For not being an LOTR movie its pretty good

Rating: 8/10 (28 January 2014)

Well it isn't a bad movie at all neither is it as good as the LOTR movies. But after three movies of LOTR of course there are limitations to what you can do. That and its source material.
The Hobbit is a children book that changes the whole situation. While LOTR could easily be for grown ups The Hobbit just is for a younger audience.
The Cinema is great, the audio is well you will hear allot of songs you heard before in LOTR. The characters like gandalf, galadriel and so on add a nice but if quality to the movie. The original characters, the young bilbo it pretty good. Thorin is again pretty good. The rest of the dwarfs isn't as strong.
There are a few very nice scenes and others that are just make your head scratch. The goblin king scenes are not my favourite but I know this will lead to something bigger. I mean jovial singing goblin king that reminds me of a certain person deep in certain woods. Still children story and all! The action still is pretty darn good the fights are awesome. The scenes leading to fights are pretty decent. The drama is there in the movie so as grown up you can enjoy it. There are a few things recurring here. You could see a bit of strider in Thorin in some scenes. Some scenes are almost kinda copied from LOTR in certain ways. There is that vibe like "Well it was awesome when it happened to aragorn so.. thorin are you up for it?" I think Bilbo, the young bilbo is a pretty strong character. Well done! Of course meeting smeagol, awesome scene. In part because of we learn how the ring got to bilbo. Also the Necromancer.. lovely foreshadowing.
I am not sure about radagast, but that is a common complaint. Like a certain tom bombadill it just feels a bit well not the level you expected. Still well played. And well we get to see the spiders that is something positive to note right?
I think this is how you should look at this movie. It isn't LOTR, it isn't as good as LOTR, it does re-uses some ideas and things from LOTR. And I don't really see how three movies can be filled. I just don't see it! Also the end, cool smaug doesn't looks to bad even! But the eagles again? Again the eagles.. before the eagles showed up it didn't really feel as Dire as in LOTR III where. Before the eagles showed up it really felt Dire.. and as if the heroes had little chance. Here the heroes are in a dire spot yes but I didn't feel it. I didn't feel the need to get the eagles out.
But hey the movie is good, it is for younger children and there is some belching and children friendly humor in it. But also fighting which is awesome.
So no complaints here but I fear for part II. I haven't watched it yet. And if this is the begin movie mmm I see problems rising.
I think that indeed if one is to accept that this does takes place in the same world and is partly connected to the events in LOTR. It still isn't as good.
But is it good as movie on itself YES.