Entertaining but mediocre; never any danger or wonderment

Rating: 7/10 (17 December 2012)

While I was entertained overall, I found myself bored at times especially during the actions scenes. The CGI has gone too far and poisoned the film making process. The dwarfs and Bilbo are constantly attacked or in peril, but in a very hectic over the top way that conveys no real sense of danger. 1,000 goblins can attack but you know nothing will happen. The Dwarfs can fall 100 stories, but are always safe -- worse, you know nothing will happen. Instead of frenzied, over the top, impossible to believe CGI with things tumbling and high speeds from every direction, it would have been much better for smaller, more subtle battles that perhaps used real stunts and not flooded the screen with tons of fake CGI. It felt more like a computer game at times. Other than that it then felt a bit like a rehash of LOTR with Elrond, Galadriel, etc. The only truly effective scenes were those with Gollum. 7 out of 10.