The Peter Jackson franchise marches on. In all a pretty entertaining movie.

Rating: Null/10 (1 May 2013)

The RING movies and now the HOBBIT are indeed well-written and well-acted. But in truth, the location, New Zealand, is the star of all these movies. In the DVD for this movie is a 6-minute "extra" which is simply a feature on New Zealand and the various locations for the main scenes. Some of them, like Hobbit Town, are now also being turned into tourist attractions, to allow fans to visit the actual areas and, as the narration suggests, even be able to knock on the door of Bilbo Baggins' residence.
In the first of the RING trilogy we learn that Bilbo has had possession of the last remaining One Ring, and Frodo is charged with the task of returning it and having it destroyed. In this movie, which amounts to the first prequel, we see how 60 years earlier Bilbo comes into possession of the ring.
It starts with a bit of Middle Earth history, where one group had its homeland taken away, and now Gandalf is recruiting young Bilbo to be part of an expedition to regain their land for them. Along the way many perils await, and we see most of them, and the narrow escapes that ensue. Of course they had narrow escapes, otherwise there wouldn't be a movie, would there? One of them was Bilbo's encounter with Golum in a cave, and it was Golum dropping the ring that afforded Bilbo the chance to get it, and then to use it to escape to freedom.
Ian McKellen is of course appropriate as Gandalf , and Martin Freeman, young-looking for a man in his 40s, is good as the young Bilbo .
These have been great movies for Tolkien fans, all extremely well made, and also a gold mine for Peter Jackson and the team responsible for making them. This one ends in a manner that sets up the sequel, and in fact the next two HOBBIT movies are already in post-production.