The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey is a blast from start to finish, and will leave you wanting more!

Rating: 9/10 (12 December 2012)

A curious Hobbit, Bilbo Baggins, journeys to the Lonely Mountain with a vigorous group of Dwarfs to reclaim a treasure stolen from them by the dragon Smaug.
I remember the first time I finished reading the book, it was an amazing story with great characters and good fantasy. I've read The Hobbit probably eight times, and it still fascinates me. So, did the movie do the book justice? The answer is: YES!
Before I went to see the movie I decided myself for two things, the first thing was to not see it in 48 fps. I had heard a lot of negative things about it, and I didn't want it to ruin the experience. And second was that I tried to lower my expectations for the film, since many had told me that it was very slow at times and didn't pick up before the last hour of the movie. So was this a good idea? Yeah, I really think it was.
I don't want to talk about the plot, and spoil everything. But what I will do is talk about what I liked and didn't, and also try to make clear why many didn't like this movie that much. I want to start with the actors, because they do a fantastic job! Ian Mckellen, Martin Freeman and Richard Armitage are the ones who steal the show. They are wonderful in their roles, and Armitage as Thorin is some of the best casting I've seen in all year. The rest of the cast is also very good! Hugo Weaving and Andy Serkis do their jobs, and the dwarfs are fun to watch. The battle scenes were great, even tough it wasn't in such a huge scale as in Two Towers and Return of the King, but it still was very good! There was a lot of things in the movie that wasn't in the book, which could be a bad thing but it blended in surprisingly well and makes it connect more to Lord of the Rings.
Now the thing I wan't to talk about is the complains about the movie's pacing. I was prepared to see some slow scenes, since I was told that the movie did get slow at times. But the problem is that I never noticed those scenes. I was so invested in the world and the characters, that I loved every bit of what was happening. All the nods and references to the Tolkien universe blended in so well, and it didn't make me bored for one second. The way it ties so much into Lord of the Rings, makes the movie some much better. And I can really understand why Peter Jackson is making a third Hobbit film.
Now from what I can see, is that the ''slow'' pacing in the movie is because its an straight adaptation of the book. Every thing in the book is in the movie, and people complain that many of the scenes were unnecessary. So what I have found out is that the people who is going to love this movie, are the people who fell in love with the book. Because obviously many of the critics haven't read the book, so they can't really care much for any memorable moments from the book.
Some of the complaints I have is that when you have 13 dwarfs, its hard to develop them all. Actually Thorin is more developed then any of the other dwarfs, so hopefully we'll get more development to these dwarfs in the sequels, and not just half of them. And even tough it was great to see Elijah Wood back again as Frodo, it was just weird to see him much older then he was in Lord of the Rings, and this is a prequel! So I think they could have done some more job on the makeup maybe.
Anyways, I think that is all I have to say about the movie. I loved it and I can't wait for the next one!