Kernel Rating (out of 5): 
MPAA Rating: PG-13 Length: 169 minutes
Age Appropriate for: 12+. Typical action movie violence, including fields of corpses, ravenous goblins, orcs, and monsters trying to eat and kill the protagonists, and many decapitations, but very little bloodshed; also some suggested drug use by a forest-loving wizard.
‘The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey’ is a disappointment years in the making. Defined by its simultaneous sense of excess but thin, stretched-out story, Peter Jackson’s return to Middle Earth is very inadequate indeed.
By Roxana Hadadi
In the last 10 years, I don’t think I’ve watched any movies more often than Peter Jackson’s “Lord of the Rings” trilogy. Released in 2001, 2002, and 2003 respectively, Jackson’s three film adaptations of J.R.R. Tolkien’s legendary fantasy epic made oodles of money, redefined the epic, won some Oscars, and profoundly delighted nerds like me. But my nerdy love cannot, and will not, extend to Jackson’s adaptation of “The Hobbit,” which arrives after years of waiting and is a disappointment in practically every way.
