Jan 5th
The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey* (12A)  
(Odeon Leicester Square)

(US/New Zealand 2012)

Warner Bros/New Line/Wingnut Films/3 Foot 7. 169m. ws. 3D (48 fps)

Bilbo Baggins is selected to help the dwarves of Erebor try to reclaim their mountain kingdom from hungry trolls, vengeful Orcs and a terrifying dragon.
A second helping of Lord of the Rings for eager fans, expanding out Tolkien's much shorter novel into the first of three films (God help us) in order to allow characters and scenes from the first LOTR trilogy to be shoehorned in. As a result of this, the plot labours horribly in the first two hours and the characters are rather uninvolving, but things warm up later with a fine Orc villain, and a battle of wits between Bilbo and the notorious (often incomprehensible) Gollum. High Definition 48 frames per second gives the film the nice kinetic feel of a video game, which is what this saga seems to amount to now.

d: Peter Jackson
s: Martin Freeman, Ian McKellen, Richard Armitage, Ken Stott, Sylvester McCoy, Andy Serkis, Hugo Weaving, Barry Humphries, Cate Blanchett, Christopher Lee, Ian Holm, Elijah Wood (a walk-on as Frodo)