The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey

Just under 10 years after the last chapter of the Lord of the Rings trilogy was released in cinemas, audiences were catapulted back into the world of Middle Earth.
Originally penned by JRR Tolkien and visually embraced by Peter Jackson, Middle Earth is home to what we consider mystical or mythological creatures - elves, dwarves, and of course, the child-sized hobbits.
The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey is based 60 years before the events of Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Rings. The story focuses primarily on a younger Bilbo Baggins (Martin Freeman).
It mostly follows Tolkien's literary version of the story, with bits and pieces of the appendices from Lord of the Rings: Return of the King interwoven into the story.
Bilbo leads his normal life in the Shire when one day Gandalf the Grey (Sir Ian McKellen) tricks him into hosting a party for Thorin (Richard Armitage) and his company of dwarves.
There he is recruited as the company's "burglar", and they set off on a cross-world adventure to reclaim the Lonely Mountain from the dragon Smaug (Benedict Cumberbatch).
As you would expect from any adventure, the group have to overcome danger at every turn, with threats ranging from trolls, who they narrowly avoid, to orcs, who's chieftain Azog the Defiler beheaded Thror and has vowed to break the line of Durin, which includes Thorin.
The most familiar aspect in this film for those who have not read the original text is Bilbo's discovery the One Ring. He finds the ring when he comes across another familiar character in Gollum (Andy Serkis), overcoming his adversary in a game of wits and riddles before escaping with the tainted jewellery.
The biggest talking point with the film was the release of a high frame rate version - that is, shot at 48 frames per second rather than the industry standard 24. It is one of the first films with a wider release to be shot with the higher rate, and you can see why. It is supposed to make the film even more real than a regular 24 frames per second film does, and that genuinely detracts from the quality. It has been described as forcing a film to lose its "cinematic feel" and I have to agree. I'll talk a bit more about this in my review of The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug.
Apart from that obvious setback, my other criticism revolves around the first 30-40 minutes.
The whole thing stays in Bilbo's house?! I get that it is building the story and developing (presenting) the different characters' traits, but it just went WAY too long. What makes it so much more of an issue is arguably one of the best sequences in the film - a musical section involving the dwarves and flying cutlery - is buried in amongst the stay.
I can't complain about anything else.
As you come to expect from Peter Jackson's big screen epics, the visuals are simply stunning; the idyllic locations not only an outstanding advertisement for New Zealand (and by extension Middle Earth) but presented beautifully on screen. The action sequences are mind-blowing, the escape from the Great Goblin awe-inspiring despite pushing the limit of what we're happy to believe, and the integration of the interweaving stories sublime.