Just as The Return Of The King took such a long time to end, An Unexpected Journey took an incredibly long time to truly start. The first ten minutes discussed at length the history of Erebor and how Smaug took it for himself. Then, four more minutes added to simple, random conversation between Bilbo and Frodo (who also did not appear in the book). The arrivals of the dwarves were extended, and the encounter in Bilbos house seemed to drag on forever, and by the time the actual adventure started, over forty minutes had gone by. And even then, there were added scenes and details that were not in the book that just seemed to waste time, such as when the company was betting on whether Bilbo would join them or not. This was one of the most notable criticisms that viewers and fans had towards the film. It seemed very clear that Jackson was trying to extend the beginning of the adventure as much as possible in order to properly stretch the story into three separate films. It was, all in all, a bad decision. More couldve been done instead to develop Bilbos relationship with the company of dwarves, but instead viewers were treated to lame jokes and too much exposition in the first half of An Unexpected Journey.