As The Rings of Power brings Middle-Earth back to screens everywhere, let's look back to see how the first Hobbit film holds up after nearly a decade.
With the latest adventure into J.R.R. Tolkien’s world of Middle-Earth, The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power, recently kicking off its first season on Prime Video, there has been a lot of discussion about the various on-screen iterations of Middle-Earth. While Peter Jackson’s Lord of the Rings trilogy from the early 2000s usually dominates the conversation (as it should, it’s the best trilogy of films to ever be put to screen), Jackson’s prequel trilogy of films based on The Hobbit are the second most-notable instance of Middle-Earth on film.
Jackson’s Hobbit trilogy is a bit of a mixed bag. It’s nowhere near the quality of the Lord of the Rings films, but that doesn’t mean that the movies are entirely without merit. All three movies bring their own great things to the table, in addition to some aspects that keep them from being truly excellent. With The Rings of Power currently bringing the world of Middle-Earth back to life through streaming, now is a good time to revisit the Hobbit trilogy to see how the films have aged over the nearly 10 years since their release.
As one might expect, it’s best to start with the first film in the trilogy. The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey was released in December 2012 and was generally well received at the time, but the difference in quality between it and The Lord of the Rings was already apparent. Here’s what worked and what didn’t:
The world of Middle-Earth was pretty perfectly established in Jackson’s Lord of the Rings films. It immediately became one of the most iconic fantasy worlds ever seen on film, and every location was brought to life with incredible detail and personality. An Unexpected Journey brings audiences right back into the world they had last seen in The Return of the King nine years prior. The film wastes no time establishing itself in the same continuity as Jackson’s Lord of the Rings, as it opens in The Shire just prior to the events of the first trilogy. Ian Holm returns as the elderly Bilbo Baggins and Elijah Wood also makes a surprise appearance as Frodo. Jackson uses this opening to re-introduce the audience to the world through the same blissful atmosphere of The Shire that was first seen at the beginning of The Fellowship of the Ring.
The film then flashes back to a younger Bilbo and the adventure that drives this trilogy of films. An Unexpected Journey visits many of the same locations as Fellowship, as Bilbo, Gandalf and the company of Dwarves travel across the vast landscapes of Middle-Earth, visiting Rivendell along the way (where Elrond, Galadriel, and Saruman also come into play) before trekking through the treacherous Misty Mountains. For much of the film, the group travels along a similar route to Sam, Frodo, and the rest of the Fellowship in the first half of that film. Weathertop, where Frodo would one day be stabbed by the Witch King, also appears, as it is where the villainous white orc Azog rallies his forces about halfway through the film.
An Unexpected Journey doesn’t solely rely on revisiting previously established locations in Middle-Earth, though. The film also brings many new locations into the fold, most chiefly that of the Lonely Mountain Erebor and the territory surrounding it. While the Fellowship visited the ruins of Moria in Fellowship of the Ring, the Lord of the Rings films never actually depicted an active and thriving Dwarven civilization. The prologue to An Unexpected Journey finally gives audiences that, as it details the lives of the Dwarves prior to their eviction via dragon fire. It expands the on-screen world of Middle-Earth that was established in the previous trilogy, and it does so in a way that feels very natural within the universe. So to sum it all up, An Unexpected Journey does a wonderful job of reintroducing the world of Middle-Earth and building on it in meaningful new ways.
While it is well-known that The Hobbit, as a book, is much more of a children’s story than The Lord of the Rings, the trilogy of Hobbit films had a difficult line to walk with its tone. Many people came into An Unexpected Journey expecting it to strike the same balance between humor and heavy fantasy that the previous films had. For the most part, An Unexpected Journey does deliver on that same tone, as it feels very at home alongside the Lord of the Rings films.
