Absolutely Enthralling

Rating: 10/10 (14 December 2012)

Too tired to make a thorough review right now as I just watched the premiere. But I will say this movie was excellent. The fantasy and story of it drew me deep within the realm of the Lord of the Rings, which I hadn't visited in years.
I will say this. People have to realize that The Hobbit is very different from the Lord of the Rings. The Lord of the Rings was meant to be a mythology, the Hobbit is more of a light-hearted fantasy story. As such, it has many more formalist aspects. The characters, events, and action are all much more exaggerated than the Lord of the Rings.
My only criticism is the same criticism I had of the original movies, Gollum. I love Andy Serkis, but I have always felt the movie Gollum greatly falls short of the power of his character. There are 2 reasons for this. For one, they tried to make him a comic relief. Gollum is not supposed to be funny, he's supposed to be scary. And two: there's no contrast in his craziness. Gollum is supposed to be scary because of the way he reacts to the ring. It is his obsession, and when you take away his obsession he becomes irate. However, for the movie's Gollum, he's always at 100%, so when his ring becomes threatened, he just seems his normal crazy self. He would seem more crazy if he were slightly more dialed down most of the time, and then psychotic when he realizes the ring is taken.
Any way, that's something I've wanted to say for a while. Overall it was an amazing movie, and Gollum didn't diminish this.