THE HOBBIT: AN UNEXPECTED JOURNEY
(12A, 166 mins) 
***
Starring Martin Freeman, Ian McKellen, Richard Armitage, Andy Serkis, William Kircher, James Nesbitt, Stephen Hunter, Ken Stott, Graham McTavish, Dean O’Gorman, Aidan Turner, Mark Hadlow, Jed Brophy, Adam Brown, Peter Hambleton, John Callen, Jeffrey Thomas, Cate Blanchett, Hugo Weaving, Barry Humphries, Ian Holm, Elijah Wood. Director: Peter Jackson.

 

There is a moment early in The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey when Gandalf The Grey (McKellen) turns to diminutive hero Bilbo Baggins (Freeman) and counsels: “All good stories deserve embellishment.”

Director Peter Jackson and co-writers Fran Walsh, Philippa Boyens and Guillermo del Toro have taken the wise wizard’s words to heart and embellished JRR Tolkien’s novel to the point of creative obesity.

Visually-stunning flashbacks, which fail to advance the plot, are roughly hewn into a sprawling narrative that doesn’t kick in for a good 45 minutes.

The decision to shoot the film in 3D at the higher rate of 48 frames per second compared to the usual 24 frames will divide audiences.

Everything looks cleaner and crisper, but this might be too much heightened reality for a sweeping fantasy that romanticises the bonds of trust between gung-ho brothers.

In the first deviation from the text, Jackson opens his picture at Bag End with the elderly Bilbo (Holm) penning a book to Frodo (Wood).

We rewind 60 years to meet Bilbo in the Shire as he encounters Gandalf and 13 dwarves who intend to reclaim their lost gold from the dragon Smaug in his mountain lair.

After a sleepless night, Bilbo agrees to accompany dwarf leader Thorin Oakenshield (Armitage) and his troops on their perilous mission.

“Axe or sword – what is your weapon of choice?” Thorin asks Bilbo.

“Well, I do have some skills with conkers,” replies the hobbit.

En route, the brave souls encounter elvish allies including Elrond (Weaving) and Galadriel (Blanchett), as well as wretched Gollum (Serkis) and the corpulent Goblin King (Humphries).

The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey, which should perhaps be subtitled The Return Of The Fellowship Of A King, reunites Jackson with cast and crew of the Lord Of The Rings trilogy.

The writer-director employs the same visual lexicon: sweeping aerial shots of characters traipsing over New Zealand landscapes, close-ups of ethereal figures in deep contemplation.

Nerve-racking scenes with Gollum are undoubtedly the highlight of this opening salvo.

An hour of substance is bloated to 166 minutes of digital trickery and breathless action sequences including a protracted chase through the lair of the goblins.

One plot strand, involving a Necromancer gaining power in his stronghold at Dol Guldur, dangles tantalisingly in the background and will presumably be stitched into the narrative in the second film.

While some of the dwarves, notably Balin (Stott) and Bofur (Nesbitt), are gifted scenes to illustrate their personalities, most of Thorin’s motley crew are indistinguishable aside from their rhyming names.

Freeman brings a touch of humour to his pint-sized weakling, who learns that, “True courage is knowing not when to take a life but when to spare one.”

McKellen and co ease back into familiar supporting roles and Armitage swaggers as the vengeful son, who allows rage to cloud his judgement at a vital juncture.

When Bilbo subsequently remarks, “I do believe the worst is behind us,” we know he must be joking, else the next two chapters, Desolation Of Smaug and There And Back Again, released in 2013 and 2014 respectively will be exceedingly dull affairs.