, undercutting its own story in the process. The dwarves’ quest to retake their homeland from Smaug has little stakes, because we know the infinitely greater threat of Sauron is just on the horizon. The second chapter The Desolation of Smaug is often cited as the trilogy’s high point because it comes the closest to capturing the tone of the Lord of the Rings trilogy, but it's a film where Bilbo ( Martin Freeman ) is basically a supporting character. Of the trilogy, only the first film An Unexpected Journey actually makes use of Bilbo’s unique perspective.

Bilbo is not his nephew Frodo ( Elijah Wood ). He doesn’t leap at the sense of adventure, nor does he seek out new companions; even within the isolated world of The Shire, he’s relatively secluded from the other Hobbits. An Unexpected Journey plays up this “fish out of water” element as Bilbo is recruited for a quest he has no stake in, and Freeman perfectly captures Bilbo’s uncomfortability and awkwardness. The framing device of the elder Bilbo ( Ian Holm ) recounting his adventures to Frodo highlights the differences between the two. Compared to Frodo’s wide-eyed enthusiasm, Bilbo is reserved and even contemptuous at points, only opening up once he sees what life outside his narrow worldview actually looks like.

Replicating a similar structure to The Fellowship of the Rings actually benefits An Unexpected Journey because The Shire is integral to both stories. Before going on their adventures, Frodo and Bilbo both need to be living in an environment of innocence where the most dramatic occurrence is a squabble between families over party invitations. An Unexpected Journey luxuriates in The Shire and takes its time exploring how the Dwarves disrupt Bilbo’s routine, establishing a naivete that will be weathered by his adventure.

The similar structure also helps highlight the differences between the two Hobbits’ relationship with Gandalf. The bond that Lord of the Rings establishes through Gandalf’s return to The Shire isn’t present here, and seeing the elder wizard playfully tease Bilbo by bringing the chaotic Dwarves is a fun way to get Bilbo out of his comfort zone. Gandalf the Grey is more mischievous than when he became the authoritative “The White” in The Two Towers . Freeman and McKellen have fun banter before they’re burdened by the responsibilities of the quest.

Although it was frequently criticized for the wackier comedic elements, An Unexpected Journey is a children’s story so it makes sense to have a lighter touch. Tolkien’s original novel was aimed at children and didn’t bear the same intensity that The Lord of the Rings did. There’s physical comedy from the Dwarves running rampant within Bilbo’s kitchen and toilet humor coming from goofy Trolls. The second two films took a more serious approach (the extended edition of The Battle of the Five Armies was even Rated-R for its graphic violence), but An Unexpected Journey retains its fairy tale-like quality. Jackson treats many of these creatures with playfulness: it makes sense for the Goblin King to be an eccentric first threat before the graver menace of Smaug is introduced.

The strongest tie between The Hobbit and Lord of the Rings is the scene in which Bilbo receives the ring from Gollum ( Andy Serkis ), something Tolkien himself revised in later editions of the novel in order to tie them closer together. While it has connotations for the fate of the One Ring, the scene in An Unexpected Journey helps highlight Bilbo’s character growth. The game of riddles with Gollum shows Bilbo’s inventiveness, and his aptitude for storytelling which Gandalf mocked early on saves him in a dire situation. Bilbo’s decision to spare Gollum’s life reminds the viewer that despite his newfound resourcefulness, the adventure hasn’t changed his soft heart. In a fleeting look, Bilbo recognizes a mistreated soul within Gollum without knowing he was once a creature not dissimilar from a Hobbit; it's a brilliantly acted moment between Freeman and Serkis.

The weakest parts of An Unexpected Journey are those that stray from Bilbo’s perspective. The conflict between Thorin and the Orc chief Azog ( Manu Bennett ) was an underdeveloped storyline throughout the trilogy. The Dwarves’ desire to return home is constantly undercut when the films divert and start introducing more Lord of the Rings characters, but the final conflict with the Orcs in An Unexpected Journey works because it shows Bilbo’s merit within the quest. Thorin’s ambition gets the better of him, and Bilbo’s willingness to take on Azog shows just how much he’s grown since his diminutive introduction. It’s a great moment of development for both characters: Thorin is humbled and recants his harsh early words about the Hobbit, and Bilbo realizes he’s become invested in helping the Dwarves find a home as comforting as the Shire is to him. It functions perfectly as the middle point in a two-part adventure, as it was originally intended to be.

