【電影簡介】

電影《霍比特人：意外之旅》的故事發生在《指環王（魔戒）》三部曲故事的大約60年前，講述了弗羅多的叔叔比爾博·巴金斯的冒險歷程。

壯麗的矮人都市，黃金遍地的孤山伊魯柏在橡木盾家族的統治下繁榮而安穩，矮人們擁有精湛一流的采礦、冶煉和鍛造技術，甚至在大山深處開采出絢麗的阿肯寶石——大山之心。

然而，索爾·橡木盾國王嗜金如命，大量的黃金被堆放在自己的宮殿中，泛濫的財富讓他內心逐漸腐化，伊魯柏的繁榮也逐漸走到了盡頭。

一天，來自北方的火龍斯矛戈蒞臨孤山，矮人軍隊潰敗，伊魯柏就此淪陷，失去家園的索爾曾考慮過帶領矮人們退至古老的矮人王國摩瑞亞，卻不料半獸人搶先到達，雙方展開惡戰，索爾國王不敵褻瀆者阿索格被殘忍斬首，他的孫子索林挺身而出，危急時刻拾起一塊橡木當作盾牌，斬斷了阿索格的胳膊，進而帶領軍隊奮勇反擊，以慘重的傷亡贏得了勝利，阿索格退回了摩瑞亞，矮人們仍舊無家可歸，索林王子也只能忍辱負重，為人類做鐵匠以謀取生計。

比爾博·巴金斯是生活在夏爾的一個普通的霍比特人，灰袍巫師甘道夫召集包括索林·橡木盾在內的13個矮人聚集在他的家中，在歡快的晚宴后共同商討奪回伊魯柏的事宜，而比爾博·巴金斯則在甘道夫的勸說下最終決定參與到這場冒險歷程中。

一行人跨越叢林、草原、山地與河流，路上遭遇巨怪，脫險后又遭到阿索格手下的追殺，途中經過精靈據點瑞文戴爾和妖精哥布爾的深山領地，磨難重重，最終在懸崖邊與阿索格團伙狹路相逢，索林·橡木盾險些喪命，比爾博及時出手，避免了悲劇的發生，緊要關頭，甘道夫召喚巨鷹前來相助，一行人才逃脫了阿索格的魔爪，黎明到來之時，伊魯柏在遠方的天際熠熠生輝。

【音頻文本】

Watching The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey is like watching someone playing a video-enhanced game of Dungeons and Dragons. On the one hand, you can sit back and enjoy the beautiful visual effect and fantasy adventure story without having to bleed your fingers on the joystick. But from time to time you do wish to takecontrol and hurry things up to face the big dragon. Ultimately you get somewhat disappointed when you don't get to see the big dragon because obviously you are just on level one.

In the first of the serial prequels to The Lord of the Rings trilogy, director Peter Jackson follows precisely the prescription in J. R. R.Tolkien's original novel and sends the players exploring the vastness of the Middle Earth. Before the adventure begins, viewers are given quite a lengthy introduction of the characters, chiefly among them is Bilbo Baggins, played by Martin Freeman, who is also Dr. Watson in BBC's contemporary adaptation of “SherlockHolmes”. Besides that, the dwarves put on a great show of joy and merry-making, but it makes a painfully extended intro and character selection part with no skip button.

To make the game last longer, our director includes a know-your-character tutorial scene, also without a skip button. This is the scene where Bilboexhibits his outstanding quick wit which makes him a very precious member of the group of reckless dwarves.But apparently Jackson believes the little Hobbit hasn't done enough to prove his worth, so the rest of the installment is dedicated to that task, culminating with Bilbo's confrontation with Gollum in a riddle game.

In the meantime, the group roamed the Middle Earth, gathering important items and necessary information toguide them through the quest. When this is done, congratulations! You've completed level one. For more adventures, please insert more coin, and wait until next year.

So as you see, the storyline is problematic. And because the director spends the bulk of the time developing the lead character, by the way, great job by Martin Freeman, other characters or more precisely the 13 dwarves and Gandolf the Grey, don't fare as well as the little Hobbit. All that you can recall is dwarves and more dwarves and Gandolf from The Lord of the Rings.

Other factors, like brilliant pictures and scores,don’t help distinguish the movie from a well-made videogame. And adding to the disappointment is the likelihood that the high-frame-rated version might not be available in Chinese cinemas. So the film's innovative significance could go missing among the Chinese audience. The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey is a movie spoiled by ambition, either the ambition for another trilogy, or the ambition for more sizeable grossing. A shortened editor’s cut might save the series, but I guess it wouldn't be possible in the near future. On a scale from one to ten, I give The Hobbit a 6.

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