#The hobbit an unexpected journey series

At the risk of sounding like a total nerd, it was awe-inspiring to hear a quieter, more haunting version of Neil Finn's rendition of 'Song of the Lonely Mountain,' but was it really necessary to see the dwarves sing and do the dishes just prior to that? Looking ahead and reading the titles of the next two installments, Tolkien fans can easily see how the book will be divided into two more parts: the next ending with the demise of Smaug, the fire-breathing dragon which seized the dwarves' mountain, and the final chapter showing the Battle of Five Armies. The filmmakers also co-mingle a few very minor but equally nonsensical scenes with their attempt at being a faithful adaptation. The most obvious addition is Radagast the Brown (played to great comical effect by Sylvester McCoy), a character barely mentioned in the books but expanded in such a way as to play a major part in the plot.

Instead, Jackson designs a script, along with co-writers Philippa Boyens, Fran Walsh, and Guillermo del Toro, the latter of which was originally signed to direct, which expands that fantasy children's book by incorporating material from the original trilogy.

#The hobbit an unexpected journey series

A two-film series would have been more than sufficient and plenty fair, even at nearly three-hours each. With the same CG spectacle and visual eye candy as seen in ' The Lords of the Rings' trilogy, director Peter Jackson returns to Middle-earth with the bloated idea of stretching a tale which Tolkien told in a single book into a three-part trilogy. Tolkien's novel, so the question of why everyone doesn't simply hitch a ride to their destination originates there. To be fair, that climactic scene with the eagles is directly taken from J.R.R. Never mind, we're teased with the idea of cutting the journey shorter if only a certain smart-alecky gray wizard (Ian McKellen) would call on his extraordinarily-large feathered friends to aid a merry company of dwarves. And can you imagine it only took 170 minutes to even get that far. Granted, a whole lot of swashbuckling action and heroic sword-fighting takes place along the way, but it's all for naught the moment we discover we're only a third into the overall adventure. Like bread crumbs leading audiences to their possible doom, bits of information are laid out before us and are intended to play more significant roles in later installments. At times wondrous and somewhat exhilarating, 'The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey' is an expedition that labors and plods through a wealth of exposition with very little progress or feeling of accomplishment, let alone satisfaction.