(Video) 'The Hobbit' Reviews: Who's Saying What Online

"The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey" is showing in Suwanee at the Movie Tavern near I-85.

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Nine years after the last episode of "The Lord Of The Rings" trilogy, we go back to Middle-earth with "The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey," which opens Friday (December 14).

So we bring you a sampling of online reviews of the film, which, like the "Rings" trilogy, is based on a J.R.R. Tolkien work. However, "The Hobbit" will be a trilogy based on just one novel. And like each of the "Rings" movies, "The Hobbit" is lengthy, almost three hours.

• The Los Angeles Times is not enthusiastic, writing that "The Hobbit" is "a film that is solid and acceptable instead of soaring and exceptional, one unnecessarily hampered in its quest to reach the magical heights of the trilogy."

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• National Public Radio notes, "Where the challenge in LOTR was to condense and reduce and condense again, the challenge here is to include every syllable, plus an appendix or two to boot. In this first film — which covers just six book chapters in close to three hours — the filmmakers are reduced to detailing troll recipes and staging a hedgehog rescue."
• Forbes magazine is praising of the film, saying, "Visually, the film really sets itself apart from the previous trilogy. Just as the storytelling is more lighthearted and brisk, so too is the imagery ... ."
• Rolling Stone magazine is among the more critical: "It's Middle-earth overkill ... But don't despair. Once Bilbo (Baggins) and the dwarves ... set on their journey to win back their home from the dragon Smaug, things perk up considerably. It helps big time that the wizard Gandalf (Ian McKellen, always a treat) is along to make the wild ride wilder."

• The online rating site Rotten Tomatoes has an overall rating of 6.5 on a scale of 10, based on 153 reviews. However, it gathered an audience rating of 81.

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