A poor endeavor

Rating: 4/10 (27 February 2014)

Jackson and company took such great pains to remain true to the books in their rendition of The Lord of the Rings, but apparently had no such attachment to The Hobbit. Making The Lord of the Rings (aka the Trilogy) as 3 films was a no-brainer, since it encompasses 3 books in most printed versions. The Hobbit is, in contrast, a single book, yet they're milking the project for every penny by stretching it out (and BORINGLY SO) to 3 films. The first half of this film is a complete snorer! Far, far too long with no action other than a bit of a food fight in Bag End. Next, while the Trilogy had lovable characters in Aragorn, who is noble, yet humble. The 4 hobbits in that film were all well-developed character-wise and thus became popular due to their love of the hero, Frodo, brave but reluctant. In this film, we're supposed to love a batch of dwarfs who are coarse, boisterous, and only after gold. There is nothing noble in their quest at all. Richard Taylor and company did a great job again with the props and the weapons, but I thought the animation, particularly some of the digital work, was below the standard set by the Trilogy. Once the pace picked up, the action picked up as well, with lots of fighting. Unfortunately, I found some of the fights to be too kung-fu movie like. Some of the falls, such as the fall of the bridge in the Goblins lair, would have definitely killed any living thing, yet the dwarfs all hop up and start fighting again without so much as a groan. Too many characters who shouldn't be in The Hobbit appear, I think to stretch the films length and because they were popular in the Trilogy. I was very disappointed in this film. I'm not certain I'll even bother with the next 2, but I probably will since I'm a huge Tolkien fan. But I won't spend any of my money to see it in a theater. I'll wait for the DVDs to come out.