For all Lord of the Rings fans, theaters came out with J. R. R Tolkien’s novel The Hobbit this holiday season, in which the Lord of the Rings trilogy is enhanced by the pre-story of how Bilbo Baggins came into possession of Gollum’s precious ring.

Directed by Peter Jackson, The Hobbit, an Unexpected Journey, made top figures in its third week in theaters. Its $31.9 million earning put the film lucratively ahead of the musical Les Miserables, and Quentin Tarantino’s, Django Unchained – both in which have Golden Globe nominations and Oscar potential. Jackson’s film is an epic quest as recited by Bilbo Baggins to his nephew Frodo. According to the story, Bilbo Baggins accidently came in contact with the ring while on an “unexpected journey.” His adventure started when he was randomly proposed to join a group of Dwarf leaders in their pursuit to reclaim their homeland – the Lonely Mountain – from the feared dragon, Smaug. By helping them, Bilbo Baggins found himself traveling far from home. Along the way he learns the extent of his own strength, proves his loyalty, and performs heroic acts in which his guile and courage are greatly executed.

However, film makers took the pleasure in torturing the audience by dividing the novel into parts. Needless to say, the movie ends abruptly leaving the audience marking their calendars for the follow up release date. It’s rather unsatisfactory ending, but the break is needed after the three hours it takes to build up the story. Even though the movie proved long, it never really dragged; however, in the beginning there were some comic scenes that seemed rather unnecessary, and only extended the length of the film. Once the journey had actually begun, though, the pace and action definitely kept the audience’s attention captive. But, having only watched the Lord of the Rings trilogy and not having read any of the books (including The Hobbit) there were some confusing points about the plot. The film did a fairly good job trying to fill any clueless audience members in, but it is definitely recommend either to read the books, or at least to watch the Lord of the Ring movies beforehand.