A good movie with a bit of a mixed bag of good and bad things.

Rating: 8/10 (6 January 2013)

The Hobbit is actually quite hard to review. With the hype (and outrage) surrounding the 48fps HFR filming, it was always going to polarise opinions. For my viewing, I chose the trusted 24fps 2D viewing, and my review reflects this version alone.
On the whole, the Hobbit is a well-made epic that is worthy of praise. I do have some gripes about it, but they are relatively minor ones.
The major one is this: Although the book was written for children it seemed as if Jackson couldn't decided quite how to pitch the movie and to what audience. There are elements of buffoonery the like of which you will not see outside of the Three Stooges at times, whilst at other moments, the movie veers firmly back to a more Lord of the Rings mood, complete with seriousness and much glowering from the actors involved.
It's almost as if it is trying to be all things to all viewers, but is firmly unaware that, whilst catering to one section of the perceived audience, it is unintentionally irritating the rest.
The dwarfs start out as dour and somewhat comedic characters in the opening scenes, but they do grow on you. That said, some of them are little more than cardboard cutouts, given an amusing hairstyle to make them stand out from the others. With thirteen of them, this is only to be expected, even in a movie as long as the Hobbit is. Character development may come in the later films, but as far as Ori, Dori, Nori Oin and Gloin are concerned, I couldn't pick them out in a line up.
Another minor annoyance was the presence of Sylvester McCoy as Radagast. To be fair, he gives a reasonable performance, but the character is so ridiculous as to be innately unlikeable. As for the sled pulled by rabbits... well, let's just say that was a mistake and leave it at that.
However, other than these things I did, in fact, quite enjoy the movie. There were a number of moments where scenes really did drag on too long and where I found myself hoping things would move on soon. Given that this is the theatrical release, I expect we will see an extended DVD/Bluray release at some point with some scenes extended even further.
For contrast, after watching this, I watched the original Rankin Bass cartoon version from the 70's. That tells the whole story of the book in 1hr and 17 mins., with the material contained within Jackson's version finishing at about the thirty minute mark. It gets all the important information out in that time, too.
There has been some concern that Jackson (and the studios) are milking this tale somewhat and I do share those concerns. I think two movies would have been quite enough to tell the tale, not three. I expect the second part of the trilogy will spend an eternity in Mirkwood, with a lot of action centered around Dol Guldur, before finishing up at Esgaroth. The final movie I expect will be almost non-stop action, God-help us! All in all, however, a very watchable movie. I would have preferred less clownishness and more glowering, however, but that is just me.
SUMMARY: A little confused as to who it is targeting, audience-wise. Slow to start, but doesn't let up once it gets going. A little overlong, in my opinion.