Once the party sets out on their journey, however, Jackson begins piling on layer after layer of extraneous action and incident. (I could have lived without the frisbeeing of dinnerware, but I suppose the filmmakers had to do something with their CGI budget, and one can blow only so many smoke rings.) Initially reluctant to join Gandalf and the dwarves on their quest, Bilbo is eventually persuaded, going so far as to sign a contract disavowing any liability for "injuries sustained, including but not limited to laceration, evisceration, and incineration." Freeman makes for an amiable if not quite indelible Bilbo as Gandalf, Ian McKellen is Ian McKellen (as if you'd want him to be anyone else) and the dwarves-well, there are really too many to keep track of clearly: one is fat, one is old, one seems have absconded with Wyatt Earp's moustache, and their leader, Thorin (Richard Armitage) is not much fond of hobbits. Like the novel, Jackson's film opens tidily in the Shire, where Bilbo's home is casually invaded by the uninvited passel of dwarves, who proceed to demolish his larder. There are adventures along the way, of course-with trolls and goblins and spiders the size of suitcases-but none steer the band of adventurers terribly far from their intended path. Bilbo (Martin Freeman) leaves the comfort of his hobbit-hole in the sunny Shire to join Gandalf (Ian McKellen) and a baker's dozen of dwarves on a quest to slay a dragon and reclaim its golden hoard. The original tale was a slender, simple one.
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