Corny

Rating: 3/10 (7 December 2013)

Two things - One, old Toby isn't apparently the tobacco I thought it was, and two, they smoked too much of it. I'm not going to get into the changes from the books to the movie(s). I liked the books. If the books weren't as great as they were, the movies would never have been made. Then, it stands, there should be little reason to change the bulk of the story. Ah well, I said I wasn't going to get into it.
I understand The Hobbit book was a bit... less serious than The Lord of the Rings. Radagast was a bit odd, but hardly the lunatic I saw in this movie. I really don't understand the bit about the rabbits, except that Peter Jackson was smoking some um "Old Toby" weed while writing the script.
Finally, I grew up playing RPGs - real table-top ones, like MERP. Those orcs looked scary. These just look deformed. Worse, the Great Goblin didn't look intimidating as much as he just looked diseased. Yeah, I suppose there was drama in worrying you might catch something from him, but aside from that there was little to fear there. And Dwarfs - half the Dwarfs barely had beards.
Ah well. If you're looking for an extension of The Lord of the Rings movies, this isn't really it. If you're looking for the book, well, you know this isn't it. If you're looking to spend three hours wondering what's in the water on set, this might be a good place to start.
-- Edit. Seriously IMDb? Tolkien had a big long discussion about it in one of his books - an appendix, I think, where he discusses the term Dwarfs. I even type it the way he wants it and IMDb changes it automatically to this. Dee - Double You - Ay - Ar - Vee - Ess.