The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey (Extended Edition) (Blu-ray)

Rented this on Amazon Prime Movies...I loved it. Watched the whole LOTR series.

Lifetime movie

The reviews for the Lord of the Rings/The Hobbit movies are very confusing. This review is for the Extended Edition 3-disc Blu-ray of The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey. (The DVD version is 5 discs. If in doubt, check the minutes shown in the details of the page.) I did a review of the extended edition Fellowship of the Rings. It was fantastic and well worth the money as were the extended editions of the other two movies. The extended edition for The Hobbit is not as fantastic. There are a couple scenes that really make you think, "Ohhhh! Now I get it!" but that's about it. In spite of the minimal changes, it is still worth the money in my opinion. The additional material is also good - not as good as the Lord of the Rings extended editions but still. I have never read the books and he read them but a long time ago so we can not speak to any differences between the books and the movie. If you are choosing between buying the extended edition and the original, definitely buy the extended edition. If you are not a big fan and you already own the original version, you might not want to bother. If you are a fan, even if you own the original version, you will probably appreciate the extended edition - it's a borderline call. The packaging is a little different than the extended editions of the Lord of the Rings but it was designed to be part of that set and that shows. I don't care about that really but I understand collectors do. Until now, we have not purchased Blu-rays but we happened to need another dvd player and the prices for the Blu-rays have dropped so much we decided to go ahead with the Blu-ray player. We had seen the Blu-ray movies in stores displayed next to the DVD version of the movies and the difference was amazing. Still, with neither of us being fanatical about picture quality and sound beyond the "quite good" point, it is still more expensive to buy the Blu-ray discs (although they are dropping in price). We came to the conclusion that it would be worth it to buy Blu-rays of movies that were particularly graphic intensive such as the Hobbit but for run of the mill movies we would stick with the cheaper dvds. We were disappointed with the Hobbit on Blu-ray. We had watched the Hobbit before on pay-per-view and we could not see any real difference between the HD and the Blu-ray. In this case, the Blu-ray was actually a dollar or so cheaper so no big deal but don't expect to be stunned by the Blu-ray. This came with a code for a free Ultraviolet copy. If you don't know what this is please do your research. Since we did not go out and buy brand new latest and greatest equipment just to watch this movie, the free Ultraviolet copy was useless. It would not play on anything except our new Blu-ray player and why would we need it for that? We have the Blu-ray disc. Personally, I see the Ultraviolet copy as utterly useless and NOT a selling point for anything at all.

First, The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey itself I greatly enjoyed. It was a worthy successor to Peter Jackson's The Lord of the Rings movies, despite the fact that Peter Jackson took a few more creative liberties with An Unexpected Journey (and after watching the second movie, it is clear with the entire Hobbit trilogy) than he did with The Lord of the Rings. Despite the changes, Peter Jackson still keeps the same feel from the original Lord of the Rings movies, the characters mostly fit with how you'd imagine them from reading the story (or at least they did for me), and many of the scenes have fairly clear reasons for why they were altered. In The Lord of the Rings and in The Hobbit, some of the scenes Jackson had to move along more quickly in the movies than they had moved in the book, and in The Hobbit, Jackson is trying to tie the story far more to The Lord of the Rings than the book did, which is the reason for many of the more drastic changes. However, the movie still keeps the general story line intact. As far as the extended edition scenes, on my first viewing I thought almost all of them were fairly poorly worked in, but much like The Hobbit soundtracks, I warmed up to them after watching the extended edition two to three times. Extended edition scene spoilers: The extended edition scenes I liked from the beginning were many of the Rivendell scenes, especially with Bilbo and Elrond, which connect The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey to Bilbo's eventual moving to Rivendell in The Fellowship of the Ring. I also enjoyed the scene near the beginning with Bilbo buying food in Hobbiton, and briefly worried that a blue hat-like figure was Gandalf (it was actually another hobbit carrying some sort of laundry basket or something). I also did enjoy the Rivendell scene where Bofur sings a version of the 'Man in the Moon' song Frodo sang in Bree in The Fellowship of the Ring book, and though I still feel the extra dwarf scenes around there weren't worked in the best, I now feel they were worked in better than I had when I first watched the extended edition. Probably the scenes