Excellent addition to the franchise

Rating: 8/10 (6 January 2014)

More great stuff from this franchise. They really do an excellent job of recreating the world of Middle Earth to spectacular effect and (nine times out of ten) just as you'd imagined it from the books.
But before I wax lyrical about The Hobbit, let me mention a couple of things that I *don't* like. Firstly, I was really disappointed with the job they did with the dwarfs. Most of them simply don't look like dwarfs! They just look like shrunk humans. Some of them - Thorin in particular - look tall and slim. How annoying! Secondly, I thought they lost a bit of the humour that I remember from reading The Hobbit. The scene where the dwarfs arrive at Bilbo's house and the episode with the trolls were laugh-out-loud funny in the book; not here.
Aside from those points, however, this movie is excellent. It moves along at a quick pace. Martin Freeman is simply superb as Bilbo Baggins (much better than Elijah Wood was as Frodo). The landscape and special effects are just as phenomenal as in Lord of the Rings. The scene with Gollum rivals the best scenes of the whole franchise.
One final point. There's numerous instances where they've added to the story that was in the book, in fact they've even introduced some completely new characters. Some people won't like this but personally I think it helps with the transition from page to screen and I didn't mind at all.