Movie Poster

You will have to do without pocket handkerchiefs, and a great many other things, before we reach our journey's end, Bilbo Baggins. You were born to the rolling hills and little rivers of the Shire, but home is now behind you. The world is ahead.

# Review

An Unexpected Journey is the first film in the trilogy adaptation of The Hobbit by J. R. R. Tolkien. It tells the story of the Hobbit Bilbo Baggins (Martin Freeman) and how he got swept up into an adventure with the company of Dwarves led by Thorin Oakenshield (Richard Armitage) and the Wizard Gandalf (Ian McKellen).

The casting is amazing; Freeman is perfect as a reserved but brave Bilbo and Armitage is amazing as a stoic and troubled Thorin. I was initially apprehensive of the book being adapted into three feature-length movies, as the book was relatively short and I wasn’t sure if there’d be enough content to fill three films. Fortunately, unlike other movie adaptations of books where scenes are removed, An Unexpected Journey actually added new scenes including story points with characters such as Radagast (Sylvester McCoy) as well as subtle details not in the book, like the Dwarves headbutting one another. The Hobbit novel was filled with songs and it was nice to hear the songs being sung within the movie.

# Conclusion

A solid film adaptation.

# Overall rating: 7.9

What does the rating mean?