Guest Blogger: Zach 1

The 2012 film The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey directed by Peter Jackson follows the life of a young Bilbo Baggins who calls the Shire home. One inconspicuous day Gandalf the wizard arrives at Bilbo’s home and marks his door with an odd symbol. This symbol is the marker for the final destination for any wandering dwarves. Sure enough twelve dwarves and finally Gandalf show up at the house of poor Bilbo where he forced to serve them dinner. Little does Bilbo know that Gandalf has recommended Bilbo to be the burglar in the dwarves’ quest to venture back to their homeland where the dragon Smaug now resides in hopes to take back their kingdom. Bilbo, reluctant to go along, finally decides to take the adventure of his lifetime. The journey takes the group through Middle Earth to reach their final destination. In this film the group travels through the Misty Mountains and their trip takes an unexpected turn when they are captured by goblins that live in the mountain. This film features cast new to the Lord of the Rings series and even brings back some familiar faces. Elijah Wood, Ian Mckellen, and Ian Holms are just some of the returning actors featured in the Lord of the Rings trilogy. This film though features around Martin Freeman as Bilbo Baggins, Ian Mckellen as Gandalf, and Richard Armitage as Thorin Oakenshield. Each of these three actors did an excellent job portraying their respective roles. Martin Freeman brought humorous energy to a young Bilbo Baggins while Ian Mckellen brought back the wise old wizard role from the original Lord of the Rings trilogy. Richard Armitage was also great at portraying the battle hardened leader of the dwarves. Bilbo Baggins in the movie starts out as a reserved young hobbit that wants nothing to do with the adventure at hand. Many times watchers of the movie will hear him complain about how he wants to go home and how he is not fit for the adventure. His ultimate goal is to make it home alive. To contrast this is Thorin Oakenshield. This tough warrior wishes to make quick headway to his former home to regain the kingdom that is rightfully his. Thorin only cares about treasure and his company of dwarves but not Bilbo. Many times Thorin will say that he wishes that Bilbo was not on the quest. The main theme of this movie is being able to have faith in one’s self. While on the early stages of the adventure Bilbo seems to have little faith in his ability to return home. He does not have faith that he will be able to do the job that he was hired for. What the audience can take away from this is have faith in yourself. If you believe in something you can accomplish it. Overall this movie was great and well worth your time to see. The movie has beautiful scenes, great visuals, and action packed fights. Despite what some reviewers like Christopher Orr at The Atlantic say, this movie was overall excellent. I agree that the actors were great at portraying their roles and I also agree that the movie threw in unnecessary plot such as the feud with the orc warlord. If you ever get the chance, I highly recommend watching this movie.