that changed the most in how much I liked them were the extra content in the intro. I initially felt that they were worked in awkwardly and made an already long intro drag even more, but after watching the intro a few more times I felt that they were actually worthwhile additions, especially since they weren't very long, and were actually worked in fairly well. There are two extended edition scenes, however, that I still feel are a bit of a disappointment. The first is right before entering Rivendell, Bilbo turns to Gandalf and tells him he can feel something, and Gandalf tells him fairly mysteriously and actually somewhat creepily that what he feels is a very powerful magic. This scene seemed somewhat awkward and I understand why they cut it for the theatrical edition. My least favorite added scene was the goblin-town scene. I enjoyed the music and am glad I saw the part, but unlike many of the other extended scenes where it was clear they had actually tapped the longer scenes and then cut them down for the theatrical edition, the goblin-town scene with the goblin-king seems like they had an ALTERNATIVE scene they had made and tried to put them both together. It would have worked far better put in some sort of bonus or alternative scene area on the disc instead of into the movie, but I'm pretty sure Peter Jackson and his group will never use the alternative scene idea and will stick with extended editions since they seem to like extended editions so much. SECOND MOVIE SPOILER: After watching The Desolation of Smaug (which was a great sequel), I also noticed that at least one of the extended scenes (and I thought I had thought of two scenes earlier, but only one is coming to me at the moment) hinted at events to happen in the second movie. The scene I am referring to is the scene with the dwarves in Rivendell where Kili jokes about how he doesn't find elf-maidens very attractive because he prefers his women with lots of facial hair, but there was one specific "elf-maiden" he joked he thought was attractive at the dinner. Another dwarf (I think it was Oin) said that the elf was actually an elf-(dude? man? guy? not sure what the male version of "maiden" in elf-maiden would be) and all the other dwarves laugh. This scene, at least to me, seems to hint at the semi-romance between Kili and Tauriel in the second movie. CONCLUSION: In my opinion the extended version of The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey is well worth getting over the theatrical version. The theatrical version was around 2.5 hours, and the extended edition only adds 12 minutes to that, so it would be pretty hard to screw up the entire movie with them. Also, most of the extra scenes were well worth adding, and even the not-so-great additions like the goblin-king extra scenes were still very interesting to watch despite them not fitting the best into the movie. So I would highly recommend getting The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey, and would highly recommend the version you get be the extended edition. Enjoy Middle-Earth, and "May the wind under your wings bear you where the sun sails and the moon walks." - Gandalf, The Hobbit book by J.R.R. Tolkien

Peter Jackson's extended editions are always worth the wait, and "The Hobbit: Extended Edition" is no exception. In addition to adding back scenes that were cut for the theatrical release (which other reviewers have mentioned), there are an amazing 3 discs of bonus coverage totaling almost 9 hours. Just as J.R.R. Tolkien had appendices to his books, Jackson's movies have appendices. These extraordinary "making of" features for "The Hobbit" carry on the numbering from the Lord of the Rings trilogy. The extended edition release for "Return of the King" ended with Appendices Part 6. So "The Hobbit" begins with Appendices Part 7. These are extraordinarily detailed glimpses into the creation of this movie from the very beginning to the very end. Long before any actors were notified, they worked on production design and concepts. Character designs and concepts. Scripts were changed right up to the day of shooting. Motion-capture was brought to new levels. Costuming and the decisions that went into it are fascinating! You see clips from rehearsals and clips from rushes. Clips from meetings and makeup and why this was done instead of that. Very often, they start with quotes from Tolkien, how he described something/someone, and how Jackson (writer/director/coproducer) could work off of that. Commentators include every actor and I think just about everybody on the crew, too, from the concept creature sculptor to the animation technician desperately trying to finish Azog almost right up to the day of the New Zealand World Premiere! You will not be bored by watching these many hours of extra features. All features can be listened to in English. Subtitles are available in English, Francais, Español, Portuguêse and four more languages. BONUS DISC 1 The Appendices Part 7: A. Introduction by Peter Jackson (2 minutes) B. A Long Expected Journey - The Chronicles of The Hobbit - Part 1 (total 87 minutes) You can watch the six parts individually or "play all". 