The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey
- EUNJI KWAK
- Sep 29
- 8 min read
Updated: Oct 1
“In a hole in the ground there lived a hobbit…”
J.R.R Tolkien
J.R.R Tolkien, a legendary writer, created the iconic Lord of the Rings trilogy as well as the book, The Hobbit. Tolkien himself is widely considered to be the “Father of Fantasy” as his books had inspired thousands of people. Furthermore, both the Lord of the Rings trilogy and The Hobbit were adapted into movies directed by Peter Jackson. I will be discussing The Hobbit trilogy in three separate articles with each article focused on one specific movie. In this article, I shall discuss the first movie of the trilogy.
The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey
The first movie is The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey, and it begins with the character Bilbo Baggins, played by Martin Freeman, and his life in the quiet and peaceful Shire. However, his peace is soon disrupted when he meets the wizard Gandalf, played by Ian McKellen, as well as the group of dwarves that would soon knock upon his little hobbit home. In this movie, it is the beginning of Bilbo’s adventure with the dwarves as they seek to reclaim Erebor, the Lonely Mountain, from the dragon Smaug.
Before I begin discussing the movie and the plot, I will introduce some main characters so that the readers have a better understanding. (I will not be going over every single dwarf or character because then that would be a lot). The characters I’m going to describe are the ones that show up in the first movie.
Characters
Firstly, Bilbo Baggins is not a character that you would describe as brave, courageous, or tall. As a hobbit, he is of a short stature with hairy feet which means he has no use for shoes. A very important characteristic of hobbits is that they have a love for simple things and comfort which serves as a contrast to the movies’ many heroic characters such as Thorin Oakenshield. At first, Bilbo was not very well received by the dwarves, however throughout the movie, he begins to earn the trust of the dwarves through his quick actions and unwavering loyalty. Other than becoming closer to the dwarves, Bilbo also grows as a character, becoming much more than just a simple hobbit.
Thorin Oakenshield is the leader of the company (the dwarves) and he leads them on the quest to reclaim Erebor, his home. Thorin is the son of Thrain II, the previous king of the dwarves (after Thror died), and the grandson of Thror. Since Smaug took Erebor, the dwarves had been displaced from their homes,which caused a lot of resentment and anger for Thorin. While Thorin can be considered a heroic character since he is a warrior, Thorin is easily blinded by his pride and greed. Unlike the other dwarves who accepted Bilbo more easily, Thorin remained stoic and scorned Bilbo until Bilbo saved him from Azog, the orc that killed his father. Personally, Thorin is my favorite character because he’s clearly not a perfect person yet he redeems himself in the end. Unlike some of the other characters, his character is very tragic.
Gandalf the Grey is one of the few wizards on Middle Earth. I’m pretty sure he’s supposed to be pretty strong but in the Lego Hobbit game, I would say he kinda sucks. Gandalf knew Bilbo’s parents long ago which is probably why he brought the dwarves to Bilbo in the first place. Gandalf stays with the company most of the time until he disappears for a while when he goes to investigate suspicious behavior which turned out to be Sauron (the overarching bad guy). He’s a pretty funny character who clashes a lot with Thorin (stormed off after arguing with Thorin) and it’s very obvious that he’s very fond of Bilbo.
I decided to use the lego version of Gollum because it’s funny. Shockingly, Gollum used to be a hobbit but he was driven insane because of the One Ring which is pretty sad. The One Ring is very important because Bilbo receives the One Ring from Gollum in the movie when he encounters Gollum in a cave after being separated from the rest of the company. (“My precious…”)
Smaug is technically the bad guy (and is in the book) however Sauron is the overarching villain (much more obvious in the Lord of the Rings movies). Smaug is a dragon that took Erebor from the dwarves, resulting in thousands of deaths in both Erebor and Dale, a city that is occupied by mankind. Smaug is very much blinded by gold which was hoarded by Thror (he had gold-sickness), which ultimately attracted Smaug in the first place. He is a dastardly dragon (or wyvern) who has little care for other lifeforms and has no guilt over causing massive destruction.
Azog, who is also referred to as the Pale Orc, is one of the villains that continuously appears throughout the movie. Although he is not in the book, Azog is one of the main antagonists of Thorin Oakenshield. Azog had killed Thorin’s grandfather, Thror, and after Thorin severs his hand, he seeks to end the line of Durin (Thorin’s bloodline). It is also during his fight with Thorin where Bilbo interferes to save Thorin, that Thorin begins to trust Bilbo. Azog is an important character for the movies.
Now, there are other characters like the other dwarves, Sauron, Lord Elrond, and more but I don’t think I need to mention them in this article as some of them play more prominent roles in the later movies.