The Hobbit films are largely underwhelming, but there’s merit in all three. Desolation of Smaug features some jaw dropping spectacle and incredible motion capture work from Benedict Cumberbatch , and The Battle of the Five Armies is genuinely weird thanks to grotesque creature feature elements reminiscent of Jackson’s early horror work like Bad Taste , Meet the Feebles , and Braindead . The two sequels are a collection of fun scenes and callbacks that never coalesce into a cohesive narrative, but An Unexpected Journey actually remembers who is telling the story. Ironically lost within his own trilogy, Bilbo’s individuality is only the focus of the opening chapter; a story that’s also referred to as There and Back Again at least gets the first half right.

KEEP READING: 'Lord of the Rings' Timeline Explained: Middle-earth from 'The Silmarillion' to 'The Hobbit' & Beyond

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The hobbit: an unexpected journey.

FILM REVIEW: More is less in Peter Jackson's gargantuan first installment of the new Tolkien trilogy.

By Todd McCarthy

Todd McCarthy

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Martin Freeman comes into his own as Bilbo Baggins.

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There has almost certainly never been an adaptation of a novel more studiously, scrupulously and strenuously faithful as Peter Jackson’s film of J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey . Spending nearly three hours of screen time to visually represent every comma, period and semicolon in the first six chapters of the perennially popular 19-chapter book, Jackson and his colleagues have created a purist’s delight, something the millions of die-hard fans of his Lord of the Rings trilogy will gorge upon. In pure movie terms, however, it’s a bit of a slog, with an inordinate amount of exposition and lack of strong forward movement. Still, based on its maker, source and gigantic promotional campaign, this first section to the long-awaited prequel to Rings no doubt will mine equivalent amounts of box-office gold, as will its follow-ups.

If Hobbit had been filmed shortly after the book’s publication in 1937 (it’s a wonder that it wasn’t), one easily could imagine a lively affair full of great character actors and cleverly goofy special effects that would have moved the story along in smart style in less than two hours. In Jackson’s academically fastidious telling, however, it’s as if The Wizard of Oz had taken nearly an hour just to get out of Kansas. There are elements in this new film that are as spectacular as much of the Rings trilogy was, but there is much that is flat-footed and tedious as well. This might be one venture where, rather than DVDs offering an “Expanded Director’s Version,” there might be an appetite for a “Condensed Director’s Cut” in a single normal-length film.

Jackson announced his interest in filming Hobbit as early as 1995, before Rings , but was prevented from moving ahead by knotty rights issues. Once the venture came to life again, there were even more hassles involving ownership, lawsuits, studios coming and going and the initial involvement of Guillermo del Toro as director. (He eventually stepped aside but retains co-screenplay credit along with Jackson and his Rings partners Fran Walsh and Philippa Boyens.) At first proposed as a two-part saga, it then became three, following the lead of the Harry Potter and Twilight series to split stories into the maximum number of installments.

Then there is Jackson’s decision to film not only in 3D but in 48 frames per second, double the standard number. The results are interesting and will be much-debated, but an initial comparison of the two formats weighs against the experiment; the print shown at the Warner Bros. review screening, while striking in some of the big spectacle scenes, predominantly looked like ultravivid television video, paradoxically lending the film an oddly theatrical look, especially in the cramped interior scenes in Bilbo Baggins’ home. For its part, the 24 fps 3D version had a softer, noticeably more textured image quality.

One of the reasons Hobbit is so bulked up is that Jackson has filled it out with an enormous amount of backstory relevant to the characters at hand. In doing so, he is able to provide a titanic opening battle sequence, one in which a wealthy ancient kingdom of dwarves alongside the Lonely Mountain is decimated by fearsome giant trolls. One of the only survivors is the heir to the throne, Thorin, whose effort to reclaim the kingdom will occupy the thrust of the story.

First, however, there is the hokey business of introducing the motley crew of knights who will undertake this daunting task, 13 dwarves, led by Thorin (Richard Armitage), whose facial hair looks more imposing than their musculature. They are guided by the towering wizard Gandalf the Grey (Ian McKellen, back for another tour of Middle-earth), who approaches the mild-mannered Bilbo (Martin Freeman) to propose that he “share in an adventure,” the nature of which is unfamiliar to the pointy-eared stay-at-home.

The gaggle of uninvited guests makes themselves right at home in Bilbo’s cozy underground abode, making short work of his food and drink and in every way behaving presumptuously. A little of their dwarf talk goes a long way, and a filmmaker intent on getting his show on the road would have dispensed with this repast in half the time or less; it’s not as if there’s going to be a quiz on the identity of each dwarf before the journey can proceed. Some of Jackson’s blocking, setups and compositions in this long introduction are downright clumsy, in the service of notably lame japes and gags.

