The Hobbit underwhelms critics in early reviews

LOS ANGELES (REUTERS) - The long-awaited film The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey got a mixed response in early reviews on Tuesday, with some critics deeming it dull and over-detailed, and others disappointed by its new take on 3-D technology.

An Unexpected Journey, the first of three cinematic installments from Oscar-winning director Peter Jackson of J.R.R. Tolkien's fantasy novel The Hobbit, took more than a decade to bring to fruition.

An Unexpected Journey, which will open around the world next week, is estimated to rake in a bumper US$137 million in its opening weekend in North America. Jackson turned his Lord Of The Rings trilogy from 2001-2003 into a US$3 billion box-office hit worldwide.

But with a running time of three hours and nine minutes, the first Hobbit movie was overly long for some critics' tastes, according to early reviews.