Bilbo carries on with a straightforward existence with his kindred hobbits in the shire, until the wizard Gandalf arrives and persuades him to join a gathering of dwarves on a journey to recover the kingdom of Erebor.
It frequently seems as though Jackson was less interested in making The Hobbit than in remaking his own fabulously successful Lord of the Rings series.
The repeated iterations of fight, flight and respite here get wearing. Especially perhaps because, with Jackson's fetish for detail, they take more time to watch on screen than to read about.
Watching the three great actors in eye-popping 3D as they go on and on about dwarves, dragons, a necromancer, elves and ogres is the joy and ridiculousness of a fantasy movie that takes itself very honestly and seriously.
To its own narrative detriment, "The Hobbit" works hard to lay the framework for what will follow. Certainly that's one way to set out on a trilogy, but it's surely not the best.
Richard Roeper.com
December 14, 2012
There's no denying the majesty in Peter Jackson's visuals but he's taken a relatively slim children's book and stretched it beyond the limits.
You may have seen Middle Earth before. But you haven't been IN Middle Earth.Peter Jackson's 'The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey' has made it possible for you to feel like you're surrounded by the astonishing environment created by J.R.R. Tolkien.
The 'LOTR' films have become so iconic and undeniably definitive, that it's often anticlimactic in 'The Hobbit' to hear grand characters saying new sentences in new settings.