More backstory battle footage spikes things up again as the long journey begins in earnest. An initial glimpse of what the little guys are up against comes in the form of three giant trolls, who make off with a couple of ponies to eat and indulge in a Cockney-flavored Three Stooges routine as they prepare to roast the dwarves.

At length, the sojourners arrive at Rivendell, home of Gandalf’s friend Elf Lord Elrond (Hugo Weaving) and, in cameos, Queen Galadriel (a returning Cate Blanchett) and Saruman (Christopher Lee). Gandalf and the dwarves receive help with maps and a key at this stop in order to penetrate the cave full of gold guarded by the dragon Smaug.

But the way ahead becomes increasingly treacherous, what with mountains that abruptly come alive as heaps of rock that battle one another; the malignant Gollum (the again superb Andy Serkis, in eye-bulging Peter Lorre mode), who engages Bilbo in a winner-take-all riddle contest; and, quite scarily, repulsive trolls who give chase on ferocious, wolflike wargs.

It takes Jackson a long time to build up a head of steam, but he delivers the goods in the final stretch, which is paralleled by the hitherto ineffectual Bilbo beginning to come into his own as a character. One of Tolkien’s shrewdest strategies in writing Hobbit and designing it to appeal to both youngsters and adults was making Bilbo a childlike grown-up who matures and assumes responsibilities he initially perceives are beyond him. Freeman, who at first seems bland in the role, similarly grows into the part, giving hope that the character will continue to blossom in the two forthcoming installments.

The dwarves are pretty interchangeable, though Armitage has a strong bearing as the royal heir. There’s nothing McKellen can do to surprise anymore as Gandalf, but his presence is reassuring to the audience.

In terms of production values, Hobbit is comparable to what Jackson and his team accomplished on the Rings outings; he has reunited with such key trilogy collaborators as cinematographer Andrew Lesnie, production designer Dan Hennah (supervising art director and set decorator on the Rings films) and masses of effects artists and technicians from his Weta shop. Because of technological advances and 3D technology, in some ways the new film moves beyond into new territory, and there assuredly will be more spectacle in the next two installments, which will be subtitled The Desolation of Smaug and There and Back Again (the subtitle of Tolkien’s entire novel).

The score by Howard Shore, who wrote the music for the trilogy, effectively backs the action, nearly every second of it.

The end credits run 16 minutes, certainly a record or close to it, bringing the total running time to six minutes short of three hours.

Opens: Friday, Dec. 14 (Warner Bros.) Cast: Ian McKellen, Martin Freeman, Richard Armitage, Cate Blanchett, Ian Holm, Elijah Wood Director: Peter Jackson Rated PG-13, 174 minutes

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• "In pure movie terms, however, it's also a bit of a slog (...) There are elements in this new film that are as spectacular as much of the Rings trilogy was, but there is much that is flat-footed and tedious as well, especially in the early going."  Todd McCarthy : The Hollywood Reporter
• "The movie lacks majesty. Grand in parts, the movie is too often grandiose or grandiloquent; and the running time is indefensible."  Richard Corliss : Time
• "The Hobbit alternately rewards and abuses auds' appetite for all things Middle-earth. (...) The primary advance here is technical (...) an innovation that improves motion at the expense of visual elegance.  Peter Debruge : Variety
• "Serkis helps turn The Hobbit into everything you wished for—a fantasy with the power to haunt your dreams. Too bad it takes the movie so damn long to get there (...) Rating: ★★½ (out of four)"   Peter Travers : Rolling Stone
• "Subtitled “An Unexpected Journey,” though that does little justice to the result. Had Jackson been more accurate, he would have called it 'Not Quite There Yet,' or 'Still Some Way to Go' (...) it leaves us more astounded than moved"   Anthony Lane : The New Yorker
• "Piles on enough eye candy and action sequences to please fans, plus more humor than the three 'Rings' films - even if it only occasionally achieves the trio's grandeur (...) Rating: ★★★ (out of four)"  Lou Lumenick : New York Post
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‘The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey’ Gains 3 Oscar Nominations

Our congratulations to The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey ! The film has been nominated for three Oscars in the following categories:

Makeup and Hairstyling Peter Swords King, Rick Findlater, and Tami Lane

Production Design Dan Hennah (Production Design); Ra Vincent and Simon Bright (Set Decoration)

Visual Effects Joe Letteri, Eric Saindon, David Clayton, and R. Christopher White

In addition to the Oscar nominations, the film has also been recently  nominated for 3 BAFTA awards  for Special Visual Effects, Sound, and Make Up and Hair.