1........Opening 2........The Journey Back to Middle Earth 3........Riddles in the Dark - Gollum's Cave 4........Roast Mutton - Trollshaw's Forest 5........Bastion of the Greenwood - Rhosgobel 6........A Short Rest - Rivendell & London Dan Hennah (production designer) on his team's 1st look at the plans: "We were going to be building over 100 sets in 4 studios. I can't say we actually paniced...!" It's fabulous watching the rehearsals of Frodo and Gollum in the cave, with Andy Serkis in his motion capture suit and doing THAT voice! Ian McKellen (plays Gandalf) remembers that when filming The Ring Trilogy 10 years earlier, he was made to look 25% larger "by putting me, the larger character, closer to the camera." But as The Hobbit is shot in 3D, that system doesn't work. Alex Funke (motion control supervisor) describes how it was done for The Hobbit: "The only way we can make a person bigger is to put the camera closer to him. So, effectively,[in the dinner scene in Frodo's home] we have a camera that looks at the dwarves and Bilbo in a set built to their scale. And a camera that looks at Gandalf, on a green screen, which is 25% closer to him" on a smaller scale kitchen set. Except it isn't really a set, because everything is draped in green fabric. The two cameras are synchronized, but McKellen could not hear anything on the other set. This was very disconcerting at first, and when you look at the conditions, it's amazing it works. It's touching as McKellen describes how he was so upset after the 1st day of shooting in the green-room Bag End, that he considered he'd have to leave the movie! Ikhf id ursu Khazad (Feel the fire of the Dwarves) Nevui penim miruvor (We are almost out of wine) C. The Songs of The Hobbit (36 minutes) One of the most fun songs in the movie is "Down Down to Goblin Town", sung by Barry Humphries as the Great Goblin. The always humorous Humphries (better known as Dame Edna!) says, "It's entirely about destruction, death and torture. But, I tried to do it in a sympathetic way!" BONUS DISC 2 continuation of The Appendices Part 7 A. A Long Expected Journey - The Chronicles of The Hobbit Part 1 (total 2 hrs, 21 minutes) You can watch the nine parts individually or "play all" 7........Over Hill - The Misty Mountains 8........Under Hill - Goblin Town 9........Out of the Frying Pan - The Forest Ledge 10......Return to Hobbiton - The Shire 11......The Epic of Scene 88 - Strath Taieri 12......The Battle of Moria - Azanulbizar 13......Edge of the Wilderland - Pick-Up and The Carrock 14......Home is Behind, The World Ahead 15......Credits Tim Wong (assistant stunt coordinator) talks about the stunt which sends Bilbo and the dwarves tumbling down into Goblin Town: "The trap door stunt, which leads to the Goblin caves, was probably the most intricate and dangerous stunt that I've ever been part of." Peter Jackson does a cameo in all his films. This time he is a refugee dwarf in a long dark beard. Did you see him passing Thorin at a run? Last, but not least, you are given a lovely preview of the 2nd movie, "The Desolation of Smaug", including a sneak peek of Benedict Cumberbatch in his facial motion capture get-up, breathing fire (figuratively). B. Realms of the Third Age: From Bag End to Goblin Town (total 1 hour) You can watch the five parts individually or "play all" 1.......Hobbiton 2.......Rhosgobel (Radagast's home) 3.......Rivendell 4.......The Misty Mountains 5.......Goblin Town This feature focuses on the sets and locations. Peter Jackson says at the beginning, "It was important visually, with 'The Hobbit', that it feels like a slightly more idyllic time. I mean, the darkness that descends on this world in Lord of the Rings is brewing, but it hasn't yet expanded to the levels it's going to." For the Ring trilogy, most of Hobbiton was made of styrofoam and torn down afterwards. And still tourists made pilgrimages. This time around, they built the Hobbit holes and structures as in real life. They are made to last. Now you really can visit a Bag End. BONUS DISC 3 The Appendices Part 8 Return to Middle Earth You can watch the four parts individually or "play all" A. The Company of Thorin (1 hour 10 minutes) Tolkien's books don't give a lot of definition for many of the dwarf personalities. For a movie, though, each of the dwarves in the party has to have his own characteristics, which drives his costume and weapons. So it was left to Jackson & Team, as well as the actors to fill everything in. Adam Brown (plays Ori) says: "This is my first movie. I thought I'd aim high!" B. Mr. Baggins - The 14th Member (16 minutes) Ian Mckellen, the old pro, says of Martin Freeman: "His most remarkable quality as an actor is to be able, with absolute clarity, to convey that he's thinking two things at the same time." C. Durin's Folk: Creating the Dwarves (7 minutes) Richard Armitage (plays Thorin) went through many mutations on his costuming: "Tolkien described Thorin as having a full beard that he tucked into his belt. We have had to depart from that. I know this is controversial, because the King of the the Long Beards, people felt he should have a long beard." Graham McTavish (plays the bulkier, even for a dwarf, Dwalin): "I just thought that Dwalin would have names for his axes. Because he's that kind of guy. I remembered that Emily Brönte had two dogs called Grasper and Keeper.... What