The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey (2012)
★★★½ — The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey (2012)
Peter Jackson returned to Middle-earth eleven years after The Fellowship of the Ring with this first instalment of his three-part adaptation of J.R.R. Tolkien's comparatively slim 1937 children's novel (a book that runs to roughly 300 pages, stretched here across nearly nine hours of finished film). The production was famously troubled before a frame was shot, passing through Guillermo del Toro's hands as director for two years before del Toro departed and Jackson stepped back in. Filmed back-to-back-to-back in New Zealand with a combined trilogy budget in the region of $750 million, it was also the first major studio release shot at 48 frames per second, a higher frame rate that proved genuinely divisive with critics and audiences alike. The $250 million opening chapter ultimately grossed over a billion dollars worldwide.
Peter Jackson’s Hobbit An Unexpected Journey is like a beautifully illustrated coffee-table book of a novel you’ve read a hundred times. Gorgeous to look at, but occasionally lost in its own footnotes. As someone who holds The Hobbit novel near and dear (My favourite novel), this adaptation stumbles where it should sprint but dazzles when it remembers to breathe . The opening act is pure magic: the Shire feels like a warm hug, the dwarves’ banter crackles with life, and Martin Freeman’s Bilbo is so a good casting, at least at first. Howard Shore’s score swells with nostalgia, and the production design is immaculate. Erebor’s flashback sequence alone is worth the price of admission. A tragic, glittering glimpse of dragon-fire and hubris. But here’s the rub: this film is stretched . What should’ve been a lean, adventurous two-parter gets bloated by unnecessary subplots (White Council debates? Azog’s relentless cameos? Thanks, but no). The pacing lurches from cozy hearth to chase scene to lore-dump like a first-time Dungeons & Dragon DM who’s just discovered appendices. And yet… it’s still better than the two sequels, which somehow made Middle-earth feel small . Does it capture the soul of Tolkien’s book? Not fully. But it nails the wonder, the quiet bravery, the camaraderie, the ache of homesickness. And those opening scenes are pure Hobbit heaven.
Rating: ★★★½ | Year: 2012 | Watched: 2025-06-05
Where to watch (UK)
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Related on Movies With Macca
More from Peter Jackson: King Kong (2005) · The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies (2014) · The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug (2013) · The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring (2001)
More with Martin Freeman: The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies (2014) · The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug (2013)
More from New Zealand: What We Do in the Shadows (2014) · Mortal Engines (2018) · King Kong (2005) · 'Aho'eitu (2015)
More from the 2010s: Wonder (2017) · Beautiful Boy (2018) · The Witch (2015) · What We Do in the Shadows (2014)
More adventure: Alice in Wonderland (1951) · The Eagle (1925) · Louisiana Story (1948) · The General (1926)
More fantasy: Viy (1967) · Alice in Wonderland (1951) · Mononoke the Movie: The Phantom in the Rain (2024) · Mononoke the Movie: Chapter II - The Ashes of Rage (2025)
