The first of three long films based on a short book

Rating: 7/10 (9 April 2013)

As this film opens an elderly Bilbo Baggins explains how the once great Dwarfs were forced out of their mountain kingdom by the dragon Smaug. He begins to talk of a great adventure and we are transported back to shortly before the adventure began when a young Bilbo meets the wizard Gandalf the Grey. He invites Bilbo on an adventure but he declines; the next day thirteen Dwarfs turn up at Bilbo's home believing that they have been invited. They tell him of their quest but he initially refuses; he has no desire to leave home. The next morning he changes his mind and so begins a quest that will see them fighting trolls, orcs and goblins as well as meeting elves, another wizard and in Bilbo's case the somewhat crazed Smeagol who will become a lifelong enemy following the theft of a certain ring.
Before watching this the main criticism I'd heard was that breaking the story into three long films was a mistake; having seen it I'm inclined to agree. The story took too long to get started and when it did it got nowhere fast; the party had a succession of battles but there was never the sense of danger that there was in the Lord of the Rings films. Another weakness was the fact that the party was a large group of dwarfs with one hobbit and one wizard rather than the more mixed group in the earlier trilogy; only a couple of them stood out from the group; the rest were very much the same. On the plus side the film looked great with many sweeping shots though action set in a spectacular landscape and the actors did a decent enough job; I particularly enjoyed seeing Andy Serkis' return as Smeagol even though he is doing motion-capture work for a CGI character. Overall I'd say this is worth watching if you enjoyed the Lord of the Rings trilogy even though it isn't as good as those films hopefully the next instalment will improve matters.