By: Pedro Ceniceros

The film, “The Hobbit,” by Peter Jackson has become an instant classic starring Martin Freeman and Ian McKellen.

This story takes place 60 years before Frodo’s own trek to destroy the ring, which brought evil to the world, and it tells about Bilbo Baggins (Freeman), Frodo’s uncle, and how he encounters Gandalf the Grey (McKellen) and a band of dwarves who venture forth to the Lonely Mountain, where a dragon awaits to be slayed.

Freeman plays Baggins really well, excellent, in fact, when he stands up to the dwarf king Thorin ( Richard Armitage) son of Tharin after the dwarf doubts him and repeatedly harasses him. Freeman also excels in his encounter with the monster Smeagle (a.k.a. Golum) as Smeagle prepares to eat him. McKellen, also remembered in his part of Magneto in the X-men, plays Gandalf the Grey with an amusing, but great character.. He is remarkably good when it comes to saving the group’s skin on repeated occasions (in the trolls’s camp, he shines daylight to turn the trolls to stone, or to escape from the goblin’s lair, when the ork king chases the group through the forest, and he [Gandalf] sets fire to the wolves).

Someone should give an award to the special effects and make up artists. The special FX was good, considering how short a hobbit must be, or how deadly the wars must look. The sound FX also was magnificent. The roar of the wolves that chase the dwarves was indeed deafening, the clash of swords sounded completely real, and the death cries of goblins were just that, death cries. The make-up artists supported the special FX with a great deal of accuracy. After a battle, the characters must look beat up and bloody, which is impossible to achieve were it not for the amazing work the make-up artist did. For example, when Gandalf sets the forest on fire in a desperate attempt to stop the orks from killing them, soot covers the dwarves and Baggins from head to toe.This “soot” is nothing but the magical work of not the wizard Gandalf, but the make-up wizards.

An Unexpected Journey is the first in a trilogy of The Hobbit, but is packed with action. This is a must see for all. Fans from the Lord of the Rings should watch this if they loved the Lord of the Rings trilogy, also by PeterJackson. .

This movie deserves five stars. How Jackson found three movies in a single book? We don’t know, but, so far, it is amazing.