Highly enjoyable fantasy adventure with glaring cosmetic flaws and inaccuracies to source

Rating: 7/10 (28 April 2014)

Having just watched this film again since seeing it on it's cinematic release I felt my opinion of it solidify.
Let's get it out of the way, it's not as good as any of the Lord Of The Rings Films, nor is it a particularly faithful adaptation of the wonderful book which I read as a child but as a fantasy film it's fairly decent.
The acting is all top notch and the new dwarven music is superb and has a really enchanting melody. The film doesn't move super fast but it's OK and keeps the attention fine.
Now to the flaws, of which there are a few and they mainly reside in the cosmetics.
For a start the film relies far too much on CGI. This is fine for grand settings and adding in the odd ruin here and there on a bare hilltop but not for actual characters. In LOTR, the orcs were men in suits and makeup and looked tangible, gritty and real. Almost all the goblins and such are computer generated and unfortunately it shows. All this,combined with some rather bizarre colour schemes, very much gives the film a Phantom menace/Time Burton's Alice In Wonderland feel and that is never a good thing.
Secondly the dwarven makeup is absolutely terrible. They honestly look like they are from a budget pantomime and not a massive fantasy film. To reference LOTR again, the dwarfs were tough and gruff with no frills and not much colour. Here they look like they have stepped straight out of Ridely Scott's Legend (A great film but not what we want here!).
Admittedly in the cinema the 48fps really made the make up obvious and in the home it's lessened some but the braided beards and obviously fake noses really kill the feel. Another issue is that some of the dwarfs don't even look like dwarfs, they look more like men and some are even quite pretty.
These flaws do nothing to capture the feel set in either the book, the LOTR films or fantasy in general and it's a shame that issues so cheap looking were allowed to slip through the net.
Cosmetics aside the film is highly enjoyable and it is a nice film to have as an addition if you are on a LOTR binge.
I'd have to give this film 2 ratings for sake of source respect.
As a film adaptation of a beautiful children's book, it's about a 3 or 4 out of 10 I'm afraid.
As a fantasy film and expansion of a known universe in film it's a solid 7. Highly watchable and enjoyable adventure with only some glaring cosmetic flaws letting it down.