The
new 3 part, three hour each, series of films, which is a prequel to
“Lord Of The Rings”, starts off with “The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey”
and though it may not match the take of the Ring movies it will
certainly bring in many more millions to the franchise directed and
produced by Peter Jackson.

I
must admit I have never read any of J. R. R. Tolkien’s books nor have I
seen any of the “Lord of the Rings” movies so I walked into this new
film cold. After the first hour of hundreds, if not thousands, of
digital effects plus what appears as painted backdrops, not to mention
false noses and other prosthetic body parts, I was defeated. For the
first time in 70 years of movie going this was the first film I ever
walked out on. I have seen, and sat through, a lot of bad movies in 2012
but I just couldn’t get involved on any level with this one neither
with the special effects and certainly not the story.. Why does everyone
in ‘middle earth’ have to look so nasty, including the heros?

From
reviews I have just read I get the definite impression if you make it
through the first hour you will fall in love with the rest of the film.
It seems the character Gollum brings the film to life but I just didn’t
make it through that first hour.

Afterwards
we went to the Quarterdeck for a bite to eat and our server, who also
went to the movie without being familiar with any of the others, was
raving about it saying it was one of the best films she had ever seen!
Obviously she made it through the very slow moving first hour!