7. Tone and Increased Scope Compared To The Book
This is not a straight-out filmatic adaption of
The Hobbit book, and to go into the movie expecting such a thing is to open yourself up to disappointment. This is
The Hobbit re-imagined through the prism of Jacksons desire to show it as an out-and-out prequel to the apocalyptic and portentous events of his earlier trilogy. Fortunately, Jackson finds the perfect middle-ground in this picture of projecting the whimsicality of Tolkiens 1937 book and the ominous and apocalyptic overtones which dominate much of his other works. As a result of the inclusion of material from Tolkiens supplementary materials and appendices we see a wealth of incidents in
An Unexpected Journey that are at best only alluded to in the book: The White Council, Radagast the Brown and the Necromancer of Dol Goldur sub-plots all feature much more prominently than they did as their paperback incarnations. Some out-and-out changes (Azog's inclusion over Bolg for instance, and the re-writing of the Witch-King of Angmar's history) may make more sense when we understand how events in all 3 movies will pan out, but they certainly do not detract from the singular experience here. As I pointed out in my
previous article on differences between the movies and the book, some purists may criticise Jacksons methods but its key to remember that Tolkien himself retroactively amended the 1937 first edition of
The Hobbit in the wake of the release of the
Lord of the Rings books, essentially rewriting Chapter 5 Riddles in the Dark to reflect Gollums motivations as described by Gandalf in
The Fellowship of the Ring. The result:
An unexpected Journey gains a depth and foreboding resulting from its presentation as a richer, interconnecting and gradually darkening story in comparison to the book. And Tolkien geeks like me will no doubt feel their hearts beat slightly faster at the mention of the Blue Wizards, the spawn of Ungoliant, and references to Gondolin.