The Hobbit: An Unexpected journey fails to meet all expectations but it still has success.

Rating: 7/10 (18 December 2014)

The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey is flawed and doesn't reach the heights of the Lord of the Rings but it nevertheless succeeds at offering us a lot of good things. The visual effects and CGI landscape on screen look absolutely and attractively beautiful and we instantly want to be in the adventure because of this. Storytelling and the way it is told in the picture is compelling. Absolutely everyone is impressively well cast in the film and exactly the way you would want them to look like as their characters. Not a single one in the film is not cast well. I'm moreover highly impressed by the Dwarfs being shown as very spirited in the film and it made them highly believable and memorable characters. I thought that the creature Gollum makes a welcome reappearance. The Trolls-Hobbit-Dwarfs scene was another scene I really liked because it was very ambitious. I also really liked the Battle-of-the-Rocks scene - it was amazingly fun, technically inventive and well executed. The problem about this movie however is that it is not pumped with full of life and energy enough. Another problem is the plot and the problem about this plot is the following: alright the plot is about a group of Dwarfs who are trying to reclaim their homeland from an evil dragon named Smaug. Yes, but then what? Another problem is the action taking place in the Goblins' home as Gandalf and the Dwarfs are trying to escape from the Goblins near the end of the film - that action scene added nothing new to the new Middle Earth trilogy and it lacked skillful entertainment even if few of its scene elements were impressive and stylish. The other problem is the moment in that same scene where Gandalf and the Dwarfs go on an attached wooden ramp which breaks loose and ultimately allows them to escape as it brutally breaks and slides down - this part of the scene looked slightly or a bit too much like a video game act and slightly or a bit unconvincing and childish as well. And the deliberate pacing is also a slight problem in the film. From what I've learned is that making The Hobbit movie was a particularly challenging and intimidating task for Peter Jackson (don't know why) even if he's himself a talented director and he originally intended for someone else to direct The Hobbit because of that but this wasn't possible and therefore he was forced to be the one in charge of the direction for The Hobbit. Poor man. However, after watching The Hobbit movie I thought that Peter Jackson did an impressive effort and that fortunately he managed to do an above-satisfactory job despite the challenge, even if some flaws remained there. Overall, The Hobbit: Unexpected Journey is a stirring adventure film but unfortunately it doesn't accomplish its full purpose. It could have been increasingly better. My rating for the film: 7.2/10