The critical
response to The Hobbit: An
Unexpected Journey, the first part in Peter Jackson's new film trilogy
based on J.R.R. Tolkien's novel The
Hobbit, or There and Back Again, suggests that it's bloated and deficient
of the propulsive energy that typified the Lord of the Rings films. The likely cause of dissatisfaction
stems from Jackson's approach toward adapting the book. Whereas Jackson and his
writing team condensed each volume of Tolkien's Lord of the Rings trilogy into its own film, with The Hobbit they've
opted to adapt a considerably more straightforward narrative into three films.
Thus, An Unexpected Journey only
represents a small portion of the book. Critics have seized on this and
critiqued the nearly three-hour film for being padded and flabby. While not
necessarily untrue, these charges have fueled an abundance of banal
commentaries bereft of any real insight into or about the movie. What's most
discouraging about this is that An
Unexpected Journey, though certainly vulnerable to criticism, is a more
layered film than we've been led to believe.
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