Good, but not great this time

Rating: 7/10 (13 December 2012)

Sadly, this movie doesn't threaten to topple the greatness of LOTR. It is a good movie, for sure, but like for so many artists looking to follow up on a monumental achievement, it doesn't reach the same heights. It feels like they made the wrong movie for the book by trying to make The Hobbit fit into the LOTR mould. They are very different stories.
The Hobbit is a much lighter (and shorter) tale written well before LOTR, and to me seems as if it was written for a slightly younger audience. So in trying to force the story to become an epic like LOTR it has more weight than the story can hold. The movie could have been a jolly good, "There and Back Again" adventure like the book is, but they became too bogged down in the details and moved too slowly through it. Some of the lighter more whimsical elements of the story try to come through, but they sit uneasily with the gravitas that has been imported into the rest of the story.
It feels very much as if they were still attached to LOTR and reluctant to let it go. In Rivendell, they add Galadriel and Saruman to the story for a long-winded council about an evil rising. I'm a big fan of Cate Blanchett - and here, again, she is stunning as Galadriel - but why the need to insert LOTR characters when they don't add to the story? Apparently Legolas is also making a cameo. It really does feel like they had such a good time making the first trilogy that they were looking for an excuse to work with their old friends again. Had they wanted to explore some of the back story and appendices further, then the end of The Hobbit could perhaps have segued into that nicely.
My biggest disappointment though would have to be with the visuals. I knew the story might be stretched a bit far, but I expected that this would be another visual masterpiece after all the talk of the fantastic technology used. There are few better in the world at creating beautifully detailed and realistic sets than Peter Jackson and Weta Workshops, yet from the opening scene it looked very much like a movie set - more like watching a film of a play. I did see this in 48 frames per second, which apparently is much clearer than the regular 24 fps, but even on my computer, comparing the trailers, it doesn't look as convincing as LOTR.
The Hobbit had big shoes to fill in terms of reputation, yet made the mistake of trying to fill those same shoes, rather than becoming its own story. If you liked LOTR, then you'll enjoy the movie, but just don't expect it to be as flawless as LOTR - it lacks the visual beauty and the fantastic story. It still gets a 7 out of 10 for me, probably due to a little home-country bias.