A fantastic start to what will hopefully become another great trilogy.

Rating: 9/10 (15 December 2012)

The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey is the first part of Peter Jackson's planned trilogy based on J.R.R Tolkien's precursor to The Lord of the RIngs, The Hobbit. Various stars from The Lord of the Rings return here, such as Ian McKellen, Ian Holm, Elijah Wood, 90 year-old Christopher Lee, Hugo Weaving, Cate Blanchett and Andy Serkis' spectacular motion capture Gollum. New faces include Martin Freeman, Richard Armitage, ex-Doctor Who Sylvester McCoy, Lee Pace, Graham McTavish, Ken Stott, James Nesbitt, Benedict Cumberbatch, Manu Bennett and Barry Humphries.
This film starts with old Bilbo Baggins writing down his adventures with the Dwarfs in The Lonely Mountain for his nephew Frodo. Then, 60 years earlier, Martin Freeman is young, content with his quaint, quiet lifestyle in Bag End. That is, until mysterious wizard Gandalf the Grey and a company of 12 dwarfs. After that, he is whisked off on adventures in the dangers of Middle Earth.
This was a really great film. Although I don't like one relatively short book being drawn out into three 2-and- a-half-hour films, I had faith in Peter Jackson after he brought us LOTR before. I like the way they managed to take small parts in the book and made them longer, as well as adding in some good stuff also. Howard Shore once again knocks it out of the park with a magnificent score, and the action is enjoyable and really fun. Also, this is the funniest of any Lord of the Rings-related film; most of it at the expense of the dwarfs. The riddle scene was amazing; Gollum was better than ever here. The character of Bilbo was brilliant, good character development and an awesome performance from Martin Freeman. My gripes with it? It is a little overlong. It was acceptable to have 4-hour epics with The Lord of the Rings as each one was a separate book. Here, there are some pacing issues as some parts are dragged out. Also, yet I think this will be resolved in the next parts, The Desolation of Smaug and There and Back Again, the dwarfs' characters (with the exception of Thorin and Balin) were not fleshed out enough, and you didn't get to know them enough here. However, overall this is a great film, and I can't wait for its successors.
Finally, I would just like to congratulate the film-makers on adding in a wonderful Wilhelm Scream from a goblin. It's nice to see they're still being used.