The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey

The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey (2012) starring Martin Freeman, Ian Mckellan, Richard Armitage, Andy Serkis, Ian Holm, Hugo Weaving, Cate Blanchett, Christopher Lee, Elijah Wood. Directed by Peter Jackson. The decision was made by Jackson to turn The Hobbit, a fairly long novel, into a three-movie extravaganza. This first installment proves to be a slight disappointment, since we've seen many of the tricks in previous Lord of the Rings films. Jackson does manage to get to the crucial encounter between Bilbo Baggins (Freeman) and Gollum (Serkis), in which Bilbo acquires the One Ring around which the entire set of books revolves. There are also some good action scenes, mostly battles with Orcs, but for my taste the fight scenes were a bit too "busy." They might have looked better in a movie theater, rather than on my 22-inch TV screen, so I can't really hold that against him. All in all, I love the Hobbit and all things Middle Earth, so this movie succeeded in pleasing me despite its shortcomings. (English subtitles for the hearing-impaired are available on the disc; closed captions are not.) Grade: B+