Great for fans, alright for everyone else

Rating: 8/10 (26 December 2012)

Anyone expecting another Lord of The Rings will probably be disappointed in this movie - but of course, the original books were quite different in tone and in scope, and their film adaptations reflect that. The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey has all the brilliant sets, music, and costumes that LOTR did, and with another stunning cast of characters. Martin Freeman and Richard Armitage (and all the cast, really) execute their parts perfectly. The movie is light, fun, action-filled and highly entertaining. It has less of the dark, epic drama than the LOTR trilogy, more in tune with the book upon which it is based.
In an attempt to stretch The Hobbit into three movies, its creators have padded the story with additional tales and details from Tolkien's legendarium. This will please fans of Tolkien's work, and provide some informative context for the more casual moviegoers. However, this padding does affect the pacing of the movie, to the point where it can seem a little slow and dry. Some patchwork done by the scriptwriters seems a little out of tune with the language borrowed straight from the books, so that every once in a while one character or another will drop in a modern phrase that doesn't quite seem to fit. But this isn't a fatal flaw, and the more exciting parts of the film more than make up for its slower start.
This is one of the better 3D movies I've seen, and the higher frame rate is probably part of the reason. Director Peter Jackson has said that 48 frames per second will take some getting used to for most people, but it is the way of the future. I think he's right: you will find it strange to watch this movie (if you see it in a theatre that can actually show you the higher frame rate), but by the end of it I had adjusted. I had the same experience with this as I had when HD shows started becoming popular: it seems very un-real at first, because it isn't what you're used to, but after a while of watching it you realize it is realistic, so much so that it's more realistic than any movie you've ever watched before. In The Hobbit, this makes for some some stunning effects, and captures the beautiful Middle Earth landscapes better than anything before it.
So, is it another Lord of The Rings? Not really, but it shouldn't be. I suspect some of the additional elements pulled in from Tolkien's larger volume of work will play out in greater detail in the rest of the trilogy, and hopefully this helps fill out the plot to correct some of the poor pacing int he first installment. An Unexpected Journey is definitely worth the watch. It's entertaining, visually thrilling, and will no doubt lead into a great trilogy of films.