Slow start for the Hobbit trilogy

Rating: 6/10 (29 March 2013)

After some 10 years since his grandeous Lord of the Rings trilogy, director Peter Jackson is ready to unleash his next great nerdgasm for the masses in form of The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey. The film is the first part of a trilogy based on J.R.R Tolkien's The Hobbit novel and very much focuses on building the foundation for the upcoming sequels.
Unsurprisingly Jackson's new Hobbit film holds a lot resemblance with his previous Middle Earth fantasy films, no reason to break a winning concept right? Unfortunately things are not perfect with Jackson's latest landscape tour of New Zeland. This already becomes painfully evident from the draggingly slow introduction scene which seemingly go on forever, thankfully the pace picks up after the slow start, but here and there are scenes which feel prolongued on purpose. There is a simple explanation for the pacing and screenplay issues; with the film's script closely following the original novel (besides some odd addition from the producers), the book's ~300 pages barely carry enough content for a single film, let alone for a Trilogy!.
Another evident difference with Hobbit compared to the LotR films is the quite substantial difference in atmosphere. The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey feels at times even childish compared to the more mature and darker LotR films. Again the explanation can be traced to the director's choice to make the film resemble the novel as closely as possible, and as it is widely known, J.R.R Tolkien's Hobbit is a children's fantasy fable at heart. I respect the director's choice to honor the novel by making the depiction resemble the original novel closely, but especially the funny humor stemming from the novel's less mature origins does feel out of place in otherwise mature production.
But there is a lot good in An Unexpected Journey as well. The story is much more linear and easier to follow than with LotR films where the story is carried forth by separated character sets. Also despite some prolonged scenes, the Hobbit is overall well paced and contains good mix of fast paced action and slower scenes. I also found the few songs and the musical twist it brought into the film very pleasing. Lastly but not least, Jackson's latest film is visually stunning and offers a very stimulating film experience with its latest and greatest special effects seemingly integrated with New Zeland's breathtaking scenery.
Perhaps the weakest link of the film was the character set that is understandably challenging. With 13 almost identical Dwarfs accompanying a Wizard and a Hobbit plus plethora of supporting characters, it is easy to see why even nearly 3h running time is not enough to familiarize with each character.
Thus The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey overall might be a less successful Trilogy launch than LotR: The Fellowship of the Ring was, but by no means a complete disaster. However should the Hobbit Trilogy wish to rise on par with the LotR films the successor Hobbit films need to be considerably stronger candidates.