A long and tiring saga that's not refreshing but rather boring.

Rating: 4/10 (19 September 2014)

A long and tiring saga that's not refreshing but rather boring.
Till the time I saw, gollum near the end, it was a tale that was largely boring. Only when Bilbo Baggins (Martin Freeman) met Gollum, that creepy character of Lord of the Rings I got some interest. Yes, it had action sequences but they were few and far apart. The film was flu of dialogue and a build up only. That's fine if the dialogue evoked laughs or moved me with tears pr did something, but here it was doing nothing for me, I was watching it without feeling for it, and that's where the film lost me elsewhere.
I am a big fan of LOTR and yet I did not like in fact I loved Fellowship of the ring so much more coz that gave me a reasoning and understanding of characters and a back story Here, we had a back story which I thought would be equally interesting as it is Peter Jackson at the helm, but it is rather tiring and however hard I tried, I just missed most of it.
Did I say, I watched it in IMAX screen, oh, how I wish then an experience could have been so very great. But what it turned out was a drowsy session for me as I was feeling sleepy as even those sitting beside me did. This film seemed so very long indeed and I am not sure if I would go into the next part again.
Now, let me tell you one thing as an LOTR fan, I loved LOTR and I expected a similar kind of experience but that was not be. It was overlong and mostly the story was going between 13 dwarfs and it was not an easy task even to remember the name of those 13 tiny ones. What's more disappointing was the climax conflict between our hero who is not Bilbo Baggins, but Thorin. This fight too was not up to the expectations in any kind.
In reality, the book HOBBIT is just about 300 pages and making a trilogy out of that seems to be rather uncalled for after seeing this film. Technically, yes this film had a few positives They used 48 fps as against the conventional 24 fps. The art direction is superb and so is the cinematography. But, that's not just what I wanted from HOBBIT, I needed an adventure and I thoroughly missed that, an adventure is not just about going on horses and returning empty handed, it is much more.
If you are willing to succumb to it and have a keen year and understand every dialogue minutely, you may find how many things were actually not needed. Like the jokes at the dinner table just to establish the traits of 13 dwarfs, now each must have contributed in any which way to help their King, but they are just lying and eating while Gandalf and Thorin do most of the job. I can't even call this team work.
So, I disliked it but I think many love it as LOTR fans, as they expect the finale to be the as grand as the LOTR - Return of the king. For me, I am not going watch the sequels may be unless someone really trustworthy comes and tell me to at least try watching them.
Giving a generous 2/5. It was a tiresome three hours for me.