What do you think, fans? Should the film have received more? Less? Let us know your thoughts in our comment section below.

Click here for a full list of 2013 Oscar nominations.

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Review: ‘The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey’ Rallies From A Goofy Opening To Become Another Thrilling, If Familiar, Action-Adventure Epic

Rodrigo perez.

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At almost three hours, Peter Jackson ’s fourth foray into the world of J.R.R. Tolkien , “ The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey ” is initially worrisome and typically self-indulgent. An extremely jarring 48 fps look — which looks like an odd “ Masterpiece Theater ” in HD — is unsettling, and the opening is slow-going and tepidly genteel, taking its time with two prologues, one that includes an aged Bilbo Baggins ( Ian Holm ) and Frodo Baggins ( Elijah Wood ). And while “ The Lord Of The Rings ” films always sported a jovial and light-hearted tone, ‘The Hobbit’ (set some 60 years before the events of ‘LOTR’) ratchets up the goofiness to a near unfortunate level (yes, the source material is more of a kids’ book, but even this is a little much).

But while the first act meanders to put the story in place, and is perhaps sillier than ‘LOTR’ movie fans are used to (lots of songs and merriment without much of a rudder), once ‘An Unexpected Journey’ gets cooking, it takes off into a familiar but deeply entertaining rhythm full of all the wonder, action, spectacle and visual dazzle Jackson provided in his original trilogy. Tonally, aside from the more childish opening, ‘The Hobbit’ falls in line with the previous triad as well; films that mix loyalty, friendship, honor and duty with a blend of humor, soulfulness and heart.

48 frames per second is essentially harsh-looking and disconcerting…until it isn’t. It’s incredible how discordant and off-putting the increased frame rate appears to the human eye initially, but as Jackson himself has asserted, audiences will tend to forget (and or tolerate) once they’re absorbed into the story (though admittedly it takes a good hour, and the experience will be both subjective and divisive). And becoming engaged in ‘The Hobbit’ once the adventure truly starts isn’t difficult. In fact, by the third act when the action is at its thunderous peak, the 3D/48 fps visuals are wholeheartedly spectacular. Indeed, a few moments of panoramic action vistas are as stunning and gorgeous as anything seen in “ Avatar ,” “ Hugo ” or “ Life Of Pi .”

But again, the two-tiered opening means that ‘The Hobbit’ is slow going at first. One prologue focuses on Smaug — a ferocious dragon who plunders the gold and riches of the Dwarf Kingdom of Erebor — and the other centers on the aforementioned Frodo preface where Bilbo sets out to record his ‘The Hobbit’ adventure in novel form (both of which aren’t very dissimilar from “ The Fellowship Of The Rings ” opening). From there the film flashes back 60 years to when Gandalf The Grey ( Sir Ian McKellen ) unexpectedly comes to visit a young and over-fussy hobbit named Bilbo Baggins (played by Martin Freeman  who fits into Jackson’s world like a snug glove).

Much to his chagrin, Bilbo eventually finds himself hosting a dinner for a troupe of 13 bad-mannered and graceless Dwarves led by the legendary warrior, Thorin Oakenshield ( Richard Armitage ). Unlike the ‘LOTR’ adventure, ‘The Hobbit’ isn’t centered on saving Middle Earth from falling into despair and darkness, and thus saving the world. Instead, it’s a story of pride, honor and heritage. Essentially a tribe without a home, the Dwarves’ quest is to reclaim the riches of Erebor and from Smaug and restore their clans’ honor. In need of a burglar on their mission, Gandalf picks the unlikely Bilbo to take the role, but the Hobbit is typically disinterested in disrupting his safe and leisurely existence in The Shire. Soon, however, the spark that Gandalf saw in him years ago is awakened, and off he goes with this new fellowship in search of the Lonely Mountain where the great Smaug resides.

The journey is typically perilous. In these treacherously wild lands the troupe finds them teeming with Goblins, Orcs, deadly Wargs, including a mysterious figure known as the Necromancer. And of course there is Gollum, the hideous and tormented creature played with motion-capture excellence by Andy Serkis . With the technology having moved almost 10 years forward, Gollum is even more spectacular and life-like with every crevice and contour of his sinister face appearing tactile.

If that sounds familiar in narrative, that’s because it is. ‘The Hobbit’ sticks to the formula, but as much as the picture follows the conventional narrative, its thrills and set pieces are so satisfying and epic, sometimes it’s easily forgotten and forgivable. And while the quirky wizard Radagast The Brown ( Sylvester McCoy ) is a silly character, comparisons to the asinine Jar Jar Binks character from the “Star Wars” prequels are far overstated.

