Did I know even 25% of these guys’ names? No! But my favorite character from LotR, Gollum, was here AND there is a wizard who is living my dream of being a hermit in the woods with all his cute animals so An Unexpected Journey is a big slam dunk in my book. 

What the film lacks in women, it tries to make up for with a really impressive expansion on the world and gorgeous visuals. Everything looked so cool and while there is clearly a lot of filler (aren’t these all filler to a certain extent), I never felt as bored as I did for decent chunks of LotR. 

Nearly had a complete breakdown when I thought that cute little CGI hedgehog had died but all is well because my boy, the nature wizard, turned that little guy into Jesus 2.0 and brought him back so fast.