More for Tolkien Aficianados than the average LOTR movie fans

Rating: 7/10 (9 January 2013)

Nothing in this review is a spoiler if you have already seen the Lord of Rings (LOTR) trilogy (or read the book)!!! The Hobbit was a pretty short, children's book describing how a hobbit, Bilbo Baggins, went on an adventure with Gandalf and a group of dwarfs to reclaim their mountain from a dragon. The book just happens to include Bilbo finding a magic ring that makes the wearer invisible.
When Tolkien later wrote LOTR, he decided that the ring from The Hobbit would become the ring of Sauron. He also decided to place all of the random, throwaway events from The Hobbit into a larger history of Middle Earth.
This movie is NOT an adaptation of the book, The Hobbit. It is an adaptation of the history of that Tolkien later constructed. This is great news for people that love Tolkien and have read the appendices of LOTR. Unfortunately, it waters down the story of The Hobbit and Bilbo's adventures and makes the movie(s) overlong, overcomplicated, and drag in parts. I can't help but think it would have been a much tighter, more understandable story. My relatives who are not Tolkienistas were lost during much of the movie, as it inter-cuts Bilbo's adventure with the events of the larger history.
Once the DVDs come out, I hope a "Bilbo only" cut is released (or done by a fan, like the no Jar Jar version of Phantom Menace).
The movie is an odd mix of tones. The book was a children's book and much lighter than LOTR in tone. Parts of the movie are very light and even dangerous moments are often played for laughs. The caves are very bright and, contrary to the LOTR, some of the orcs almost have a cartoon/animated style. Meanwhile other parts of the movie are played very seriously.
Gollum, of course, steals every scene he's in and looks even better than in the LOTR movies.
Of course everyone who has seen the trailer knows the dwarfs' song. The movie is faithful in that regard to the books including the poems and songs.
Don't get me wrong. The movie is great, and, of course I can't wait to see the next ones, and one day the "Bilbo cut". So maybe Peter Jackson isn't crazy after all. But it could have been better.