When The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring came out in 2001, I accidentally saw it in Albuquerque on New Years Eve confusing it with that movie about the boy wizard. Well of course seeing the first one, I had to see the other two to find out how the story ends.

Of course the beautiful New Zealand countryside, wonderful music and story of the ages were just residual benefits, along with the fantastic acting.

So when The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey came out before Christmas this year, I knew I’d see it. There are some movies you want to see on a big screen and that’s one of them so I went and saw it on a regular screen (not 3D) over the New Years holiday. There were maybe 15 people in the theatre and since I work in the field of movies and television I already knew that this was the first of three films, which didn’t bother me.

I truly enjoyed The Hobbit, even more so than The Lord of the Rings Trilogy. It has the same beautiful countryside, fantastic music (I downloaded the soundtrack today for my iTunes) and timeless story. It has already made $223 million in the US and remains at #1 since it’s release on December 13.

And it’s about Dwarves, and handsome ones, too. You should catch it in the theaters before it’s gone.

The Dwarves from The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey