Glossier but still perfect entertainment.

Rating: Null/10 (11 April 2013)

Reluctantly a hobbit named Bilbo leaves the comfort of his own home to go on adventure with a band of dwarfs to reclaim their territory.
Without drawing any comparisons to the books, Jackson's latest venture visually captures the imagination, even though heavily reliant on CGI naturally to tell the story some shots are unnecessary and on occasion distracting for example the rendering of the hares. The Hobbit An Unexpected Journey works best when it's displaying the wonderful landscapes, sets and focusing on the characters interactions.
As a prequel to The Lord of the Rings trilogy it's notably visually glossier loosing that filmatic like feel. Nevertheless, it is a fine film with fantastic costumes, great writing and a wonderful cast, too many to name, Martin Freeman captures the essence of Ian Holmes Bilbo, notably with the line "I'm going on an adventure!" Once again Andy Serkis steals the show as a superior computer generated version of Gollum.
As a standalone film you have to have patience as I can see why a new comer to the series would find the opening plodding, with flashbacks and meetings of off the wall dwarfs. However if you've seen The Lord of the Rings it works better as you are already invested in two of the main characters from the off.
Naturally and unavoidably the narrative is slightly lighter and less grim in tone given the danger and what is at stake compared to the previous trilogy. This aside the journey is certainly worth your time.