Enjoyable, but not quite as good as LOTR

Rating: 7/10 (16 December 2012)

Peter Jackson's "The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey" is an uneven start of the journey of the Hobbit Trilogy that is filled with both good and bad moments that will appeal and appall casual viewers and Tolkienites alike. There is a good movie & story to be found here, but Jackson and New Line Cinema overreached and the results are a mixed bag.
Making a movie for each book in the "Lord of the Rings" series was a smart move. Making a trilogy out of the simpler, more straightforward "The Hobbit" is an odd one. No doubt New Line wants to recapture the magic (pun partially intended) of LOTR, as well milk Tolkien's work as much as they possibly can. There are scenes and elements to tie the two stories together and even elements from other Tolkien works like. Even things that got a passing reference in the book are fleshed out more here. Perhaps too much...
A prime example would be Azog. In the book he's only mentioned two or three times and was a footnote. In the movies he's Thorin's sworn enemy in an attempt to give this trilogy a central villain. An attempt that doesn't really work as good as likely intended...
Likewise, events that were mentioned but not seen in the book (and the previous version of TH from the 70s by Ranking & Bass Animation) are given the full treatment here. This was to be expected when you think about how battles in LOTR was to long and eventful. For example, it was mentioned that Gandalf & the Dwarfs had to fight there way out of Goblin Town and one HAD to expect the movie to show it. True enough, it's an eventful combo of chase and battle reminiscent of Indiana Jone or The "Pirate of the Caribbean" movies. I liked it, but I'm not sure others will. And I'm sure everyone expected a flashback of how Smuag took Lonely Mountain to literally start the story with a bang.
There are cameos by Frodo (Elija Wood), Galadriel (Cate Blanchete), Saruman (Christoper Lee) and Ian Holm as the older Bilbo to strengthen ties between the two series, some Sauron foreshadowing (including saying his presence is what made Mirkwood murky), and they even go so far as to say that Gandalf helped the dwarfs because he was concerned about Smaug would side with the baddies later. Radagast has small roles in other Tolkien stories but didn't appear in the original book. Here he is almost a different character, has quite a role and may help out more later.
The real problem is that it tried to hard to be like LOTR. Thorin ends up being an Aragon expy and it very different from the book and cartoon movie and there were several scenes that gave me deja vu. And I really didn't want to feel that here...
Some may grouse about the movie having too much comedy, but I'll give that a pass since Tolkien originally wrote TH to be a more lighthearted, fun story than LOTR, even if things get kinda of sitcommy at times.
"I think the worst is behind us" Bilbo says just before the ending. I thought, "I sure hope so..."