The Hobbit, part 1

I read a bunch of reviews that were critical of the Hobbit, the unexpected journey and now that I saw it I think some of the criticism is just people looking for something to gripe about. <br /><br />For instance, one reviewer pissed over the fact that there are no women in the movie and yet Peter Jackson worked Galadriel into the story.<br /><br />there has been some pissing about it being a thin childrens book and Peter Jackson bloated it by spreading it into 3 movies. That complaint is to be expected by the cynical. However, the Hobbit was not so thin a childrens book and ther was much to the story that was left untold concerning the &quot;necromancer&quot; and Gandolfs mission to southern Mirkwood to deal with him. Peter Jackson has decided to tell the untold bits of the story. As a long time lover of Tolkien's literature I would have settled for just the Hobbit as it was published without the parts of the story I knew about but are not the Classic Hobbit. However, I'm really glad that we are going to get the whole story. I doubt there is any bloat anywhere in the story except on the Great Goblin who was quite bloated.<br /><br />Pros for the Hobbit:<br /><br />Its quite funny. Actually, down right funny at times and much of that is actually the skill of the actor playing Bilbo as quite a bit of the humor is in his facial expressions. <br /><br />Action sequences are quite stunning and the landscapes are stunning. Visually its, its, its... can I use stunning again? BTW I did not see it in 3D, because I just didn't want to. However, I suspect that the goblin caves running fight is really cool in 3D- I had that thought while actually watching it.<br /><br />The script differs from the book in some ways that people will notice. Mainly the same stuff happens but sometimes its not the character that Tolkien wrote doing it. the scene with Bilbo and Gollum is just WOW!<br /><br />I think the script is pretty tight and well written and I suspect that Tolkien would approve. However, I'm wondering if the action and violence is too much for my kids. Which is a problem since I Promised we would go to see it when it came out. I simply audited the  movie first because I know we will have 5 or more trips to the bathroom during the movie, which is frustrating for me.<br /><br />Jedion give a thumbs up.