The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey (2012)

You won't be disappointed!

I cannot think of one single thing that I would change about this film. The acting is incomparable, the directing deft, and the writing poignantly brilliant.

This movie was so-so. It had it's moments, but wasn't the greatest.

Through painfully honest and emotional moments, the movie becomes irresistibly relatable

It is a fact that Tolkien is the father of modern fantasy literature, through his marvelous work he practically redesigned the gender and served as an example for the entire author community who came after to follow. When I first heard about this movie I was really skeptical, as the original story was a really childish tale and I thought they would not be able to make the feeling of the original "Lord of the Rings" get out of me. But...As soon as the movie started I found myself again as a small child discovering the wonderful universe of books together with the crown jewel called Middle Earth. Even with the adaptations so the movie was more mature were a bit over in some cases, as soon as you hear the poems from the book singed by the dwarfs on a sad tone it is impossible to judge then bad. The plot flows so well that is can even be seen before than the original franchise by a stranger to the series without losing meaning, they will only lose some really god references. But without a doubt the biggest point of the movie is the fact that is another trilogy, because it shows to the fans that the dream of Tolkien is still alive.

The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey is an enjoyable re-entry into Middle Earth. It's fun to see familiar faces and places from the Lord of the Rings movies, and see how these two series tie together. However, while I have watched the LOTR films multiple times, I don't know if I can do the same thing with this one. The starting is exasperatingly slow and the movie is longer than it needs to be, considering how much of the book it covers. The visuals are great, but the story is stretched too thin. I like this movie, but I don't love it.

Seven stars for part one of The Hobbit series, which is mainly because of the filming, attributes and acting.As for the story itself, I haven't read the books yet - so bear with me, but I found it very dry and not so interesting. Many moments I wanted to scream out that >random cliché moment< was so naive. The great wizard who is not so great after all. A simple hobbit like Bilbo Baggins getting dragged into a war like that, which to me, is completely the opposite of his attitude. Perhaps the second and third movie will surprise me, but thus far I haven't enjoyed The Hobbit as much as I thought it would.The story of An Unexpected Journey has disappointed me. Hopefully the next movies will become better.As for the filming, attributes and acting - VERY good. Amazing CGI, details, filming/drone shots and OST! The acting was very good too.

Bilbo Baggins (Martin Freeman) is selected by Gandalf as the 14th member of his team and is tasked with assisting a group of dwarves to reclaim their home Lonely Mountain. Baggins is initially reluctant to help, but does prove his worth and eventually wins over a group of rather sceptical dwarves...Many other people have probably eluded to the fact that it was going to be a tough task for Jackson to replicate the success of The Lord Of The Rings. Even going in with expectations of it being not as good (which it wasn't), it still wasn't quite as good as I'd hoped it would be...The Lord Of The Rings films were long films, but in fairness I didn't really notice the time passing by when watching the original trilogy. Sadly that isn't the case here; the set-up to the story here goes on far too long and starts to grate after a while - I realise that some set-up is necessary, but if I'm not mistaken it's getting close to the hour mark before they even embark on their journey. The whole set-up with the dwarves arriving at Baggins house, goofing around and p***ing him off was mildly amusing, but again it was overdone and dragged on for too long.Perhaps that's the problem with this film - it felt like Jackson didn't really have the material to stretch the film to its 'epic' length of just under 3 hours so he just torturously padded the whole film out. Another example of this is Bilbo Baggins encounter with Gollum - yes it's necessary to the story, but again their 'riddling' battle of wits and Baggins playing hide and seek with Gollum whilst invisible seemed to be a long-winded and elaborate way of showing how Baggins acquired the ring. I also felt that the film didn't have much narrative structure or shape and Jackson had a tendency to dart the film in all kinds of directions which at times made the film feel a little muddled - he did this to an extent in LOTR, but it didn't feel as detrimental there as it does here.The performances by the main cast are a mixed bunch; McKellen is always good value and does an excellent job again. The likes of Hugo Weaving and Christopher Lee are solid in supporting roles. Freeman isn't quite as good as many of the other cast members, but does an OK job.Overall then The Hobbit is an OK film that is watchable, but by unnecessarily and painfully stretching the film out to nearly 3 hours in length the film does have a lot of dull stretches meaning that a lot of viewer patience will be required in order to endure it in its entirety.