Has it really been 9 years since The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King took home Best Picture
gold? Taking us there and back again is director Peter Jackson and a cast of familiar faces for The Hobbit:
An Unexpected Journey. In this epic tale, home loving Hobbit, Bilbo Baggins, journeys outside
the Shire, across Middle Earth, along with Gandalf the Grey, Thorin Oakenshield, and thirteen dwarves
to battle goblins, orcs, and spiders. Not to mention the creature that will forever change Bilbo's
life (Gollum). At a little over 300 pages, The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey is the shortest book in the
series and An Unexpected Journey is the first of what will soon become a trilogy. However, even with familiar
faces and places and an emphasis on humor, the pressure of three films limits much of the creative energy that
made its predecessors so special. Strictly faithful to the novel, The Hobbit hems and haws with only
an occasional cinematic punch, making it a good, but very expected journey.
