A movie trying to forge ahead and stay true to its roots at the same time.

Rating: 8/10 (14 December 2012)

When I went into this movie, I couldn't help comparing it to its predecessors. I'm not only talking about the Lord of the Rings trilogy and how well it would tie in to those movies. I am, of course, referring to the 1977 Rankin-Bass animated version. This is what I grew up with, and while these two movies are very distinct, they complement each other quite nicely.
As for the title of this review, I believe that this movie was the second attempt by Hollywood in recent years to make an adventure story into an action film, succeeding in some areas and failing in others. The first attempt was The Chronicles of Narnia: The Voyage of the Dawn Treader. As with The Hobbit, this movie was good overall but the fact that layers of action had to be heaped on to make it more marketable diminished its impact.
In this respect, I can see times when The Hobbit stays true to its LOTR roots and can be slotted in nicely among the franchise, as well as times when there seems to be no point besides slashing and running. However, on the whole, as with the LOTR trilogy, I look forward to the next movie to see how faithfully they stick to the book and how these events are portrayed.