1. It's Too Damn Long
It's the most predictable complaint to make but it's also the most true, that The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey is just too freaking long. Running at a meaty 169-minutes, there are plenty of ways for films to justify such an expansive runtime, but Peter Jackson in no way achieves this; it takes 50 minutes for Bilbo and company just to leave the Shire, and given how much exposition and tomfoolery is indulged in before that, it seems clear that he could have got through this portion in around half the time. So much of the plot feels like filler - at least speaking as someone not especially acquainted with the novel - that the film could easily have run in at around a far more reasonable 120 minutes and probably not lost all that much as a result. The pacing is slack, which is part of the problem; it doesn't even feel that eager to get its story moving. There's so much in the film that feels like it could have been left for the Extended Edition Blu-Ray, specifically a lot of the Rivendell sequence, in which we get pretty perfunctory cameos from Elrond (Hugo Weaving), Galadriel (Cate Blanchett) and Saruman (Christopher Lee). It is a case of Peter Jackson indulging himself as much as possible, and also exploiting his fanbase's apparently insatiable need for as much material from this universe as possible, whether it's great or not. Will fans backlash? We'll have to wait and see. What are you expecting from The Hobbit? Let us know in the comments below.