However, the movie couldn’t just outright ignore the much lighter-hearted atmosphere of The Hobbit book. As a result, there are multiple occasions within An Unexpected Journey when the film suddenly shifts into a much sillier and more child-friendly tone. Of course, there are plenty of instances of this with the Dwarven company, as several of the Dwarves are just humorous caricatures that don’t really bring much to the movie other than providing a few laughs here and there (looking at you Bifur and Bombur). Although the Dwarves can get a little cartoony, much of that actually works because their silliness is contrasted against the seriousness and dramatic weight brought by Thorin, Balin, Bilbo, and Gandalf.
Beyond that, many of the film’s silliest moments come from Radagast, the Brown Wizard. While Radagast is mentioned in the original book, his inclusion in the film was an entirely new addition from Jackson. There are few details provided about Radagast throughout Tolkien’s Middle-Earth bibliography, but it is established that he does have a strong devotion to the plants and animals of the world. The silliness of the character in An Unexpected Journey, though, is largely a creative decision made for the film. Making Radagast such a whimsical and cartoony character would make sense if the film was as light-hearted as the book, but since the movie attempts to strike a similar tone to The Lord of the Rings, many of Radagast’s scenes feel out of place and awkward.
Related: Every Lord of the Rings and Hobbit Movie, Ranked
One of the most crucial aspects to crafting the atmosphere of the original Lord of the Rings films was the incredible musical score from composer Howard Shore. Across those films, Shore produced one of the best scores in film history, which he deservedly won three Oscars for (though he oddly wasn’t even nominated for The Two Towers). As such, it was a no-brainer to bring Shore back for the Hobbit trilogy.
Shore’s return to the musical side of Middle-Earth is another important contributor to how well An Unexpected Journey recaptures the feel of the world. Many of Shore’s most impressive and memorable themes and motifs from The Lord of the Rings can be heard here, ranging from the quaint melodies of The Shire, to the sweeping grandiosity of Rivendell, the enchanting theme for the One Ring, and the terrifying music of the Nazgul.
Just as An Unexpected Journey balanced its adventure between familiar and new locations, Shore does the same with his score. Though much of the music from The Lord of the Rings can be heard in the first Hobbit film, there are also plenty of excellent new themes and songs that round out the score and establish its own identity. Whether it be the bombastic nature of the Dwarven theme (built off the incredible Misty Mountains song the company sings in the film’s opening act) or the dread-inducing brass that accompanies Azog the Defiler, there are plenty of new musical explorations in The Hobbit to make the score live up to the high expectations set by that of the previous films.
Whereas the Lord of the Rings films are praised for having a number of truly incredible action sequences, such as the Battle of Helms Deep, An Unexpected Journey drops the ball on this front a bit. Oddly enough, it doesn’t do this by having bad fight scenes, but rather by having generic and serviceable ones.
While there are some action sequences in the film that are exciting, such as the prologue of Smaug attacking Erebor or the Warg chase sequence, most of the film’s fights are just a flurry of people swinging swords and axes at various computer-generated foes. There are also a number of moments, particularly as the Dwarves are escaping the Goblin caves, that are overly contrived and convenient. They feel less like genuine action developments and more like a writer sitting in a room and saying “Wouldn’t it be fun if a dwarf caught all these goblins between the rungs on a ladder?”.
The action sequences of An Unexpected Journey don’t carry much dramatic weight to them. Instead, they are just a mess of CGI creatures being thrown around and hit with axes. While a movie is certainly more than its action sequences, the lackluster fights of this film really hinder the final act of the movie. The last third of the film goes straight from the goblin caves to a different fight between the Dwarves and Azog’s gang of orcs. While it’s understandable to have Azog show up in the final act, as the movie establishes him as the central antagonist to Thorin, that final action sequence is just as messy as the one that preceded it. The result is that the film doesn’t end on a very strong note, which leaves the audience focusing on that final sour taste, rather than all the excellent material that had come before.