an extraordinary pair of names." And they became the names of his axes. D. The Peoples and Denizens of Middle Earth (total 2 hours) You can watch the four parts individually or "play all" 1........The Stone Trolls 2........Radagast the Brown 3........Goblins 4........Azog the Defiler Sylvester McCoy plays the wizard Radagast, who's practically turned into a forest creature himself. McCoy didn't learn he had to say a spell in formal Elvish until he got on set. McCoy says, "They tell me when I first arrive, and I misheard, and I thought it was Elvis." And he goes into an Elvis impersonation. He is better at the ElviSH. In the book, Azog apparently dies of his injury at Thorin's hand, in the Battle for Moria. With a little artistic license, they brought him back for 'The Hobbit', lusting for Thorin's head. Manu Bennet, the actor who's motion capture was used for Azog, talks about his character: "The necessary thing that Peter wanted from Azog was what we Maori call mana, the size of the guy, the spiritual strength of the character." Happy Reader

The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey was the welcome back to Middle Earth many MANY fans have begged Peter Jackson for after his praise-worthy adaption of the Lord of the Rings. Unfortunately, this was a movie that foreshadowed the divided opinion fans no-doubt feel about this trilogy. I can rightly describe myself as one of those fans who wished this movie was done differently. Looking back, however, An Unexpected Journey is really not the worst of the trilogy. One of my criticisms before even seeing it for the first time was when Peter Jackson revealed The Hobbit was going to be three movies instead of two. If neither movie was going to have an extended edition, I believe that would have made a Hobbit series of decent length. My fears became a reality as I discovered how much material they were adding into the story just so The Hobbit could be comparable to The Lord of the Rings. The worst comparison, to me, is that the entire story of The Hobbit is told as a flashback from Bilbo’s perspective. Even though movie-going audiences are familiar with The Lord of the Rings as the original story, The Lord of the Rings is actually the sequel to The Hobbit and not the other way around. This steals some of the magic from the original book, only because we can’t follow the story from this point without being aware of the future movies. Watching The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings in their chronological order is really an obsolete experience. However, I can honestly admit that the first few scenes of The Hobbit were quite promising when I watched it, as we were introduced to Bilbo Baggins and Gandolf the Grey just as it happened in the original book, and instantly we get to know them as if we were seeing them again for the first time. As he is one of the Shire folk, Bilbo has no interest or need for adventure until Gandolf invites 13 dwarves to his home and explains what business they have with them. The story of The Hobbit is simple, yet complicated at the same time. The dwarf prince, Thorin and his company are on a quest because their ancient home and treasure was taken from them by a dragon and they hope the help of a burglar like Bilbo Baggins will be enough to take it back. Many of the movie’s early scenes match the charm of the book quite flawlessly. One of the best changes from the book was the emotional turmoil and inspiration that forced Bilbo into this adventure, giving us time to relate to him and feel for him. Much of the movie after that, however, is not quite the same. Maybe the most important detail was the PG-13 rating. Just for the sake of argument, The Hobbit is supposed to have a much lighter, child-friendly tone about it; and that’s NOT because I grew up on the Rankin/Bass cartoon. The movie version has lots of action and violence that wasn’t in the book. Plus, this is NOT the Lord of the Rings 2. However, the events taken from the book are given so much more drama and peril it’s quite obvious they are going for a movie that isn’t anything like the books. The worst part is, there are moments where you can tell this movie is being goofier and more whimsical than the Lord of the Rings but it doesn’t mesh as well as the creative team believes it is. This is why I believe The Hobbit should have been toned down until it was rated PG at the very least. Who is going to believe Peter Jackson was thinking this would be an amazing movie while he was reading the book, like he did for The Lord of the Rings? There are some things that were still done exceptionally well, I must confess. I can’t help but admire Ian Mckellen’s willingness to play Gandalf yet again, because these production standards are hectic but nobody else has the right to play the grey wizard like he does. Martin Freeman as Bilbo Baggins is also a win. Martin Freeman not only looks like his character but he also sounds like him and he’s even played characters like Bilbo before. There was no British actor more perfect for Bilbo Baggins than Martin Freeman. Unfortunately, Richard Armitage as the leading Dwarf, Thorin, was a miscast to me because he’s much too serious minded. The Hobbit trilogy likes to emphasize Thorin’s character with a