A movie not able to live up to its expectations.

Rating: 6/10 (6 January 2013)

Peter Jackson's The Hobbit has hit cinemas with a hype collected by his previous The Lord Of The Rings trilogy. Ian McKellen (Lord of the Rings) reprises his role as Gandalf while Martin Freeman (The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy) plays a young Bilbo Baggins. For those who do not know, The Hobbit is a prequel focusing on the tales of Bilbo Baggins and Gandalf the Grey as they attempt to take back the original homeland of the Dwarfs with a group of thirteen chosen dwarfs.
As this movie was released by itself, I will not be taking into account what could potentially happen, or if improvements made within the future ones.
Peter Jackson's use of CGI is very well done. This is highly prevalent within multiple scenes, however stands out within Gollum's scenes. Jackson has done well with utilising technology along with Andy Serkis to create a better looking Gollum as well as a very good scene.
The world of Middle Earth is created fantastically. From the beautiful city of Riverdale alongside its waterfalls to the fantastic like homes of the Hobbits in The Shire, Jackson creates it so well that it immerses the audience. The inhabitants are also complemented alongside the lore of the film with the use of CGI. In other words, Jackson shows that Middle Earth is never boring.
The use of costumes has been done well, as expected. The audience is further immersed with the different armours that both the Elven forces and the dwarven forces possess, as an example.
The Hobbit's story is average. While it does have evidence of its Lord of the Ring roots within it, it can be seen as a bit redundant with the use of its unneeded action scenes as well as the lack of character development (which will be discussed below)
When watching the movie, I found that the characters were not very memorable. Jackson has seemed to replace the Fellowship, a group of memorable characters which I had grown to learn and love, with a ragtag group of stereotypical dwarfs. Character development is most non- existent as the story does not go into enough detail explaining each individual character and their motives and as such, I became distant with the characters - even the charismatic King Thorin.
That being said, Bilbo Baggins' character development is evident and quite well received. As the viewers travel with Bilbo, we can see his eventual transformation into his scared and timid nature to an adventurer.
Relationships are pretty standard within The Hobbit. Due to the dwarfs having almost non-existent personalities, much relationship potential between them and Bilbo is lost. What really stands out, however, is the progression between Bilbo and Thorin, who begin as indifferent.
The Hobbit's soundtrack is very nice and varied, which gives a very nice touch to the movie. From the upbeat dwarven melodies to the melancholy ones, it gives the audience a nice transition into the film and into the next films.
Many of the action scenes, I thought, were not required to be in the film. It could be seen as a time filler, or even potentially a way for time length to be at par with the original trilogy.
Despite having the expectations of being as legendary as the Lord of The Rings and the fan base, it fails to live up to it. However, when set aside from the trilogy, it is quite a solid movie. For those who are new to Middle Earth and its inhabitants, I recommend the original trilogy. However, for die hard fans of the original trilogy as well as fantasy goers, this is a flick you do not want to miss.