Peter Jackson became one of the world’s leading filmmakers after he released “The Lord of the Rings.” Jackson aims to repeat the feat with a new trilogy based on “The Hobbit,” to which “The Lord of the Rings” was a sequel. But he doesn’t seem to realize he’s dealing with different material.

“The Lord of the Rings” consisted of three novels totaling more than 1,500 pages. It made sense to tell the tale in three movies over nine hours. “The Hobbit” is a single volume of slightly more than 300 pages. Yet, “The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey” is the first of a projected trilogy that looks to be as long as the previous one: This film clocks in at nearly three hours. And so the quick pace of the book is lost — along with its charm — and we’re left with a film even more ponderous than the sometimes-overlong “Lord of the Rings” movies.