Review of The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey (2012) by Tim S — 04 Feb 2018

As I said in my review for the theatrical version of The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey, it's a film that's really great without being totally amazing, and it's mainly in the pacing of the film.

There are, in my opinion, far too many moments that relate to the dwarves a bit too much: the prologue, the flashbacks, etc. It's a movie called The Hobbit and he should be centralized to the story and all the goings on in it.

It just feels like too much. With the Extended Cut, I see those problems being brought into a better light. It seems that many of the Bilbo-related moments that were central to him and his journey were left out of the theatrical cut, when they really should have been in, and all of that prologue stuff and the battle outside of Moria should have been left out.

It works fine if it's an extended version of the film, because in that sense, pace isn't that big of an issue. We can find out more about the dwarves, especially Thorin, as we go along. We don't need a background on them because they aren't the main focus of the story.

Imagine The Fellowship of the Ring opening with a prologue all about Aragorn and then cutting to Frodo. So that's my problem with the film, especially the Extended Cut. I do think Peter Jackson and Co.

go a bit too far with the comedy, like always, but thankfully those bits were left out of the theatrical version. So I'm a bit torn on which version to watch because the Bilbo-informed character moments are in the Extended Cut, but so is a lot of the silly stuff, as well.

It's tough to choose, but in the grand scheme of things, I suppose the theatrical cut is better, even without all of the Bilbo moments that it needs. Regardless, it's still a fun movie and well-made, but it has issues in the editing room that I don't think were ever solved.