Nine years after “Return of the King” concluded the successful “The Lord of the Rings” movie franchise, filmmaker Peter Jackson has returned to Middle Earth once again for an adaptation of “The Hobbit,” author J.R.R. Tolkien’s induction to his popular fantasy series.

Jackson received commercial and critical recognition for the “Lord of the Rings” trilogy, but has come under criticism for his approach toward adapting “The Hobbit” and the film’s use of high frame rate digital projection.

“All good stories deserve embellishment.” So says Gandalf the Grey to a reluctant Bilbo Baggins before the story’s prominent hobbit begins his hero’s journey, but it may as well have come out of Jackson’s mouth given the circumstances of his adaptation.

Jackson has not only formatted the 270-page book for a lengthy feature, but into a trilogy of its own to match the “Lord of the Rings” films. The recent first release in the trilogy, subtitled “An Unexpected Journey,” roughly covers the first third of the book in nearly three hours.

The film and book introduce hobbit Bilbo Baggins, who audiences know as the elderly uncle of Frodo from the other “The Lord of the Rings” movies. Here, played by British actor Martin Freeman, he is 60 years younger and travels with a band of dwarves across Middle Earth to help reclaim their lost fortunes from the dragon Smaug.

“An Unexpected Journey” details Bilbo’s introduction to the dwarf clan and the group’s beginning trek across Middle Earth toward the dwarves’ homeland. Trolls, goblins and orcs soon follow.

And if Gandalf’s line does not serve as a central thesis to Jackson’s new movie, it is at least a line of defense. Many popular film critics have disapproved of the planned trilogy, stating that the strategy makes “An Unexpected Journey” feel bloated and plodding for the original story’s swiftness.

Those criticisms aren’t entirely undue, considering the small stakes of the clan’s road trip and a plot that develops leisurely. What comes of the almost three hour film, if relatively fun and engaging, doesn’t amount to much. Their trip toward Smaug? Well … they’re getting there. 

Previous film adaptations of “The Hobbit,” including the 1977 animated musical, and even a conspicuous Russian feature made during the Soviet Union’s rule, all clock in under 80 minutes.

But those movies were much more lenient with Tolkien’s book, and were made under different circumstances than Jackson’s trilogy. “An Unexpected Journey” follows the original story with greater fidelity and includes additions as well.

Two extensive prologues introduce Bilbo as the protagonist and the dwarves’ history in Middle Earth. Several characters only briefly mentioned by Tolkien are given crucial roles in the first film.

The new movie also ties in “The Lord of the Rings” trilogy, presenting familiar faces and ominous signs of impending darkness in Middle Earth that further bond the trilogies. Both of these factors were absent from Tolkien’s “The Hobbit” and could cause viewers to compare this new film to the previous trilogy. Viewers should judge “An Unexpected Journey” on its own merits, although Jackson may have dug himself a hole with the extended connections and similarities. 

But “An Unexpected Journey” has received much more of critical skepticism from its use of a high frame rate, a new method of film production and projection.

“The high frame rate format displays movies at 48 frames per second, twice the normal frame rate of a standard movie,” said Ross Anglin, general manager of Landmark Theatres in Los Angeles, Calif. “The idea behind it is that the new format gives a closer display to how the human eye perceives images and motion compared to past frame rates.”

The standard frame rate usually displays an object or person as somewhat blurry when in motion, but high frame rates eliminate this blur with the greater number of frames, in addition to a supposedly brighter and crisper appearance. Anglin said that it is purported to give a life-like, high-quality image in comparison to a grainy film look, but it largely depends on someone’s preferences.

Many evaluations of it are disconcerting among critics and audiences. Comments from popular publications and forums describe the movie’s presentation as distracting and more similar to live television, a soap opera or a video game cutscene than another movie.

For some, adjusting to the new display may lead to missing important plot points in the first hour of “An Unexpected Journey.” Viewers might consider the new format bad and associate it with lower-grade media because they are used to watching movies at 24 frames per second and other video formats at different frame rates.

That leaves Jackson with the challenge of presenting his hobbit trilogy in unique ways compared to standard films, and it’s hard to say that he took initiative. Many cuts between shots or scenes appear stiff, even the movements of characters on-screen can appear awkward or jittery.

Furthermore, high frame rate doesn’t seem right for Middle Earth. The ultra-crisp, digitized images hardly go hand in hand with the medieval sentiment of Middle Earth, which can add to the strange, alienating experiences that audiences have expressed. And it doesn’t help when you can much more easily make out the plastic of a dwarf’s fake nose. The textures in Jackson’s storytelling are certainly off, or at least diverging.

Controversies aside, high frame rate is here to stay with the remaining “Hobbit” movies and James Cameron’s upcoming sequels to “Avatar.” “An Unexpected Journey” will likely earn more than $1 billion worldwide before its theatrical release ends, according to BoxOfficeMojo.

The next entry in Jackson’s “Hobbit” trilogy, “The Desolation of Smaug,” arrives in December, swiftly followed by the third film, “There and Back Again,” in summer 2014.  

Adlai can be reached at [email protected].