The Hobbit:An Unexpected Journey-SPOILER REVIEW

Rating: 9/10 (5 January 2014)

Okay so Peter Jackson returns to Middle-Earth with The Hobbit:An Unexpected Journey, which is part 1 of a trilogy which tells the story of Bilbo Baggins who is swept into an epic quest in order to help 13 dwarfs reclaim their homeland from Smaug the dragon. Well The Lord of the Rings Trilogy was a massive success so the pressure was on to make The Hobbit just as good. The Hobbit is being adapted as a trilogy from a 300 page book. Judging by the film's run time you can tell that it is very risky to make a 2hr 49min (well 3hr 2min for the extended cut) out of the first 6 chapters of a 300 page book. However the filmmakers have added events from the appendices which are extra notes on certain events and characters that happen/appear during the time line of The Hobbit.
An Unexpected Journey starts out with a prologue which gives you the basic premise of what happened and then after the prologue we spend quite a while in the Shire. I have to say the Shire scenes are nice. People complain that the Shire scenes are too slow. I disagree because the filmmakers want the audience to get to know the characters, otherwise we would just be watching random people experiencing these mortal situations. So we get nice character development, where we are introduced to Bilbo Baggins(Martin Freeman), Gandalf(Ian McKellen) and the 13 Dwarfs. Then after we finish in the Shire the adventure begins and the film moves at a pretty rollicking pace considering how much they are adapting and how long the film is. We are also introduced to Radagast the Brown(Sylvester McCoy) who is another wizard. He is very strange but likable nonetheless though his appearance is very brief. The action scenes themselves are very great and tense. The scene with the trolls felt very comedic and I though it was constructed extremely well. What was impressive was that the scene built up from being comedic to a very epic action scene with a very impressive soundtrack. The Warg chase is thrown in there just for the sake of it just to have a bit more action just to keep the pace moving quickly. The action in the Goblin's Lair is breathtaking with impressive camera shots and great soundtrack. The climax is enthralling and intense with some fabulous moments. They have turned a simple chapter in the book into an epic climax for the first film. There are other great moments such as Rivendell. It is nice to revisit some iconic locations from the Lord of the Rings and Rivendell is gorgeous to look at just as in Lord of the Rings. It is also nice to have some cameos from past characters such as Elrond, Galadriel, Saruman and of course Gollum. Now, The riddles scene was classic and the best scene of the film. Andy Serkis is a delight to watch as he reprises his role. It is cleverly written and the whole entire screenplay is pretty damn good come to think of it. I thought the acting in this film is astonishing. Martin Freeman is a great Bilbo and you really believe that his character has changed by the end of the film. The ending is pretty great with the tease of Smaug waking up. My only real criticism is that I wish there was less cgi and more prosthetics as I really admired the prosthetics on Lord of the Rings a lot.
Overall The Hobbit:An Unexpected Journey is a fantastic film. A great start to what will be a very good trilogy. Hooked from beginning to end.
Overall 9 out of 10.