7.5 - Pretty Good Film, Disappointing Adaption of Book

Rating: 7/10 (27 December 2012)

I'll get this out of the way first: as a faithful adaption of the book, this fails. It misses the spirit of the printed Hobbit, attempting to graft on too many "epic this!" Lord of the Rings moments. Also, the battle scenes are way too over the top. Also, etc. That all being said, if you can divorce your mind from the book (or if you've never read said book), it's a pretty good fantasy film.
As usual, Peter Jackson brings the eye-popping production values in terms of breathtaking cinematography and rich prop and set design. The character dialogue is quite good. The casting was well done, especially for the characters of Thorin and Bilbo. Brilliant, those two. Gollum looks better than ever, and his perfectly executed big scene with Bilbo is unquestionably the highlight of the film.
The musical score is familiar and beautiful, but gets overused to hammer home the emotional notes; in some cases it would have been better to just let the music drop out and have the acting convey the mood. The eagles looked rather fake during their first appearance, although they looked much better in the very next scene. The goblin scenes were way overdone; sometimes, being able to create digital characters and sets seems to lead directors into a bit of visual gluttony.
I did not like some of the "added" elements, but I have not really all of Tolkein's appendices (which were apparently mined for some of the story-expanding parts), so I can't say much about that. Also, I hate 3D. The film was blurry during camera pans, and the color was distinctly less appealing with the glasses on versus taking them off. All in all though, in spite of my quibbles, I have to admit that the Hobbit is a beautiful, exciting, humorous, epic specimen of a fantasy film. Credit where credit is due; there are many horrible films out there, and this one is pretty good.