the hobbits unexpected journey

movies:  The first installment of The Hobbit that was released on Friday has come under much scrutiny from hardcore fans of the story (like me).  The story has been turned into a trilogy.  The question of how that was possible was up for debate.  Unlike the The Lord Of The Rings, which was tailor made for a trilogy given its in book format, The Hobbit not only is one, book but a simple streamlined story that is often classified in the children's section of your local book store.  Word began to get out that the story was going to be flushed out to fill in that time by adding in sections of the appendices at the end of Lord Of The Rings in order to represent The Hobbit as more of a prequel than what it truly is; the simple story of one hobbit's adventures.
It was hard not to give Peter Jackson a level of unconditional trust going into the movie based on his track record when visiting Middle Earth.  But questions still were out there.  While at least in this first movie, The Unexpected Journey, he certainly did use the appendices to fill in holes in the story to create a more coherent binding of the worlds between the one he had previously in inhabited and the one in which he was now telling a story, there was much more to what he had in mind than simply to fill in some gaps between the two worlds.
When one looks at the the two different stories on their own merits, The Hobbit is a rather simple adventure story without much context as it is told by Tolkien.  It is simply the story of Bilbo Baggins leaving his home despite himself to see what the larger world has to offer.  The Lord Of The Rings is Tolkien's complete flushing out of that world as he created a dense landscape and history so complete that it could only be matched by that of our own, as we learn the specific geography and history of different lands and people we encountered.
In the movies this concept has almost been flipped.  In order to keep the Lord Of The Rings Trilogy succinct and from getting totally out of control (the extended editions still come in at just under twelve total hours), he streamlined the story by making about two concepts.  The destruction of the ring by Frodo and the rise Aragorn as the king, leaving much of the very dense history that made up the books.
In the Hobbit Jackson chose to go the opposite way.  He has filled the movie with a rich and often dense history of the members involved.  He gets into the history of the dwarves under the mountain, found in Tolkien's various writings on Middle Earth.  He even begins the story with what is actually the opening scene of Lord Of The Rings, where Bilbo and Frodo are talking about the various relations that will be coming to his party, ending with Frodo saying he is going to the hill at East Farthing, where we find him meeting Gandolf at the beginning of the Fellowship movie.
The other thing that maybe even more so lead to the movies being a trilogy though was its astounding detail.  Jackson was at times taking scenes that were simple one paragraph descriptions and turning them into epic sequences.  The scene of the giants on the side of the Misty Mountains in the books is a one paragraph description of something seen off in the distance that in the movie is turned in to a spectacular visual moment and immediate threat to our heroes.  The scene other scene of note in what I call the epicizing of the story is the dwarves escape from the goblins under that vary mountain.   Because it is not something that happens directly to our Mr. Baggins, it is told in brief flash back in the book.  Jackson tells it in a gigantic battle scene.
His detail is also found in his faithfulness too though.  The telling of the unexpected party at Bilbo's home where he first meets the dwarves is basically a word for word retelling.  Also the moment when he discovers the ring in his game of riddles with Gollum could not have held more true to the text from which it is derived   Also as we saw the more intimate "battle" between Bilbo and Gollum that was set up to mirror the insane battle between the dwarves and goblins, we saw that the movie did operate at its best in that more intimate moment that the point of view of the book was centered on.
I know I have spent a lot of time talking about what made this movie so long.  But it is worth saying given its origins.  But let me say that it was totally worth it.  All of the history and detail gave The Hobbit a level or richness worthy or it being a true prequel to The Lord Of The Rings.
The movie also saw Middle Earth's best acting performance.  Martin Freeman assumed the role of Bilbo in a way one could have only hoped.  He was bashful and silly and unassuming as a possible hero.  He didn't believe in himself.  I didn't believe in him either.  But yet he still found ways to survive his adventure and even prove himself worthy of it.  He showed the hobbit we were expecting to see, one who was capable of great things while genuinely not knowing either that he was or that those great things were happening around him.
In the end though it was Peter Jackson that made this movie most enjoyable.  His innate understanding of that universe is without match.  While going back to the world he captured en-route to Oscar dominance, he was able to change it to reflect that he is not filming as history but an adventure.  It was brighter and funner.  Even the campy looking makeup gave the majestic world a more childlike sense tha t was actually worthy of the story he was telling.  He made it the kids story it was supposed to be while giving it the gravity it needed as a prequel to his previous epic.
But what it really was about Jackson's The Hobbit that touched me was that I found myself feeling the contentment our main character longs for throughout the tail.  In the end our hero is out of his depth as he fights trolls and goblins and dragons and even Gollum.  But in the end he just wants to go home to the life he left behind.  And with Jackson being able to create what the minds eye of so many readers has seen in the world of Middle Earth, it really did feel like home.  The comfortable place of my bravest imagination.