The Trilogy That Needs a Eulogy.

Rating: 3/10 (11 January 2013)

I have to wonder if I saw the same film as some of the other reviewers...
The story is lacking in depth, and one would expect in a 3 hour movie they could give the characters more depth. I generally find it easy to immerse myself in movies but overall I felt completely disconnected from the characters and I never got drawn into the Hobbit.
The story is clearly aimed at children, but the fight scenes and action violence would make my 7-year old close her eyes and block her ears, just as well because I wouldn't want her watching beheadings.
I know this is a fantasy story, but even fantasy-land has to adhere to some basic physical principles in order to retain credibility. So when two giant rocks are smashed together and shatter, causing bits of rock to fly everywhere, you'd expect the characters who were in-between the two pieces of rock to be, uh, smashed, but instead they're alive and well. So many examples of this convenient departure from logic appear throughout the movie that even my ten year old would say: "Oh Come On!!!"
There are so many unnecessary battle scenes that did nothing to aid the story and were just there to pad the film out. It was unbearably slow and after a half-hour I wanted to walk out. When they made Lord of the Rings they had too much material. With the Hobbit, they don't have enough for three 3 hour movies, but instead of doing the logical thing and putting it all into one 2-3 hour movie, they pad it out to make it fit. One has to wonder if they did this simply to make money. The slim hope that the movie would get better and the fact that I was there with friends were the only things that kept me there. Had I been by myself I would've spared myself the waste of time.
They used so much CGI in the film that they could've saved themselves the hassle of using real actors and just made a cartoon movie. Having said that, the only thing that prevented this movie from getting one or two stars from me was the fact that there were some amazing visuals, but it was all style, no substance.
Never say never, but I seriously doubt I'll be watching parts two or three of this trilogy. I would honestly rather sit and stare at a blank screen for 3 hours than subject myself to this.