Under the Misty mountains, infested by goblins and other unworldly creatures, the troop makes their way in the dark, damp recesses of the mountain near their ancestral home: Above. Shortly before this troop found themselves in the belly of this massive mountain of the Misty Mountains, this odd collection of burglars found a bit of rest and essential information, re-provision sustenance and tools of war in the elves home of Rivendell: Below. Click the picture to expand to as much as 1000 pixels wide within most expanded images, and then push the arrows embedded in the center edge of the play-box to access the gallery, and slide new images into viewing within the center of the screen.
Director Jackson's
"The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey," in 169 well rendered minutes of length, while not equal to the cinematic achievements of his treatment of any of his three installments of the
"The Lord of the Rings" trilogy, it is still a remarkable piece of film making. Peter Jackson brilliantly employed
"the day's" essential computer graphics (CG) that gives this fantastic story the realism that is so integral to one's suspension of disbelief of this tale of dwarves , elves, goblins, trolls, wizards, a dragon, and a most reluctant hobbit.
Also integral the story's essential believe-ability is Director Jackson's treatment of Tolkien's interwoven familiarity of character purpose. J.R.R. Tolkien understood well how to make his fantastic characters real in their purposeful pursuit of their quest - a quest of many, significant moving parts, where every character played their role to the precise benefit of the story's many, and the one essential theme - the eventual, and often costly, triumph of
"good over evil."
Here Elf King Elrond, of Rivendell, played by Hugo Weaving, presents one of the special swords forged by Elves - either Glamdring or Orcrist (names of the swords), especially adept at cleaving orcs or goblins: Above. The valiant leader of the dwarves, Thorin Oakenshield, played by Richard Armitage, leads his ragtag band across this field and into the misty mountains: Below. Click the picture to expand to as much as 1000 pixels wide within most expanded images, and then push the arrows embedded in the center edge of the play-box to access the gallery, and slide new images into viewing within the center of the screen.
As was the onset of "The Fellowship of the Ring" (the first installment of the "Lord of the Rings" trilogy), Tolkien builds the precept of his story, of the burglarizing "Hobbit", upon the backdrop of the familiar, wholesome home of every hobbit - the Shire. From this place of peace, Gandalf, played by Ian McKellen, challenges a hobbit to accomplish something unexpected and remarkable, and upon the chaos of an "unexpected party" and unexpected journey ensues and the main characters, for good or bad, are never the same again.
Here Gandalf, Ian McKellen, has a professional discussion with fellow wizard, Radagast the Brown, played by Sylvester McCoy: Above. Gandalf, Ian McKellen, meets Bilbo Baggins, Martin Freeman, for the first time and has the famous "Good morning scene:" Below. Click the picture to expand to as much as 1000 pixels wide within most expanded images, and then push the arrows embedded in the center edge of the play-box to access the gallery, and slide new images into viewing within the center of the screen.
This manifest representation of a real purposeful life in the progress of becoming something much more than what existed before, irrespective of the odds, is the essence of perfect storytelling, from which we will enjoy the remaining, soon to be released, furture two installments:
"The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug" and
"The Hobbit: There and Back Again."
Originator Tolkien was a masterful storyteller in his use of the normal, the serene, if not made chaotic by eclectic characters, to invite the reader into familiar surroundings before the whirlwind journey begins with a bang, amid the overwhelming drama that is the
"life and death struggle" within the
"good vs evil" tale of yore in Tolkien's own Middle Earth.
The unexpected party of dwarves, a wizard and a hobbit as best expressed in the stanza: Above and below.
