Underwhelming

Rating: 3/10 (5 January 2013)

I've been waiting for The Hobbit ever since the LOTR trilogy. Didn't expect the same type of film, as it's source is a children's book after all, but I did expect to be entertained and enjoy great Middle-earth visuals. I got the latter, but not the former. It's not terrible, but it felt very flat. There are things I could nitpick (like how utterly ridiculous Azog looked or why the voice acting for the Goblin King didn't fit), but my major gripe is probably the dwarfs and Bilbo since the film relies so heavily on them after all.
The way the dwarfs looks and behaves here are so different from how Jackson presented Gimli to us that it's simply too jarring for my taste, and even in itself I'm not so sure it's a change for the better. Neither do I think this main cast have the same charisma as did the one of the LOTRO films. It's not necessarily that they are wrong for their roles, I wouldn't go that far, it' just that they somehow feel subdued. This might change in the coming two films, which I hope.
I'm grateful the film was made and I got to return to Middle-earth once more and I will probably go see the following Hobbit films as well. However, next time with a lot less enthusiasm.