The Movie
I will be discussing the movie and some important events that have happened. I won’t go over every single detail that happened but will focus on the more important ones.
The movie begins with Bilbo Baggins and his life in the peaceful Shire. However, his peace is soon disrupted when he meets Gandalf who would later lead the dwarves to his hobbit home. When the dwarves offer Bilbo the contract to go on an adventure, Bilbo actually rejects it but he changes his mind in the morning and chases after the company much to Gandalf’s delight. During this scene, Thorin is visibly annoyed and the audience can see bags of gold being tossed to different characters because they had made a bet on whether or not Bilbo would come. This scene also shows a lot of strong trust and camaraderie between the dwarves, which is not something that Bilbo is (yet) a part of.
The company’s peaceful journey didn’t last too long after Gandalf had left because of an argument with Thorin and when trolls steal the company’s horses. Two dwarves, Fili and Kili, who are also Thorin’s nephews, enlist Bilbo’s help to take back the horses after they failed to keep them safe (they were supposed to be in charge of the horses).
Unfortunately their plan does not work as the rest of the dwarves get caught up in it. All the dwarves are taken by the trolls to be eaten however Bilbo stalls for time with witty phrases until the sun shone through in which Gandalf also reappeared. Again, Thorin is not too happy during this scene because the dwarves did get captured because the trolls grabbed Bilbo (the dwarves attacked the trolls to save Bilbo). I think this scene also showed more trust in Bilbo though because it was Bilbo’s efforts that saved the dwarves in the end. It also showed that fighting is not always the answer because Bilbo used his wits to save the dwarves, not a weapon.
Another important scene that occurred was when the company was fleeing from the Orcs, in which Gandelf led them to Rivendell, the home of the Elves (or at least one group of elves). Here, they meet Lord Elrond who deciphers part of the prophecy that is given to Thorin about taking back Erebor. In this scene, the dwarves are all visibly upset because of their mistrust towards elves. When Erebor was taken by Smaug, Thorin looked to the elves for help as his people were displaced and exiled, however the elf king, Thranduil, turned them away which caused resentment. However this scene is important because Lord Elrond deciphers an important clue that could help the company in retaking Erebor.
The other next important scene is when the company stumbles into a goblin cave where they are captured by the goblins. This scene is pretty cool because it is very action packed but it’s also important because Bilbo is separated from the rest of the group.
He falls down in another area and meets Gollum. Before this, Bilbo finds a golden ring that Gollum had dropped and to escape, he had to play a game of riddles with Gollum which was interesting. While Bilbo was escaping from Gollum, there was a scene where Bilbo was deciding whether or not to kill Gollum. I feel like this was very important because it showed whether or not he would give mercy. This action of sparing Gollum would have a ripple effect that would affect the events that happened in the Lord of the Rings movies and books.
Positive Aspects
The main reason why I like the movie trilogy is because of the acting. Martin Freeman, who is Bilbo Baggins, plays him very well (although the actor himself is controversial and not in a good way) through his use of facial expressions and gestures. I feel like he really made Bilbo into a real character on screen and that’s pretty amazing.
It’s not just his acting that was phenomenal, Richard Armitage who plays Thorin Oakenshield is also a great actor. Both the Hobbit and LOTR had amazing actors which made the movies so good. The actors really help the characters come alive. There are also characters like Fili and Kili who are somewhat glossed over in the book but are given more depth and detail in the movie. For example, Kili’s relationship with Tauriel is not in the book but it gave Kili more characterization. The movie also explored the different dwarves and characters that may not have been as prominent in the book which was really interesting. Along with new additions like Azog, it gave the movie another storyline and more dynamic scenes which was cool.
Negative Aspects
One of the major criticisms of The Hobbit trilogy is the use of CGI. The CGI is pretty obvious especially during the goblin cave scenes where it was mostly CGI as well as certain characters like Azog who is CGI. To many people, they said that the CGI was just too much which is understandable when you look back at the LOTR trilogy. In the LOTR trilogy, which came out earlier than The Hobbit trilogy, there was less CGI that was used. For fans of the LOTR trilogy, this would’ve been a major disappointment resulting in the criticism for this movie. Comparisons between the two trilogies also played a role because the LOTR series were a hit and millions of people loved it which meant that there were high expectations for The Hobbit trilogy. Unfortunately, the movies cannot always be on par with peoples’ standards so there were many that criticized the movie for the CGI and the new storylines. For example, Kili and Tauriel were never in a relationship and Tauriel wasn’t even in the books. There are also hardcore Tolkien fans that disliked the added additions into the movies as they felt that it needed to be authentic and true to the book. There are differing opinions about this however regardless of your opinion, the movie is pretty good.
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