"I cannot guarantee his safety, nor will I be responsible for his fate," Richard Armitage's Thorin Oakenshield says to Ian McKellen's Gandalf The Grey about Martin Freeman's diminutive Bilbo Baggins in the latest trailer for Peter Jackson's "The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey." Hey, I have a great idea, let's bring a small hobbit on a perilous journey that he may not survive!
OK, surely there's some logic to why they bring Bilbo on this journey, so forgive us for forgetting why, as we haven't read "The Hobbit" in two decades.
Anyhow, a new-ish trailer for the film — now the first part of a planned three-film trilogy — has arrived and it's pretty decent if a little somber in spots. It's also lighthearted in places too so we imagine the lighter-on-its-feet novel will be adapted more or less with a similar moody and jovial tenor. The trailer also reveals to us more footage of the thirteen dwarves in the picture and focuses on their fairly serious tone. Or at least, the song that Armitage sings does (hello, very familiar shades of the songs sung by Aragorn in "The Lord of the Rings"). It's also not that different from some of the earlier trailers, but as detailed here, there are some new elements to it.
Due December 14th, its sequel, "The Hobbit: There and Back Again" does not arrive until December 13, 2013, and the final chapter, "The Hobbit: House Party 3," lands in the summer of 2014. Is that third and presumably final film going to go back to the previously tossed-around idea of a 'Hobbit' "bridge" film between the first book and "The Lord of the Ring" movies? Time will tell.
There are four seconds of new footage.
Four seconds.
This is the first trailer, released ages ago.
Nothing about this is new.