The Hobbit: A Journey worth making.

The Lord Of The Rings has created quite an epic to it. In more senses than one - if you want to watch all three of them, you will need all day. Particularly if you are watching the Extended Editions (which are amazing, and make the movies make so much more sense - but once you've gone there, you can't go back). Once I heard that Peter Jackson had decided to split The Hobbit into three movies, I knew that these weren't going to be short episodes either. And the first one, An Unexpected Journey, certainly lives up to that.

If you're not used to Lord of the Rings, you may want to see at least one of the movies beforehand. Not so much for the backstory - because these are prequels, after all - but because of the pace. If you're expecting it to be all action in the first five minutes of the movie - you will be disappointed. There certainly is action, but the movie likes to tell a good story first; it builds up to it very nicely.

If you're not familiar with the story of The Hobbit, it's essentially thirteen dwarves, a hobbit and a wizard going on an adventure to a faraway mountain to fight a dragon and get back their treasure. Sounds simple enough - but, of course, a million things lie between them and the mountain. Trolls, goblins, and wargs (big wolves) all waylay them in this section of the journey. The eponymous hobbit is your typical Reluctant Hero, who eventually finds his self-worth, along with the One Ring and a mysterious riddling Gollum. The dwarves are each quite unique, if you can manage to keep count; you have old battle-scarred ones, young fiery ones, blunt Irish ones, hearty Scottish ones, wiser and whiter ones, and ones that eat everything. To name a few. Their leader is essentially a dwarf prince, trying to reclaim his lost kingdom from the dragon. And the treasure, of course. If you're wondering where the wizard comes in - well, he basically makes sure they don't get in too much trouble.

Old fans will recognise a few familiar faces, as well as a couple of ties in to the original trilogy - most notably Frodo going to wait for Gandalf, whom he then sees minutes later in the Fellowship of the Ring. But also squeezed in are Saruman, old Bilbo, and Galadriel. There's still plenty for new Ring buffs, however - Radagast's Rhosgobel rabbit sled, the gargantuan Goblin King, the general dwarven antics (particularly Bombur), and the hobbit's constant grumping.

While the Lord of the Rings trilogy was very Men-dominant, this story is very Dwarf-heavy; a refreshing change of character for the series. The feel is also very different; it's a little more light-hearted, and a bit more of a family tale. It's very well done, and the use of 3D is integrated extremely well - it's never used gratuitously, but instead really fills out the amazing landscapes that the movie uses.

All in all, though this movie may seem very slow-starting and very long-lasting (particularly new Ringers), this is defintely worth a watch; and certainly in my top 5 releases of 2012.