The Hobbit has already come under some negative press: director Peter Jackson's decision to make a trilogy out of an already slender novel, animals dying in the making and fans in New Zealand feeling physically sick over the new frame-rate technology. But how about the actual film, has it managed to recreate the magic of The Lord of The Rings?

Well, it doesn't seem as if anyone can decide. Unfortunately, for fans of the magical world created by J.R.R Tolkien, Peter Jackson hasn't been able to recreate it quite to the same extent as he did with the LOTR trilogy. "As a lover of cinema, Jackson's film bored me rigid; as a lover of Tolkien, it broke my heart," writes Robbie Collin of The Daily Telegraph in a rather damning, 2/5 review, which went on to bemoan the film's length. "The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey," Collin wrote, "barely leaves the driveway. The film lasts for 11 minutes short of three hours, and takes us to the end of chapter six in Tolkien's original novel, which falls on page 130 of the official movie tie-in edition. That's half an hour per chapter, or one minute and 20 seconds per page"

More reviews than not follow that line; citing the film's duration and lack of originality in comparison to its LOTR predecessor. Some reviews, though, are complimentary, and hint that avid fans of the franchise will find something to love, as well as drawing focus to the visual beauty within the film. The Hobbit - An Unexpected Journey hits cinema's on the 13th and 14th of December in the U.K and The U.S respectively.