Returning to the fold from the original series along the adventure are brief appearances in Rivendell by Saruman ( Christopher Lee ), Lord Elrond ( Hugo Weaving ) and the Elf Queen Lady Galadriel ( Cate Blanchett ), but those expecting more characters from the original film (Legolas, at the very least is set to appear at some point), will have to wait. While most of the Dwarves blend together, aside from the largely humorless and bitter Oakenshield (playing an angrier version of Aragorn), four of them do stand out: the eldest and wise Balin ( Ken Scott ), the charming Bofur ( James Nesbitt ) and the two handsome fighters Kili and Fili ( Dean O’Gorman and Aidan Turner ).

Fans of Guillermo del Toro shouldn’t look for too hard for evidence of the director’s distinctive visual stamp. While del Toro is credited as one of the four writers on the project, aside from an elaborate Goblin king and a few gothic flourishes here and there, the milieu and world of ‘The Hobbit’ certainly fits in the parameters of the universe we’ve seen before. And  George Lucas should pay particular attention. His “ Star Wars ” musical cues veered away from iconic themes in the prequels to its detriment. Howard Shore hews closely to his Oscar-winning ‘LOTR’ score without rehashing itself too often, and it wholeheartedly works.

It’s difficult to imagine a time when Peter Jackson only really had the inventive but small-scale “ Heavenly Creatures ” under his belt and had to convince New Line Cinema that he was the right man for the job. It was a gamble then, but Jackson has since risen to be on par with Steven   Spielberg and James Cameron for action-adventure spectacle, and ‘The Hobbit’ continues his reign at the genre’s forefront, not only from a visual and storytelling aspect, but also from a technological one.

Perhaps a sequence involving the gigantic eagles from ‘Lord Of The Rings’ might best sum up the experience of ‘The Hobbit’; their appearance is predictably convenient (perhaps maddeningly so), but the sequence is so visually breathtaking that its grandeur takes over. In general, the action vistas from the second and third act are phenomenal. Those who thought Spielberg upped his game with the action set pieces of “ The Adventures Of   Tintin ” will be impressed; those 3D animated sequences do not hold a candle here.

48 fps will certainly be a deal breaker for some, and those who may want to have a “clean” and less distracting experience will want to check out the picture in a regular 24fps/3D environment before taking the plunge into this brave new HD world. In the end, length doesn’t matter too much, because when ‘The Hobbit’ begins to snowball, its momentum rushes delightfully through its 2-hour-and-50-minute running time.

While it will be too formulaic and familiar to some (and certainly non-fans won’t be won over), ‘The Hobbit’ is another grand achievement from director Peter Jackson. While this distended picture threatens to buckle under the weight of its own self-importantance, Peter Jackson clearly believes he’s earned the right to preamble and make nearly three-hour-long tentpoles each time out of the gate. And the last two acts of ‘The Hobbit’ are simply a non-stop action-adventure rollercoaster that is just as engaging and winning as anything in the director’s previous trilogy. As epic, grandiose, and emotionally appealing as the previous pictures, ‘The Hobbit’ doesn’t move far from the mold, but it’s a thrilling ride that’s one of the most enjoyable, exciting and engaging tentpoles of the year. [B+]

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First Trailer For The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey

Though there's technically still the work week between December 26 and December 30, this is really the final hurrah for Hollywood in 2011. Once this week is done everything hits pause until the calendar turns over and we start the madness again in 2012. For that reason, we'll be seeing trailers for the biggest movie releases of next year pop up over the next few days. Just yesterday we watched trailers for The Dark Knight Rises, 21 Jump Street and Wrath of the Titans while also learning that the first trailer for Prometheus is set to arrive on Thursday. But tonight is dedicated to what is most definitely in the upper echelon of "most anticipated films" for 2012. I am, of course, talking about Peter Jackson's The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey .

The first trailer for Jackson's epic has arrived online. Check it out below!

A prequel to Jackson's Oscar-winning Lord of the Rings trilogy, The Hobbit : An Unexpected Journey tells the story of Bilbo Baggins ( Martin Freeman ) as he and a group of dwarves head to the Lonely Mountain to retrieve a piece of treasure from a giant dragon called Smaug. Warner Bros. has also sent over the first posters for the movie, which you can see below. Click on each one to see it in high-res.

The film is the first of two movies, with the second half - The Hobbit: There And Back Again - to be released in 2013. The newest Peter Jackson movie will arrive in theaters on December 14, 2012 and, as always, you can find more about the film over in our Blend Film Database.

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The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey (2012)

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