The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey

The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey is Peter Jackson's first in a series of  three part prequels to the LOR movies.  Of course there are a lot of expectations to this film and for the most part, it is delivered.  In addition to having a great director, an excellent story, cinematography, and a talented cast in newcomers Martin Freeman and Richard Armistice,  viewing the beautiful and scenic backdrop of New Zealand alone, is worth the nearly three hour running time. So let me get to the main detractors.  If anything, it takes a while to get the story really going, which is understandable considering the LOR sequels were/are very much, the successful shadows to resurrecting its orgin story.  Once it does get going though, Jackson is obviously back at the helm in brilliantly moving the adventure along to a point where it becomes rather hard to distinguish this earlier adventure from being mistaken for just another LOR film.  Another similar point I would makes, though not as strongly, would be that the main ensemble of characters especially the protagonist were slightly lacking in the kind of diverse cohesion that successfully help drive the plots of the LOR series.   So my main criticism would be that despite or because of the nearly predictable nature of this film, that simultaneously helps in audience familiarity (though I grew up watching the Hobbit as a kid) and hurts in so far as originality; what ends up suffering the most is the overall momentum slightly lagging to take the audience to the second film.  However, all in all, this was the start of a great movie trilogy that generally only and perhaps unfairly suffers from ironically being judged by it's already successful sequel in LOR.  Nonetheless, Peter Jackson has done it again in carefully covering the main bases and holding to the integrity of the story.