[rating=3]Starring: Ian McKellen, Martin Freeman, Richard Armitage, Ken Stott, Graham McTavish, William Kircher, James Nesbitt, Stephen Hunter, Dean O’Gorman, Ian Holm, Elijah Wood, Hugo Weaving, Cate Blanchette, Andy Serkis, Christopher Lee
Director(s): Peter Jackson
Writer(s): Fran Walsh, Philippa Boyers, Peter Jackson and Guillermo del Toro (screenplay) – J.K. Tolkien (novel)
The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey is the first of a new trilogy from Peter Jackson, director of the wonderful Lord of the Rings trilogy. While The Hobbit’s first installment is good, it doesn’t come near the level of any of the LOTR films, perhaps because they set the bar too high. Also problematic is that Tolkien’s “The Hobbit” is a much shorter novel than his follow-up “The Lord of the Rings” and probably doesn’t need three films to tell the story as Tolkien wrote it.
