An Unfinshed Journey

Rating: 7/10 (30 December 2014)

Full Disclosure: I love the LOTR movies. They exemplify what movies can be. They also prove that blockbusters can be Oscar winners. The Hobbit is not that. It doesn't have the same sense of grand scale spread across many different plot threads. To its credit An Unexpected Journey is a much more focused film than the LOTR films. It follows Bilbo Baggins, the future uncle of LOTR's Frodo Baggins. The plot rarely moves away from Bilbo(played with soul by Sherlock's Martin Freeman.) An Unexpected Journey really is Bilbo's Unexpected Journey. Richard Armitage lends a gruff edge to the character of Thorin Oakenshield. Overall, the action scenes are few and far between with none having the same epic scale as LOTR's. The ending is also a bit weak with too much set up for the next film. As many flaws as the movie has, I'm still glad I went to see it.