The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey

The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey (2012) is Peter Jackson's fantasy epic you can watch online on iFILM. The first chapter of a trilogy adapted from J.R.R. Tolkien's 1937 novel opens with the most reluctant adventurer in Middle-earth: Bilbo Baggins, a hobbit who prefers second breakfast to quests.

Gandalf the Grey arrives with thirteen dwarves led by the brooding Thorin Oakenshield. Their goal — Erebor, the Lonely Mountain, seized by the dragon Smaug roughly a century and a half ago, along with every last ounce of the dwarven treasury. Bilbo is recruited as burglar. What follows is trolls, goblins, warg riders, and one pivotal riddle game in the dark with a creature called Gollum. Martin Freeman brings Bilbo an endearing bewilderment; Ian McKellen is Gandalf; Richard Armitage makes Thorin grim and quietly desperate.

Filmed entirely in New Zealand with Weta Digital's effects, scored by Howard Shore, and controversially shot at 48 frames per second, the film was both a commercial success and a debate about what cinema should look like. Stream The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey (2012) online on iFILM.