Disappointment with a capital D

Rating: 2/10 (11 January 2013)

I was very disappointed by this movie and surprised by just how awful it was. I say this as someone who loves LOTR.
The sets, the explosions, the special effects in The Hobbit are all well done, but this is hardly surprising - with the budget Jackson had to work with and the experience he had from LOTR we would expect nothing less than the highest production values. However the things that made LOTR exceptional - character development, story, pace, chemistry between the actors - are all in very short supply in the hobbit. The movie lumbered along unsure of its focus and without any sense of depth or connection between the characters.
I suspect that Peter Jackson sensed the emptiness of the film and he tried to distract us with numerous battles. There were far too many of these scenes and since the character development was so poor after the first couple of battles I didn't much care what was going on. Adding to the sense of disconnection was the absurdity of the action scenes. The dwarfs endured numerous battles/rock slides/falls from great heights, etc and came through it all with barely a scratch. After a while, the movie started to feel like a roadrunner/coyote cartoon - very boring and predictable.
I watched all the special features that came with the LOTR DVD package and I remember being so impressed with Peter Jackson. He seemed to care so much about the story and he seemed so determined to 'get it right.' In 'The Hobbit' I didn't sense the same spirit of care. It felt like a cynical and formulaic cash grab - dress some people up in middle earth costumes, add in lots of pointless fighting and CGI eye candy and then sit back and count the money.
I know some people were impressed with Martin Freeman's performance as Bilbo. He did OK I suppose given the thinness of the script, but his performance was nothing special. Even his scene with Gollum, which some people have raved about, was old news and far too predictable. It didn't tell us anything new and it was just a poor copy of similar scenes from LOTR.
Tolkien fan that I am, I won't be going to see the second instalment of the Hobbit. Next time I need a Middle Earth fix I will load up my blu-ray version of LOTR!