Although I’ve never read the books, I loved Peter Jackson’s the Lord of the Rings movies So much, that I’m one of those viewers who wishes they were  actually longer (yes, even longer than the extended editions).  watching those movies, I was thoroughly convinced that Middle-earth was a real place – and that these movies were filmed there.  In fact, not since the original Star Wars have a I had a movie-watching experience as fulfilling as the first time I saw “The Fellowship of the Ring”.   So it goes without saying that this review may be a little biased.

One thing to keep in mind is “the hobbit” is a different, smaller-scale story than the “Lord of the Rings” trilogy.  The book on which “…Hobbit” was based is around 300 pages.  Excluding it’s appendices, The Lord of the Rings clocks in at well over 1100 pages. At times, it is a more light-hearted, and slower-paced story, the last hour of “An Unexpected Journey” is  just as intense as any sequence of the “Lord of the Rings” trilogy.