A flawed journey, but quiet charming and entertaining nonetheless

Rating: 7/10 (13 January 2013)

This is one of the movies that you either enjoy as a whole and try to overlook the negatives, or you be put off by its flaws, luckily .. I was among the first group.
We have to remember that this is a first installment of a series and not a complete story by its own, so the upcoming two films may have a positive or a negative effect on it.
That being said, let me start addressing what I liked and disliked about the movie. The introduction to the characters was very well done, the movie manages to flesh out the characters despite having too many of them, they are all likable and none of them feels annoying or unnecessary. The story is well built, I loved how they underlined some of the themes like finding what it takes to leave your daily life and do the unusual and the grief of being homeless.
The acting was magnificent, all the actors were perfectly fitting for their roles. The scenery and colors were so beautiful and Howard Shore's score was great.
My biggest issue was with the pacing, at least half an hour could have been cut out, especially some of scenes played solely for humor, I am very annoyed by this mainly because Peter Jackson has repeated the same mistake he made with king kong, but all that can be forgiven in return for many parts of sheer brilliance.
So is it perfect? No. Is it on par with The Lord of the Rings movies? No. But this remains a very well made film that succeeds at being entertaining, heart warming and magical and it's definitely a very welcome return to middle earth.