UPDATE: I saw The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey in 48 frames-per-second 3D. I felt that this format deserved its own article. Check it out here.

BENJAMIN ZAUGG: Right at the beginning of The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey, there is a wonderful scene depicting Thrór, the Dwarf King of Erebor, surrounded by mountains of gold, going completely mad with greed and power. As I watched the rest of the film I would frequently find myself recalling that scene and substituting that Dwarf King with Peter Jackson.

At a little over 300 pages long, the original paperback of The Hobbit is a rather and short straightforward tale. Originally, Peter Jackson was going to tackle it in two films, adding some backstory/sidestory elements to fill out two separate features. This was a bit of a surprise, but given Jackson’s relatively strong track record I was cautiously optimistic. When I heard that he was…