An enjoyable, warbling and bloated return to middle earth

Rating: 7/10 (27 December 2012)

(reviewed from a 24 fps 2D screening) Some things are pretty indisputable about the Hobbit: the story has been stretched (for the sake of Commerce) to the point of breaking and for a pretty lean novel, it feels bloated and tangential. But for the most part I quite enjoyed this return to middle earth, admittedly from a lot of LOTR nostalgia.
When the Hobbit works it works because of Peter Jackson's sure grasp of how he wants to present middle earth and it's characters. Visually the film looks amazing and the use of New Zealand as a stand in for middle earth is once again fantastic. The action is staged brilliantly and I'd go so far as to say Jackson should be mentioned alongside Scorsese when speaking in terms of camera movement. Also the great cast and memorable characters ensures there's usually something compelling about any given dialogue scene.
Where the Hobbit doesn't work is where it feels so intent on elongating the material to add unnecessary elements and incorporate material from Tolkien's The Simarillion, which amount to making the film feel episodic. There were moments when we'd return to Bilbo and I'd forget he was even in the film (this cannot be wholly contributed to my early onset Alzheimers) and scenes that went on for 5 or so minutes but could have been expressed in a few simple lines of dialogue (the dwarfs eating Bilbo's food was pretty unbearable).
But I cannot deny that I relished the opportunity to revisit middle earth and although my opinion of the film will probably diminish in subsequent viewings, watching orcs get beheaded is my definition of entertainment.