a lifelong Tolkien fan's take

Rating: 7/10 (16 December 2012)

I grew up on the Hobbit cartoon and the incomplete LOTR Ralph Bahkski cartoons and all the books Hobbit, LOTR, and Silmarillion being my favorite group of stories ever. I had to laugh at a prior review that made the claim that Tolkien "ripped of J.K. Rowling". This poster didn't realize that Tolkien had created his stories at least in part, before J.K. Rowling was even born. This lead me to believe that you should have to have read the books in order to review these movies.
These stories aren't like "everything else out there" as Tolkien pretty much invented the modern fairy tale. In fact, there are so many elements that Rowling took from Tolkien that you can't even claim that she "ripped him off" since Tolkien's themes are interwoven into fantasy culture that there is almost no way not to use themes in some way. For example: super villain's life-force tied to an inanimate object: Voldemort/Horecrux vs Sauron/ring.
In reviewing the Hobbit Part 1, the first thing I needed to do is come to peace with Jackson's decision to extend the story into 3 movies by interjecting a lot of back-story from the appendix materials from LOTR. I guess I have no choice but to accept that, so here we go:
PJ had brilliant source material to work with (I wish he would not have taken so many liberties with it) and did a great job with the visuals (WITH A FEW EXCEPTIONS). The pacing does suffer from the interjection, but if you are invested in the story after all 3 movies you might appreciate the background information. Some of the added dialog written by Jackson & staff may not be appreciated (this will stand out like a sore thumb to Tolkien fans).
Others have told the story, so I will focus on what I believe are the mistakes: Starting in non-linear fashion with the time-line by featuring the older Bilbo and Frodo. This is an artificial way to get Ian Holm & Elijah Wood into this movie. Think if you showed the movies in the correct Middle Earth timeline (and not the timeline they were released) and it should flow linearly.
Too much time spent with the dwarfs in Bag-end and not enough accomplished. If spending all that time, why not have Thorin tell the story of Smaug/Erebor at the dinner table instead of older Bilbo in his book? Would have loved to hear the "The Dwarfs of yore made mighty spells, while hammers fell like ringing bells, in places deep where dark things sleep.." poem at that time.
The humor of the three trolls made that scene feel out of place (particularly them blowing their noses into the stew). Also not enough made of tricking the trolls to stay up until dawn.
Radagast: played ridiculously in the movie: scene trying to coax sick hedgehog back to life was way out of place and awkward. The rabbit- sleigh, the side of his face with bird droppings? Remember the wizards were spirits (maiar) who existed prior to the Arda (the world), not semi-drunk lunatics. I like the character in the FOTR book and feel he could have been integrated here if need be, but wish he was more dignified.
I didn't mind his foray into Dol Goldur, but the time-line was flawed. Greenwood turned to Mirkwood long before Thorin's company set out from Hobbiton. And how the heck did Radagast get over the Misty Mountains from Dol Goldur to near Rivendell? Radagast was the one who set Gandalf up with the eagles in FOTR book, so he should have used them as transport if he needed to cross the Misty Mountains instead of that asinine rabbit-sled.
Saruman: seemed old and feeble, disconnected, and obviously already corrupted.
The Great Goblin: He looked like a comical version "Fat Bastard" from Austin Powers with a non-goblin voice to match.
The worst cringe-worthy part for me was when Great Goblin asks Gandalf how is he going to kill him and Gandalf slashed him with his sword and Goblin says "that'll do it".
The escape from Goblin-town was a bit to overdone, especially the huge plunge down to the bottom of the chamber with the wise-crack from Dwalin. Also, mini goblin note-taker was ridiculous. PJ turned these Goblins into cartoon characters and they didn't feel like the breed of Orcs that I always imagined.
Azog was killed in the Battle of Anulzibar, so why did he survive in the movie version? He felt more like a re-hash of the Uruk-Hai, especially after Gandalf interrogated Thorin with "who have you told about your quest? You are being tracked". Also reminded me of Celeborn telling Aragorn the same in FOTR movie in relation to the Uruks.
Bilbo's meeting with Gollum didn't match the way it was filmed in FOTR prologue.
Gollum's "Time" riddle was cut short: "slays king, ruins town, and beats high mountain down"
Scenes with the orcs in broad daylight and they were unaffected.. this is a huge mistake.
The tree/warg scene was too drawn-out and Bilbo's hero moment (facing off against Azog) was not very believable.
Dwarfs Fili & Kili way too human looking.
Other than those gripes, I really liked this movie (but wanted to LOVE it).
I actually am looking forward to seeing the appendix material fleshed- out in the next 2 films, but would like to see more restraint with the CGI and prefer the live orc costumes vs the George Lucas CGI stuff that makes movies look like some Pixar cartoon. I would also like to see some more editing where logical absurdities and other contradictions are corrected. And please, no more rabbit sleds !!!!