An odd mix, but wildly entertaining film

Rating: 8/10 (3 January 2016)

It always gets a little funny when making a film based on a book. What stays? What is lost? The fact of the matter is that there will always be new things and things lost because books will almost always convey a story using different tools. The Hobbit takes this to the extreme, even when viewing their extended editions.
Far from utilizing different tools to tell the story, the Hobbit hints that the producers were interested in telling a very different story from the book, while being confused about who they were trying to reach. Awe over the excitement of once again seeing Tolkien's world of Middle-Earth on the big screen once again, gives way to awkward confusion when childish slapstick routines are played against gore and violence that puts the Lord of the Rings movies well in the past. This isn't something that creeps up on you either, but is played out early in the film. Gone is the childish innocence of the book, that allows the child's mind to invent the details of the tale. In its place is an awkwardly mature adventure that suffers from gaping plot holes, large enough to fit the obscenely large realization of Smaug.
Even with the extreme degree of characterization, time line and effects that are inflated to make this short book into a 9+ hour experience, the Hobbit can be embraced for what it is. It succeeds at telling the original story, or this part of it, along with embellishing many new figments of the production team's imagination into the production. There are bound to be people who don't appreciate those additions, but they are entertaining for those that want to experience them.
In addition to seeing this film in 3D, in the theatre, and the extended editions, I deliberately chose to read the book afterwards, and not before. To offer a comparison, I would say that while Peter Jackson's rendition is grossly inflated, it is no less bizarre than the original telling. If anything, there are several places where the producers played things down a notch; Beorn's homestead for example was originally a glimpse into Narnia with talking animals that walked upright and delivered tea. With this in mind, I have thoroughly enjoyed the ludicrous trip into the crazy that these films provide.