A message to low-score reviewers...be patient and remember it's a TRILOGY!

Rating: 8/10 (15 December 2012)

OK, so it wasn't perfect. However, it was still a great film that did a great job of bringing "The Hobbit" to life. Yes, the Radagast scenes annoyed me, but I am willing to set them aside and look at the movie in the context of it being a TRILOGY. There are scenes in this movie that have been included with the sole purpose of setting the scene for the upcoming story lines that would inextricably link this trilogy to LOTR. Purists will deride the addition of extra scenes and characters that were not in "The Hobbit", or the ones that appeared in unexpected places in the film. My own opinion is that most of the scenes were nice additions. Only the Radagast scenes were poorly placed and poorly executed. They were the one blemish on an otherwise beautiful canvas. I am going to believe, however, that even those scenes will be vindicated upon presentation of the other two films. The pacing was a little choppy in the beginning, but it improved as the film went on. Not everything is exactly as it was in the book, but the liberties taken were mostly harmless and some even improved the story. I am really looking forward to the next two installments. I am optimistic that everything will come together and that this entire trilogy will end up being the masterpiece that I truly hope it will be.