The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey

We knew already that Gandalf was appearing in this prequel, but if you were expecting Frodo Baggins, Legolas or even Gollum to appear there, well you were quitte right. Frodo does appear if only briefly in some of the first scenes, Gollum is central to what happens in this first installment and Legolas who does not appear here is part of the story and will probably appear in the second part.

This is the story of Bilbo Baggins (Martin Freeman in his younger version and Ian Holm in his older version), Frodo's uncle, whom we met first as an old man (or hobbit) in Lord of The Rings. He also had  an adventure to tell, events that happened sixty years earlier. Precisely the movie begins then when Bilbo decides to write his story which coincides with the time Gandalf arrives and takes Frodo and the other hobbits with him. Then the action goes back in time sixty years when a young Bilbo Baggins, who loves his peaceful existence and his cozy, home receives Gandalf's visit. This is the time when Gandalf is still Gandalf the Grey. It turns our Galdalf is pretty old and he had met Bilbo when he was a child but Bilbo does not remember him though he knows the name. Gandalf is there to recruit Bilbo and to use "his services" to aid a group of twelve dwarves plus their intrepid leader who want to get to Lonely Mountain the place where many years before there was a dwarven kingdom there that mined plenty of gold and diamonds. That incredible wealth attracted the attention of a mighty dragon that had entered the kingdom and destroyed eveything so he could stay inside and keep the gold for himself (the figure of dragons guarding wondrous treasures is not new in literature, many knight novels show this specific element). The thirteen dwarves feel it's time to get back to what once was theirs and they have Gandalf's support. Bilbo is reluctant to accept but he does in the end.
And so it begins. There are so many things happening, so many old faces that are chronologically speaking seen for the first time (like Saruman who is still "good") and also new characters. That is the magic of this movie: it reveals much more about this still undiscovered world that Tolkien dreamed of so long ago. And still there is something about it which tells us this trilogy is not more about the same but another thing. It feels more heavily founded on the adventurous side than on the epic side, there is more fun, less sadness, it is more light-hearted in general. And as usual with these productions is the moments that are the real treasure such as the sequence where Galadriel, that beautiful elf queen (Cate Blanchett) that communicates telepathically with Gandalf, asks him why he insisted in Bilbo to be part of this adventure and when he explains he says that true evil can be defeated only by the little good things such the decency and the loyalty that only common people can demonstrate; hence the reason why Gandalf usually chooses hobbits to help him in his enterprises.
The actors deliver a good performance in general. I liked that Freeman did not try to imitate Elijah Wood to make his interpretation of Bilbo. He was his own man, or hobbit. However, the two highlights are the music (again composed by Howard Shore as in Lord of the Rings) and the photography that is simply put, spectacular. Whether those images are real or not, that does not matter: they are something.
In the end we have to remember that this is the first of three and if you think the ending was a bit anticlimatic, well you should see everybody's faces at the end of The Fellowship of The Ring. That was disappointing, but of course the good things came later.
Five stars out of five for this one.