Stretched too thin

Rating: Null/10 (3 July 2013)

Think about everyone you know who read The Hobbit. They all loved it, right? Think about everyone you know who read the Lord of the Rings trilogy. Did more than a few of them actually finish all three books? What makes The Hobbit a better read than the trilogy is exactly what made the Lord of the Rings films easier to take than the books: with the trilogy, Jackson whittled the far too dense story down to its essentials, or rather whittled down the pile of world myth details to find one single story. He made an opposite move with this film, ruining the novel's one advantage over the trilogy, its brevity. Not only did he drag one brief novel's story out over the course of three three hour films, but he added story elements which have only the most superficial connections to the plot at hand. Although the trilogy did well, I don't see this ponderous heap of a film, repeated twice, adding anything to his reputation or the studio's profits.