'The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey' is a good film and in my mind is receiving to may negative reviews that it dose not deserve.

Rating: 9/10 (15 December 2012)

First off I have heard a lot about pacing and that the movie is too long. This is true, but not in a bad way. Many critics have criticized the movie's beginning for being too long and that Bilbo takes much longer than needed to get out of the Shire, but I disagree I feel this is one of the strongest parts of the film. You really get to see a hobbits life style, and you get to know your main character Bilbo Baggins. Then the dwarfs come in and you get to know them and what they are like, you begin to understand and connect with their journey Which I might add is important for this and any film. Normally if you don't connect or at least understand your main characters the film sucks. And I feel that the dialogue in this movie is its strongest part and has a lot going for it.
The problem with this film is the pacing, and the action. I think they could of left a lot of the action on the cutting room floor. If it had been just a tad bit shorter, say 10/ 15 minuets I would of given it a much better grade But I believe they had plenty of dialogue scenes that were perfect.
However I cannot stress how well written this film is. My absolute favorite scene in the movie was the one with Gollum, it was pure movie magic. All I have to say on the subject is that the two characters, Martin Freeman(Bilbo)and Any Serkis (Gollum) have great stage chemistry and the animation is the best I have ever seen. It is hilarious when you Gollum's face, and you really love his character.
Now I need to talk about the action, which is good, but too long at points. Now this movie was filmed for 3D. Most 3D films don't make use of it at all, but just by watching it in 2D, I got a feeling that a lot of the action and exploding things would of looked terrific in 3D, and that is why I will watch it again in that format (specifically IMAX).
As for the casting and actors,each brings something to this world and makes it better. You don't really get to know half of the dwarfs but that's all right with me, because I realize having 13 dwarfs in a movie you are not going to be able to learn all about each one. But you do get to know about half of them, and each has his own oddity that makes them unique. Gandalf is amazing, he is emotional, insightful funny and just plain epic all the rest of the time, I am positive nobody else could play that role. Pure perfection.
Some people have compared the character Radagast the brown to the completely stupid brain child of George Lucas, Jar Jar Binks. Which I think is totally unjustifiable. First off you hardly ever see this character, and he actually feeds into the story, of the great middle earth and the begins the fight against evil.
As for the trilogy part of the movies, I now trust Peter Jackson (the director) completely to make the next two films even better by listening to the criticism. Am I like how at the end they give you a little teaser, to (really) really really want to come back for more, all I am going to say is that the ending is very good & very LOTR like. The only really bad part of this film is its length. However I would put it just about equal with the 'Fellowship of the Ring' in my mind.