The Lord of the Rings is an ensemble story, with the adventure being shared between Frodo, Sam, Aragorn, Gandalf, and the rest of the Fellowship, but The Hobbit is fairly singular in whose story is being told. Although much of the plot is driven by the Dwarves, with Thorin being the most important character of the group, the heart, and overall central story of The Hobbit centers around Bilbo Baggins. As such, it was crucial to get the casting of the young Bilbo right.
Thankfully, Martin Freeman was the perfect choice for the role. Freeman, who was previously best known for portraying Watson in BBC’s Sherlock series, was the perfect blend of a charismatic leading man and a soft-spoken character actor. He fits excellently into the shoes of the legendary Ian Holm, who played the older version of Bilbo in the previous films, and he really makes the character his own while still embodying the same personality as Holm’s iteration.
Freeman carries the entire Hobbit trilogy on his back, and his performance in An Unexpected Journey lays the groundwork for all the development his character will undergo in the following films. Although the character may be sheepish and a bit cowardly at times, Freeman never makes those the defining traits of Bilbo. He always played the character with quiet confidence and tenderness. While the role is certainly well-written, it is Freeman that breathes the soul of Bilbo into the character. It’s the kind of casting that is so perfect you can’t imagine anyone else playing the role.
Related: How The Rings of Power Does (and Doesn't) Connect to the Lord of the Rings and Hobbit Movies
While The Lord of the Rings are notoriously long films, Jackson seemed to believe that length was a prerequisite going into the Hobbit trilogy. An Unexpected Journey clocks in at 2 hours and 49 minutes, which is way too long for this story. While the Lord of the Rings films were that long, they earned that length with an incredibly dense and well-paced story that needed that amount of time to be told. The Hobbit films just aren’t that.
An Unexpected Journey could have easily been cut down to under two-and-a-half hours. As much fun as it is experiencing so many adventures with Bilbo and the company of Dwarves, not all the random action asides are necessary to the story. Much of Radagast’s subplot and other moments, such as the stone giants fighting in the mountains, could have been removed to help shorten the film to a more digestible length.
That’s not to say that these sequences should have been erased entirely, but rather they should have been saved for the extended edition of the film that was released a year later. That version of the movie added 13 more minutes to the runtime, bringing it to just over three hours long. By trimming off many of the unnecessary sequences in the film, An Unexpected Journey could have been a much breezier and easy film to sit down and watch on a whim, while also having an optional longer experience for those who want it. At nearly three hours long, though, watching the film is an overly lengthy endeavor that is much harder to commit to.
The Riddles in the Dark chapter of the original book is one of the most iconic sequences not just in The Hobbit but in Tolkien’s entire Middle-Earth canon. The scene introduces Gollum and the One Ring, depicts how exactly Bilbo ended up with the ring and sets in motion events that would dictate the rest of the world moving forward. It’s a moment so crucial to the history of Middle-Earth that there was even a shortened version of the sequence included in the prologue to Fellowship of the Ring, with Ian Holm playing the young Bilbo.
The sequence is a blessing that was given to An Unexpected Journey. It is far and away the best part of the movie, not only because of how well-written and structured it is, but also because of how it provided an opportunity to bring Andy Serkis back to play the role of Gollum one more time. Serkis’s Gollum is one of the most transcendent aspects to come out of the Lord of the Rings films, and his inclusion in this film instantly made it a must-see for many viewers.
The scene is brilliantly translated from the page to the screen. Jackson and the rest of the creative team wisely followed the old adage of “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it,” as much of the scene’s dialogue and pacing is directly taken from what was scribed in the book. It is one of the most faithful-to-the-book moments in all six of Jackson’s Tolkien films. Plus, the scene served as an opportunity for the visual effects house Wētā Workshop to show just how much they’d advanced in the nine years since Return of the King. The digital effects and motion capture work done for Gollum in the original films was already outstanding, but seeing the character brought to life as a remarkably better-rendered version in An Unexpected Journey was nothing short of awe-inducing. It was Wētā saying “You thought this was cool back then? Check it out now,” and it made for the most memorable moment in the entire Hobbit trilogy.