Director Peter Jackson takes his audience back to Middle-earth in The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey, set in a time before the Lord of the Rings films.
RENEE MONTAGNE, HOST: J.R.R. Tolkien wrote "The Hobbit" before he wrote the "Lord of the Rings" series, which of course became a huge success as a film trilogy. So no surprise that that director Peter Jackson has turned "The Hobbit" into a movie too. Actually, he'll be making another trilogy based on that single book. The first one opens at midnight tonight. Kenneth Turan has this review of "The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey."</s>KENNETH TURAN, BYLINE: The story begins with the great wizard Gandalf announcing he's looking for someone to share an adventure.</s>KENNETH TURAN, BYLINE: Humble hobbit Bilbo Baggins wants no part of this. Adventures, he says, make you late for dinner. But before he knows what's happening, thirteen rowdy dwarves show up at his house and create all kinds of havoc.</s>KENNETH TURAN, BYLINE: That dwarf bacchanal goes on and on and on. It's the first evidence of the unwise decision to turn this slender novel into three films that will likely have a running time of close to nine hours. There's just not enough story here to prevent things from getting pokey. Once Bilbo signs on to join the dwarf expedition, much of what happens is a series of wearying battles that echo the "Lord of the Rings" carnage. And creepy Gollum returns as well.</s>KENNETH TURAN, BYLINE: But in this film, without enough emotional material to balance the mayhem, the violence gets increasingly exhausting as all those minutes unfold. "The Hobbit" is solid and acceptable, not soaring and exceptional. Director Peter Jackson is touting a new 48-frames-per-second visual format as the best way to see "The Hobbit," but I have to disagree.</s>KENNETH TURAN, BYLINE: Forty-eight frames is off-putting. It creates an image that plays more like high definition television than a rich cinematic experience. If you are enough of a traditionalist to appreciate this story, you'll want to see it the old-fashioned way.</s>RENEE MONTAGNE, HOST: The movie is "The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey." Kenneth Turan reviews movies for Morning Edition and the Los Angeles Times.</s>RENEE MONTAGNE, HOST: This is NPR News.