The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey (2012)

Several years ago Peter Jackman directed the greatest trilogy in the history of movies, but he filmed all three of the movies at one time, so as to maintain the same characters, scenes, and feelings that were portrayed in the Lord of the Rings series.  The Hobbit was the first book in the series of book that JRR Tolken wrote about the Hobbits and their impending adventures, but the Lord of the Rings was made first.  Frankly, I feel that this was a better move because it gave us a reason to care about the characters of the story.  If not, we would not have understood about Gollum, or Bilboe, or Gandolf or the trials that the "ring" was about to bring to their quiet world.

This movie begins back in the Shire showing Bilboe writing about his adventure he had been on some decades earlier; if you remember back to the LotR movies this is where that story begun, particularly the part where the Shire is preparing for Bilboe's birthday.  From there the movie dives into a back flash of the adventure that Bilboe went on to the Misty Mountains.

By a chance situation Bilboe and Gandolf find each other and Gandolf determines that Bilboe would be a perfect member for the band of Dwarfs that are going to go back to their mine city to reclaim it from the dragon that ran them out years earlier.  Bilboe states that he does not want to take part of this, but Gandolf does not take this as his final answer.  Later that night several dwarfs show up at his house to meet up for their adventure...to make a long story short Bilboe agrees to be their thief, and they head out on their adventure.  Along the way they encounter Wizards, Trolls, and Orks that all want to kill them, or stop them from going back to the mine city.

I really enjoyed this movie and felt that it picked right back up with the same feeling and emotion that the Lord of the Ring movies was filmed with.  For the longest time they were hoping the Del Torro would direct this film but I am glad that Peter Jackman came back to take the helm of these shows.  There will be two more movies in this story, and they were all filmed like it predecessor so I am expecting nothing but perfection with these films.  5 stars.