Good film, could've been better

Rating: 7/10 (19 December 2012)

I went into the cinema one week after the movie came out without having read any of the critics on internet. I'm a big Tolkien fan, and I've read Silmarillion, The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings 5 times each around the time the LOTR movies came out. My fanaticism went down in this ten years, but I still have Tolkien as my favorite author.
I was in Te Anau, New Zealand when The Hobbit was being shot, and the Production Team came to film to the town I was working, so I got to see all the actors, and that got me excited for the story again. One year later, I went into the cinema.
I really liked the introduction to the story. The LOTR and The Hobbit connection -which needed to be made- was smooth and it was good to see the old actors again. Now that's when people link the beginning of The Fellowship of the Ring and this movie. And that is not a bad thing if you're expecting to see something as good and profound as what you have seen before.
But The Hobbit doesn't focus too much in making a connection with the spectator.
In the first part of the film, Bilbo is our hero, our main character and the one we can feel identified to. The dwarfs and Gandalf add a great environment to this adventure, but I think that after the first part they take away that connection we had with Bilbo, and him, who is to be the center of the film at all times, is somehow forgotten. Of course, this doesn't happen in the book, since Bilbo is the teller and we're in his head the whole time.
I think there was a big writing issue in the screenplay. I think the biggest fault was concentrating in the action and forget about the argument. At no moment I have felt suspense -except the riddles scene- or that adrenaline that makes you think everything will be lost. For example, in The Fellowship of the Ring, I put both my hands over my mouth when Frodo got stabbed by the troll in Moria. I thought he was dead. In The Hobbit, you never feel that danger, since some of the scenes are filmed in a cartoonish way, especially the one inside the Goblin Cave when the group is heading to the exit. You kind KNOW nothing's gonna happen to them.
Same thing when the two giant rock monsters fight. I truly think this is the scene that represents how over the limit the writing went. It's like they just wanted to put more action for the sake of it, and to show how good are special effects nowadays... again.
I truly hope the next movies bring back this connection we felt with all our beloved characters in LOTR, at least with the one most important which is Bilbo. I would really like more character development than action and clichés.