The Hobbit - An Unexpected Disappointment...

Rating: Null/10 (27 December 2012)

(Disclaimer - this is no detailed review of the movie, as I'd have to watch it again to do so, just a couple of impressions when first seeing it) While I really enjoyed all the LOTR movies (well, except the occasional Jar-Jar-Binksish shield-surfing elf...) and consider them as what could count as a decent adaption of the books to the totally different medium film, The Hobbit left me a bit speechless.
The film starts at a quite unhurried pace, which is okay, thinking about the source material. But why the heck did PJ have to do a "different angle" section of Bilbo's birthday party, and then just stop to carrying on? Waste of time and film.
What struck me most about this movie - how much silly and unnecessary stuff has been put into this movie: - Gandalf & Radagast: two wizards who have a status of some kind of angel or archangel in Tolkien's mythology, now are just two pot-smoking dopeheads, one of them having a certain liking of magic mushrooms as well and driving around on a summer sleigh with Rudolf the Rednosed Racing Rabbit? C'mon.

13 dwarfs and one wizard redo Indiana Jones' mine car bonanza from Temple Of Doom, defying all laws of logic and physics - bravo...

We have an orc guy called Azog, who serves as some kind of cannon fodder in the books. Why the heck does PJ seem to put him up as the antagonist of the following parts? He could've been killed, he should've been killed.

Gollum. He'll pretty much will end up on the Academy Awards list for special FX, but unfortunately his character was much more convincing in LOTR.

Silly, silly jokes. Too many to mention. You'll know what I mean when you see the movie.

Why-oh-why do all underground-dwelling creatures have to carve one big hole into the earth to stuff it up again with fragile bridge constructions that are bound to collapse the second after they've been built, not even speaking of the occasional pack of adventurers running berzerk? And things like these go on and on and on...

Honestly, I considered leaving the theatre after one-third of the second half of the movie (yes, there's a pause). I'm not really sure if I really want to go to see parts 2 and 3 or wait for a home entertainment release instead.
4 points for being a Tolkien movie, but not meeting my personal expectations.