The Hobbit, Part 2: A Really, Really Great Set of Disks

by: Jim Smith

So now, just four months after it hit theaters, The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey has been released on home video.  It comes in three flavors, DVD, Blu-Ray+DVD, and Blu-Ray 3D+Blu Ray+DVD.  All of them come with a redemption code for an UltraViolet streaming copy as well.  Lets call them vanilla, fudge ripple and neapolitan, respectively.  My copy is fudge ripple.  The case contains three discs, the movie itself on a blu-ray and DVD and a separate disc ... a blu-ray disc ... with the special features.

The first feature is New Zealand: Home of Middle Earth, which speaks to the incredible locations they used in filming the movie.  It is actually an extended advertisement for the New Zealand tourist bureau.  One revelation is that they completely rebuilt Hobbiton for The Hobbit.  The original Hobbiton set was made primarily of polystyrene, but when they rebuilt the set, they used brick and wood, building a permanent set that would serve as a future tourist attraction.

Also included are ten video blogs spanning everything from preproduction to the world premiere in Wellington.  For the geeky among us, one of the video blogs is all about the technical aspects of the film, including a discussion of the decision to shoot The Hobbit in 48 frames per second.  One thing I learned was the fact that human vision is the equivalent of 60 frames per second, so this is the first movie filmed as close to natural vision as possible.

Along with the discussion of the frame rate is a technical primer on filming in 3D.  The Hobbit broke a lot of ground in 3D filming, requiring many custom cameras and set designs.  Compact cameras, crane cameras, aerial cameras all were needed to film and epic movie such as this.

One of the most anachronistic moments of the special features was seeing a dwarf on a mountaintop with a helicopter passing behind him.  But then again, isn’t that what we want from a film such as this?  An escape from the hubbub and hurly-burly of the modern world into a world of wonder?  The special features of The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey are a ticket to that world of wonder, and unlike a magician revealing his secrets, they add to the magic instead of destroying it.

The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey (Part 1: The Movie)

Review by Jim Smith

After the Lord of the Rings, there was a great deal of clamoring for the Hobbit to reach the big screen in the same epic fashion.  It took only nine years of patience, and fans were rewarded … oh were they rewarded.

By now, we all know the story.  A small hobbit of The Shire is drafted into a company of dwarves on a quest to reclaim their ancestral kingdom from the dragon Smaug.  Bilbo Baggins becomes a most unlikely hero, and the fulcrum which would change the direction of the future of the world … though that part of the story is not in the Hobbit, but the Lord of the Rings, so let’s stick to the story at hand.

That, oddly enough, is the chief complaint people had of the movie.  The movie included vast scenes that do not appear in the book.  After working very hard to stay true to the books when making the Lord of the Rings, and making changes for the sake of time only grudgingly, Peter Jackson folds in external information that, while germane to the story, it is history gleaned from the appendixes of the Lord of the Rings and other works containing the collected works and notes or JRR Tolkien.  While it is germane to the story, it is history, and history … well who wants to read that?  For that matter who even cares about it?

Another issue that some viewers had a problem with was that Peter Jackson chose to film The Hobbit in a higher than normal frame rate, forty-eight frames per second.  Many moviegoers saw it in a normal frame rate, twenty-four frames per second as many of the prints sent out to theaters were downsampled.  However, moviegoers who saw it in digital 3D were treated to the movie in all of its high-framerate splendor.  Likewise, viewers who saw it in digital 2D got to see the beauty of the high-framerate as well.

So, on to the good, the bad and the ugly.

The Good:  The cinematography is without equal.  Just as with The Lord of the Rings, sweeping vistas, epic scenes and wonderful use of color and texture make this movie visually stunning.  The dialogue, while not exactly according to Tolkien, is excellent.  Once again, PJ delivers.

Dwarves singing.  It is enough to give you chills when the basses and baritones sing of their longing to cross the Misty Mountains to their homeland.

Sylvester McCoy as Radagast.  The actor who once played the seventh incarnation of the Doctor in the venerable series Doctor Who lends his unique comedic style to playing Radagast the Brown, one of Gandalf’s peers on the council of the wise.  He plays the part to perfection and is one of the gems of the extended story that Jackson weaves for us.

The Bad: Bilbo is made to seem much more heroic in the movie than he should be.  Twice he has  the chance to abandon the quest and return home.  The first time he would have but for the intervention of the Goblins in the cave.  The second time, after escaping Goblin Town,  he walks up to Thorin and says he will not go home until he has helped Thorin reclaim his.

There are times, particularly when dealing with the subplot of Azog, the White Orc that the story bogs down.  Also in Rivendell when the Dwarves are portrayed as uncultured, boorish and frankly rude guests.

The hyper-realism created by the faster frame-rate is especially noticeable in flyover scenes such as in Goblin Town.  It caused some audience members to feel queasy in the theatrical release, particularly in 3D showings.

The Ugly: Azog.  ‘Nuff said.

All in all, the movie met the expectations of most fans, and we all reveled as Biblo ran after the dwarves shouting “I’m going on an adventure!”  We join him, and we can’t wait for the next leg of our journey.

This review is written upon me buying the 2D Blu-Ray/DVD/Ultra Violet combo pack.  Part 2 of this review will focus on the Blu Rays and special features.