The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey - An unexpected addition to `the Rings'

I read the book of 'The Hobbit' before 'The Lord of the Rings.' When I was a child, I enjoyed its light-hearted approach at introducing `Middle Earth.' However, when it came to transferring books to films, 'The Lord of the Rings' was certainly a safer bet when it came to box office returns.

Therefore I didn't know what to expect from this `prequel,' especially as I - like so many fans - were a little skeptical about how and why the producers felt the need to turn a much smaller book into a three-film epic - almost to try and rival the original trilogy.

The good news is that the look and feel of 'The Lord of the Rings' is all there when it comes to sets, special effects and even most of the useable cast have returned to play their respective roles again. All the cast do a fine job of portraying their characters - Ian McKellen finds it easiest to play Gandalf, while Martin Freeman has a harder job of playing not only a younger version of Ian Holm's Bilbo Baggins, but also to add his own touches to the role (which, I'm pleased to say, he pulls off).

However, once again, it's not a 'real' character who steals the show, but an entirely computer-generated on, i.e. 'Gollum.' Andy Serkis does yet another fine (motion capture) performance as the bedraggled and tortured soul, cursed with being forever linked to the 'one ring' of power.  And, for all those who watched 'The Lord of the Rings' and wondered how Bilbo got hold of it, we see in great detail how it all went down (and, for those of you who haven't read the book, I can confirm that it's all about as faithful to the original source material as it can get).

However, most people feel they have been proved right about expanding the original source material so much. There is a lot of `padding' - mainly at the beginning which simply isn't necessary and can start to get a little boring, bringing the pace down considerably.  The book was about Gandalf enlisting a Hobbit (Bilbo) to help a band of dwarves reclaim their lost kingdom which fell to a dragon.

Then there's the comedy. Only it's not comedy, it's more out-of-place dialogue that seems way too light-hearted to fit in 'The Lord of the Rings' universe. For every epic battle and great touch 'The Hobbit' offers, there are equal amount of moments that make you cringe and just wish would end as quickly as possible.

I hear there's a director's cut coming out soon and that it's going to be even longer. I feel this is one of the rare occasions where a movie would benefit from a SHORTER director's cut. It's not a bad film. I actually quite liked it and enjoyed seeing my childhood book brought to life with a fitting budget. Just, if you're going to watch it repeatedly, you may want to have one hand on the remote control to gloss over some of the less important scenes which really don't matter and just shouldn't be there.

I watched the film a second time and could see the bits that probably could have been cut.  And, I'm pleased to say that I didn't feel the need to skip one of them.  On a second viewing I think the film that got to me more was the special effects, or should that be 'special' effects?  They weren't that special.  Okay, the film might have a major budget and also be filmed AFTER 'The Lord of the Rings' trilogy, and yet the computer effects look even more cartoony than their predecessors (minus anything that revolved around Andy Serkis/Gollum).

Plus, I know that the dwarves in Middle Earth are supposed to be a tough and hardy bunch, however the amount of punishment they take is truly a little too over the top to be believable.  They get repeatedly beaten up, but - worse still - seem capable of surviving any fall from any great height and suffer no physical consequences.

However, those grips aside, it's still a reasonably good film, possibly only not a great film due to the producers trying to add more material than is necessary simply to justify turning the overall story into a new trilogy.

8/10 The Force is definitely strong with this one