lot of pretense but I personally have a hard time looking up to his character when Richard Armitage acts like he’s going to kill everyone he lays eyes on. Plus, while An Unexpected Journey follows the book quite closely, the introduction of another conflict with the orc chieftain Azog was quite unnecessary. He was probably added for the sake of dramatic conflict but his role is emphasized with just as much pretense as Thorin was. Whether The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey was good or not, it really came down to one thing. Was it necessary to make one book into three movies? The Lord of the Rings masterfully told each of its three installments with a solid beginning, middle and end. An Unexpected Journey is the only Hobbit movie that gets credit for having all three parts in one movie. I might not like how the book is being divided, but it took a few viewings before I decided this was a good movie. It’s not spectacular like The Lord of the Rings but it could have been special in a different kind of way. When I sit down to watch I see the story of Bilbo Baggins who was a simple hobbit before a company of dwarfs decided he was the burglar they needed. Bilbo goes through a struggle trying to fit in with his company as he grows to know these misfit wanderers and then finds his courage, as well a place for himself among them. It is a good experience, even if I have to trudge through a few movie sins. On a strictly personal note, this movie is not everything it could be or should be. If I thought everything good about this movie was enough to make it worthy of Tolkien’s original works, I’d be lying. The Hobbit is not just another book either because it’s the story that fantasy authors are still drawing inspiration from. But this is only the first part of the trilogy, and since it is not the worst of the three there are only so many bad things you can say about it.

Great movies. As described. No issues.

When I first learned a few years ago that they were making a Hobbit film I was ecstatic. The Fellowship of the Ring was released in 2001 and I literally “grew up” with the Lord of the Rings (LOTR) trilogy. However, I then learned that Peter Jackson decided to split the book up into three movies. My first thought was “greedy Hollywood scoundrels” but nonetheless I was still excited to see the films. After my initial viewing of An Unexpected Journey in theaters last December and my recent viewing of the extended edition, I see why there are three movies and I am 100% behind the decision. Peter Jackson has used The Hobbit films to not only tell the story of the popular novel, but also to expand upon and provide an in-depth build-up to The Lord of the Rings trilogy. As with the previous extended editions of the original trilogy; The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey Extended Edition adds more plot details and provides a healthy amount of fan service. First of all, the extended edition features excellent editing. You have to really be watching for the additional and extended scenes as they are perfectly edited into the film. There is no visual quality drop and the score is beautifully composed to make the work feel whole. The film looks amazing with great use of CGI, makeup, and costumes. I know many people were disappointed with the increased CGI when compared to the LOTR trilogy, but it does not take away from the experience for me. The film itself is an impressive feat; however, unlike the original trilogy extended editions, this extended edition doesn’t make the film better. It does not make the film worse, it just does not add anything as monumental as “The Mouth of Sauron” was in The Return of the King extended edition. A little over half of the 13 additional minutes are of the dwarves and goblins singing and doing other silly acts for comic relief. This adds a lighter feel to the film that makes it feel more like the novel and less like The Lord of the Rings. As for the film itself, it is phenomenal. The film stands up to the LOTR trilogy and is a worthy addition to the franchise. Casting was done brilliantly, with Martin Freeman as Bilbo and Richard Armitage as Thorin stealing the show. The action, while not as real as in the LOTR trilogy due to increased CGI, was exciting and plentiful. Howard Shore also continues his fine work in the franchise composing a wonderful score blending in new sounds along with bringing back some of the familiar themes from the original trilogy. The original source material from the novel is done justice along with added material present to help set up the LOTR trilogy. All of this combines into a satisfying package that makes me excited to see the remaining two chapters. While I cannot say that this extended edition is the absolute best version of the film, it is not any worse than the others. This version adds onto an already fantastic work, and hardcore fans of the franchise would do themselves justice watching this version of the film. Score: 9/10 Note: This Blu-ray also comes with two additional discs featuring Hours of behind the scenes content that I personally have not viewed yet. As most people will be purchasing this product for the actual film I did not deem it necessary to include the extra content in my review.