Doesn't hold a candle to the LOTR trilogy, but decent overall.

Rating: 6/10 (13 February 2015)

First time I saw this I wasn't the biggest fan, mostly because of my bias towards the LOTR trilogy. Looking at it again, it still has its issues but it's by no means a bad film, it's a definite worthy beginning to this epic trilogy.
The lovable, care free Bilbo Baggins, (Martin Freeman) is enlisted by Gandalf and a group of Dwarfs to go on an unexpected journey to Lonely Mountain to reclaim it from the evil dragon, Smaug.
It has similar charm to the Fellowship of the Ring. Martin Freeman is an improvement over Ian Holm as Bilbo, bringing an all new sense that we haven't seen yet. The dwarfs are all fun and charming, but their introduction rather dwells on comedic relief, though as soon as they hum the Lonely Mountain song, it drowns you in its atmosphere. As the journey progresses, you learn more and more about each dwarf and their background, and you're lead by Bilbo the whole time, making you feel for him when he feels left out by the group for being not as brave or not cut out. The effects of the film are not as impressive as the ones in the LOTR, not that the CGI is much better, just that it's used more carefully.
The film does drag on a tad. A lot of scenes painfully go on and on to try and add to the epic tone of the film, but trying to make the innocent little kids book into a major epic doesn't always work. A lot of memorable scenes in this, most notably the Gollum scene, but is covered by dragged scene after dragged scene.
Overall it's the weakest film of either trilogy, but it still gets by with likable and familiar characters, and some decent action scenes. I would watch it to get through and watch the others, but it has some charm to it that makes it stand out overall.