Peter Jackson lost on this one

Rating: 4/10 (6 January 2013)

The Hobbit is a relatively short book written as a prequel to the Lord of the Rings trilogy. It is NOT a trilogy, and even though LOTR is comfortably presented as a trilogy, it was written to be one very long book in three parts.
The Hobbit would have made a fine movie-- a single movie. There is enough characters, places and creepy scary things to jam-pack a good 2 1/2 hour cinematic experience. But Jackson lost when he took a short book, wrote a screenplay for three movies, added unnecessary characters and plot lines wholly irrelevant to Tolkien's intent, failed to expand on perfectly good themes inherent in the book, and overwhelmed the viewer with a saturated screen in almost every scene.
In the first places, dwarfs work in mines traditionally because they are small humans with corresponding human strength, and they can fit where normal humans cannot go. Funny thing is, most of the dwarfs in this movie do not look like dwarfs at all!
Inasmuch as I love Bilbo Baggins-- and the choice of the adorable Martin Freeman was an excellent one-- this movie should have been called "Thorin Oakenshield", rather than "The Hobbit". Most of the story and camera time is spent on Thorin and his greedy pursuit of gold (which is changed for political correctness to read: we need a homeland!). I would have loved to have seen more of the Shire, more of Bilbo doing his Hobbty things, BEFORE the deluge of the 13 uninvited dwarfs.
The best scene in the entire movie was with Bilbo and Gollum. Fine camera-work, excellent CGI, excellent acting, perfect timing. Serkus should get an Oscar whether the character is CGI or not.
One of my favorite scenes in The Hobbit is the rescue from the Orcs by the eagles. Tolkien is clear to show the size difference between the races of Middle Earth-- large wizard, small dwarfs, even smaller Hobbit. I was disappointed that in most scenes Bilbo looks the same size as the dwarfs. It would have been sharper and truer to the story to make sure he was CGI-ed into a smaller fellow yet.
The Hobbit was written for a younger audience than LOTR and the language and imagery is thus more suitable to pre-teens. If Jackson had kept the childlike nature of the story going, rather than making a good half or more of it of fierce, endless and repetitive battle scenes, it would have been a better movie. No charm! No magic! it was just a bunch of brutal battles where everyone continues to escape unscathed! A cartoon version would have been more realistic.
The funniest scene in the whole movie would be for Monty Python fans alone. When the group reaches sight of the elven city, Bilbo exclaims, his face full to the camera, "RIVENDELL"!!! It reminded me of Arthur and his Knights of the Round Table in turn exclaiming "CAMELOT!" ("shhhh! it's only a model") I cannot believe that Jackson could not see that reference (or maybe he really did!)
Jackson has gotten too Middle-Earthed for his own good. My hope is that the next installments produce some of the charm of the Bilbo-Gollum scene without loosing the beauty of its New Zealand scenery. Slow down, less fighting, more time to see the scenery, more time to know the characters. We don't need more big sloppy ugly things to fight!