The Hobbit

I saw the new movie The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey today in 3-D IMAX and it was very good, exactly what I expected from Peter Jackson. He follows the book well but to take three years to finish what was not a long book might be a little too much. It is obviously going to be a repeat of The Lord of the Rings Trilogy which needed to be a trilogy, but I think I would have preferred this as one good long movie. And as with Rings, the scenery is spectacular and the acting very good. But it could have done with less graphic violence and over-the-top battles. Tolkien would not have approved of the excessive violence constantly throughout all of these movies. The story is too good for the constant special effects and bloody realism.