A good ending makes up for a bad beginning

Rating: 7/10 (15 December 2012)

I for one am one of those who thought that Peter Jackson should have done The Hobbit first or not at all. After seeing this movie I am still of that opinion. The Hobbit is the first of the Tolkien books that I read but it was the LOTR trilogy that I fell in love with. I knew when I heard that Jackson was making this movie that he would have to embellish but I didn't know how far he would go. Others have written that he sticks to the book but on closer examination he's changed the story quite a bit to make it more dramatic for adults. Some of it works and some of it doesn't. The beginning could have been better; too much exposition. I was really a bit disappointed by the Troll segment; this is an important part of the story and I don't think it he handled it very well.
Also I was disappointed with the music. I guess when you have scored so many battles you run out of ideas, I feel for Howard Shore.
Yes there were somethings I liked a lot. Some of the dwarfs are okay and Ian McKellan is always great. Martin Freeman takes over Bilbo very well. Seeing Rivendell again was also nice. Jackson always manages to save himself with a good ending so I gave it a 7 instead of a 5. Here's hoping the second and third (hate that he broke it up into three) will be better.