Enjoyable, but very flawed

Rating: 7/10 (16 December 2012)

Let me tell right from the start that I generally hate anything Hollywood produces today, and that I found the LOTR good bur very flawed. Not anywhere near to the masterpieces some would like us to believe. Jackson's style is heavy-handed, not nearly as poetic as he wants to be, just "epic" because that's what people want these days, this word almost replacing the word "good"...
So needless to say, I wasn't very optimistic for The Hobbit. The book is a count, and I feared the movie would be going too much on the "epic" side, and would not be a simple and likable story.
And that's exactly what happened. Although I still recommend the movie. So first of all, the good: - the landscapes are great as usual - the Gollum scene, the one I expected the most in this movie, is very, very good. Gollum is a bit more scary than in LOTR, a good change since I always thought he almost became a comic relief in these movies. - the beginning wasn't as long as I feared. The dwarfs song scene is very well done. - I liked the look of the dwarfs fortress, especially the treasure room. It felt gloomy and mysterious. - Bilbo and Thorin are both well acted, and likable. - Radagast was somewhat good. Although I didn't imagine him like that at all in the book, he's a good character, and has engaging scenes.
Now the bad: - The main problem of this movie is that you don't relate to the characters. I know it's hard to make 13 developed dwarf characters, but Jackson could have made it better IMO. There are some dwarfs I can't even remember the face. It would have been better if we actually felt invested in their quest, but I did not. - This problem added to the fact that they seem invincible in the action scenes, the movie has no tension at all. No character is in any danger the whole movie, or at least you don't feel that way. - Too much CGI for the orcs. The battle scene in their town under the mountain was ludicrous: the dwarfs were just fighting impersonal goblins. Again, no tension when you can't relate to the characters. It felt like a video game scene. - Gandalf: 2 problems here. First, the makeup: it's really, really bad. He was far better in the LOTR movies. Second, he's too much of a fighter. Gandalf is supposed to be a wise magician, not Conan the Barbarian beheading enemies left and right. - The whole white orc storyline is useless and feels very far fetched. I didn't believe for one second that Thorin had a grudge with him. - The movie was too long. More is not necessarily better. Jackson should have cut the white orc storyline - Christopher Lee is annoying as Saroumane. He feels like an annoying grandpa, not the "noble" villain he was in the trilogy. And Jackson makes it too obvious that he's already on Sauron's side. - TOO MUCH HUMOUR! It kills the tension! The trolls scene is a disaster on that matter. Is it a comedy or an adventure movie? Why do they feel the need to make jokes when their lives are at stake? It really disconnected me from the movie. - The insistence on Throin's defiance towards Bilbo is just too much. Although it's actually justified since Bilbo is a lot more useless than in the book. MINOR SPOILER: The reconciliation scene is ridiculous. Bilbo just saved Thorin's life, but the next scene is a typical Hollywood cliché scene, rather than a simple and spontaneous reconciliation. - Last but not least, the "epic" side. Jackson ties the dwarfs quest to the Sauron storyline, but it feels very far-fetched. The argument that Smaug would be a dreadful asset in Sauron's hands is not enough to justify the interest in the dwarfs quest. They should really have stuck to a simple story rather than this intricate bs.
Now, with all that said, I still recommend the movie because while it's very flawed, it's still head and shoulder above the rest of the *beep* Hollywood blockbusters. Not a masterpiece, not even in the league of great movies, but still enjoyable. If you like action you should like this one. If you expect a movie faithful to the book, you will be disappointed since while it follows the story, the tone is very different, and IMO, not for the better.