Too much low-quality filler spoiling the brew

Rating: 6/10 (24 December 2012)

Some examples of the low points of the movie, that merely chew up time unproductively: .
1. A harmless stick insect in someone's mouth, but which almost a minute of movie time is spent on.
2. Moths flying in and out of a snoring character's mouth for 30 seconds.
3. A huge wattle of fat dangling from the chin of a character, with the camera focused on it swaying around for 30 seconds.
4. A troll blowing his nose repeatedly for about 30 seconds.
5. A long, long fall of a triple-decker structure for about 30 seconds.
6. Radagast is involved in the same chase pratfall about 6 times in a row. A few of those times, the CGI looked exceptionally poor. Why not just repeat the pratfall 3 times where it looked better? Or just avoid the pratfall.
7. Golf. Balls. Deposits.
I've been a big Peter Jackson fan for years, and I've watched everything he's done, including Bad Taste and Forgotten Silver. I thought his first serious low point as a director was with Jimmy the Cabin Boy in King Kong. He spent half an hour on that character for no coherent reason. Here, he's showing the same weaknesses. With the above 3 minutes of movie trimmed or excised, I'd have given the movie 2 more stars.
Why couldn't each of the dwarfs had at least one line, or at least said their own name? All that said .. I did like many of the embellishments. The Necromancer is an interesting storyline (but they haven't really gotten to it yet). I loved seeing Saruman (but not with a brown beard), and I thought the actors with speaking rolls did fine.
I'd have been happier with more careful trimming.