Awful, nothing unexpected about that after Bored of The Rings

Rating: 1/10 (17 December 2012)

The Hobbit is the novel that made me fall in love with literature when I was 10 years old. I read it every year for at least 15 years, and a few times since and it never fails to amuse and entertain me. Now, I realise that there are lots of people who loved the Lord Of The Rings movie - most of whom had never read the book - it was a typical Hollywood adaptation, all sound and fury signifying nothing. Peter Jackson upset millions of genuine LOTR fans as well as the Tolkien estate by re-writing the novel to make it nothing more than a dull, over-long, self-indulgent CGI popcorn movie. I had hoped, given that The Hobbit is a much simpler and lighter tale that Jackson might restrain himself and just tell the story, but no, once again he has the arrogance to believe he is a greater creator than Tolkien and rewrites massive segments of the story, adding events and characters that didn't exist in the book, and which don't add any value whatsoever to the story. On the contrary, they make the movie dull, flat, boring, and over-long. There is no question that Peter Jackson is just milking this to rake in as many bucks as he can. It's cynical and calculated and lacking any respect for the source material. The addition of characters and story elements from LOTR who were not mentioned in the book is particularly distasteful. I should have expected nothing more after LOTR, so my bad for stumping up my hard- earned cash to go and see it. I came very close to walking out of the cinema in disgust, and I will certainly not be paying to see the sequels.