I think people writing off the first half of The Hobbit as "boring" are forgetting how great the first half of Fellowship is. There's only a few "exciting" parts (a couple run-ins with the Nazgul mostly), but the movie remains entertaining throughout, albeit a little slow. An Unexpected Journey will have more excitement than that I think, since there's going to be a few parts that are stunningly iconic (the scene with the trolls, the scene with Gollum, etc). While I'd have to read the book again to confirm, I remain quite confident that An Unexpected Journey will have the entertainment value to bring in large audiences. Return of the King is one of the best selling movies of all time, and this is the closest thing to a sequel. Do you really think that's just going to be ignored, especially when the hype kicks in at the end of the summer?
