Good but Spread Thin

Rating: 10/10 (1 March 2014)

This is a very good movie all things considered equally but it suffers obviously because it is following the hugely successful and greatest- trilogy-of-all-time trilogy of Peter Jackson's The Lord of the Rings. It's apparent that nothing could live up to such high expectations as following that but Jackson does a great job, as do the cast and everyone in the crew especially the make-up, wardrobe and special effects people, who deserve more credit.
If this movie suffers anywhere it's the simple fact that the studio wants to milk the series for all it's worth so they have spread out the story to cover three full length (2 plus hours long) movies. The Hobbit of course is a much lighter book that LOTR so that is not an easy thing to do without spreading the story a little thin, but Jackson does a great job taking his time, keeping a good pacing and filling in the movie with other side stories, both from other Tolkien books and made up specifically for this film.