The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey: The Kotaku ReviewS  "I've
found it is the small things, every act of normal folk that
keeps the darkness at bay," Gandalf the Grey says somewhere near
the middle of The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey. "Simple acts,
of kindness and love."  The Hobbit is not a small movie, but it
is filled with small people doing small things. And it's those
simple acts—Bilbo Baggins diving into a gang of marauding orcs,
dwarves washing dishes in the Shire, Gandalf sharing a pipe with
a fellow wizard—that make Hobbit feel weighty and memorable,
even when it outstays its welcome. They're moments that keep the
darkness at bay.  Like Lord of the Rings before it, Hobbit is a
long, bloated affair, more concerned with grandiose spectacle
than nonsense like "flow" or "pacing." But it's captivating
nonetheless, a thrill ride of a movie stuffed with orcs, trolls,
goblins, and other nasty Middle-Earthian buggers that need to be
hacked and slashed up in as many ways as possible.  Hobbit, set
60 years befo