The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey
Warner Bros. Pictures | Release Date: December 14, 2012 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
58
METASCORE
Mixed or average reviews based on 40 Critic Reviews
Positive:
20
Mixed:
18
Negative:
2
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
60
New Orleans Times-PicayuneMike ScottDec 13, 2012
An Unexpected Journey also proves that it is, indeed, possible to get too much of a good thing. Read full review
60
New York Daily NewsElizabeth WeitzmanDec 12, 2012
It's one thing to sit on your couch watching football in HD. It's another to view one of literature's most enduring fantasies in the same manner. The experience that felt so breathtakingly cinematic in Jackson's "Lord of the Rings" series now seems frustratingly fake. Read full review
60
The GuardianPeter BradshawDec 11, 2012
After 170 minutes I felt that I had had enough of a pretty good thing. The trilogy will test the stamina of the non-believers, and many might feel, in their secret heart of hearts, that the traditional filmic look of Lord of the Rings was better. Read full review
60
The New YorkerAnthony LaneDec 10, 2012
"All good stories deserve embellishment," Gandalf says to Bilbo before they set off, and one has to ask whether the weight of embellishment, on this occasion, makes the journey drag, and why it leaves us more astounded than moved. And yet, on balance, honor has been done to Tolkien, not least in the famous riddle game between Bilbo and Gollum. Read full review
60
The Hollywood ReporterTodd McCarthyDec 3, 2012
A purist's delight, something the millions of die-hard fans of his Lord of the Rings trilogy will gorge upon. In pure movie terms, however, it's also a bit of a slog, with an inordinate amount of exposition and lack of strong forward movement...There are elements in this new film that are as spectacular as much of the Rings trilogy was, but there is much that is flat-footed and tedious as well, especially in the early going. Read full review
60
VarietyPeter DebrugeDec 3, 2012
Jackson and his team seem compelled to flesh out the world of their earlier trilogy in scenes that would be better left to extended-edition DVDs (or omitted entirely), all but failing to set up a compelling reason for fans to return for the second installment. Read full review
58
Christian Science MonitorPeter RainerDec 14, 2012
My first thought in watching The Hobbit was: Do we really need this movie? It was my last thought, too. Read full review
50
The New York TimesA.O. ScottDec 13, 2012
Tolkien's inventive, episodic tale of a modest homebody on a dangerous journey has been turned into an overscale and plodding spectacle. Read full review
50
Philadelphia InquirerSteven ReaDec 13, 2012
This is not about a reluctant hero drawing courage from some deep personal well. It's not about dread and danger. It's about visual effects. Read full review
50
SalonAndrew O'HehirDec 13, 2012
I'm afraid that whoever it was in the New York Film Critics Circle who voted for The Hobbit as best animated film had a point. And so did the people who suspected that this whole thing was a bad idea. Read full review
50
Austin ChronicleMarjorie BaumgartenDec 13, 2012
To sum it up, there is little that is unexpected in The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey. Rather than an epic continuation of Jackson's Middle-earth obsession, the film seems more like the work of a man driving around a multilevel parking garage without being able to find the exit. Read full review
50
Los Angeles TimesKenneth TuranDec 12, 2012
The result 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. Read full review
50
Arizona RepublicBill GoodykoontzDec 12, 2012
You shouldn't be able to read a book faster than you can see it play out on-screen. Read full review
50
New York Magazine (Vulture)David EdelsteinDec 10, 2012
The grandeur of the Lord of the Rings trilogy [has] been replaced by something that resembles tatty summer-stock theater. Read full review
50
Village VoiceScott FoundasDec 7, 2012
At any speed, the movie only springs to full life late in the day, during the first meeting of Bilbo and the tragic creature who will come to be known as Gollum (once again played by the sublime Andy Serkis). Read full review
50
TimeRichard CorlissDec 6, 2012
The movie lacks majesty. Grand in parts, the movie is too often grandiose or grandiloquent; and the running time is indefensible. Read full review
40
SlateDana StevensDec 10, 2012
More time in Middle Earth is exactly what The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey provides - so much more that the movie starts to feel like some Buddhist exercise in deliberately inflicted tedium. Read full review
40
Boxoffice MagazineJames RocchiDec 3, 2012
The Hobbit is just good enough to make you aware of how it could have been much, much better. If you take your kids-while shielding them from various nonhuman bad guys getting decapitated both repeatedly and, worse, bloodlessly-they'll have a good time. Bilbo Baggins' quest for adventure and Warner Bros' quest for cash will take him through three films. But your quest for epic, truly entertaining filmmaking will be more successful if you just stay home. Read full review
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