Gorgeous graphics but a predictable let down

Rating: 3/10 (5 January 2013)

I was really excited to see this. I enjoyed the Lord of the Rings Trilogy very much. First however, let's talk about the good.
The 48 FPS thing is fantastic, it garnered some deep criticism but I thought this one was gorgeous looking film. CGI was top notch. Just looked fantastic. The Hobbit is funny. It's great comedy value, it did make me laugh. So that's good.
Martin Freeman is a fantastic actor. I've seen him in the Office, Sherlock Holmes (TV series) and The Hitch-hikers Guide to the Galaxy so I knew he was the right choice. If anybody says 'blundering, confused mismatched and unwanted hero' then Martin Freeman does, he can pull that off. And that is exactly who the Hobbit is. So whoever cast Martin, well done.
The first half hour is fantastic, funny, light hearted, beautiful, well acted, and an exciting introduction to what should be a fantastic adventure. Should be. Let's get onto what I didn't enjoy, which was everything else.
The thing that annoyed me most, was I like to be surprised by a film. Unless you've read the books (I haven't, don't knock me for it), you go to a film to watch it to be surprised and engrossed by the story right? Most would agree you will enjoy a film more if you don't know what is going to happen. I hadn't seen LOTR for quite some time so I really had no anticipation for what the story may hold.
Yes towards this second half of the film every 'big' moment I saw coming five minutes off. Why? Clichés. It is FILLED with them. Everything I have watched is blatantly boring, predictable recycled cinema. Here come Spoilers by the way, so if you weren't aware of that, stop reading now please.
You just KNEW Bilbo was going to go and save Thorin. It was coming off by a mile. The big bad tough leader hates the good guy cliché and think's he useless, and then Bilbo saves him. I saw this coming once the two characters met. Then cue ludicrously cheesy moment where Thorin embraces Bilbo and tells him how wrong he was. Oh how I never saw that coming.
How terribly convenient that when they everyone is going to die, for no reason apparent, a bunch of magical flying over-sized birds come and save them who had not been mentioned or hinted off previous to the novel. They just swoop in and save the day. Right. Oh and the tree that they were all clinging on decided to fall off the huge cliff right after everyone gets off it. Yeah.
The amount of times I saw people clinging onto the edges of cliffs at their peril in this film was not funny. This is the 21st Century, I thought we could come up with some more exciting situations? How strange that these magical birds decided to leave them in the distance of the mountain. But don't worry, everyone saw that coming. Where are they going to be dropped off I wonder? It didn't take anyone longer than three seconds to think 'I bet it's the mountain they need to get to'
Cue the grumbles around the people in the cinema around me, grunts and whispers of 'how convenient'. Yes convenient, but not convenient enough to drop them off AT the mountain. Let's leave them a good few days from it so we can squeeze another film and hundreds of millions out of it.
Yes, Martin Freeman is a fantastic actor. The rest didn't impress me though. Awful? No, no, But Richard Armitage I'm afraid does not convince me as an actor. A typical 'NOOOOOOOO!' when his father dies fairly early on in the movie. A poorly executed 'NOOOO' at that, talk about cheesy. I really thought we didn't get that type of stuff in high standard cinema anymore.
It wasn't just the predictability but as I mentioned the odds defying convenience with every time they are saved. I mean, things get pretty grim. No one gets hurt though, that would be too much to ask, right? How that when they go to the Elf kingdom to get the map read, there was like a 1 in 365 chance of them being on the right day to get it read. Of course they were. It's that simple.
The fight scenes were endless as well, going from one to another and it did become tiresome because they weren't the fantastic fight scenes we've been accustomed to in Lord of the Rings or any other film of late. The only difference between them was different foes. One with trolls, one with Orcs, one with Goblins, and some nasty dogs pop up now and then. Just when you think there may be some relief, and you can go back to the side of the film that is enjoyable, the dialog and the comedy, bang, enemies are coming out of nowhere and here we go again for fifteen minutes. I'm afraid it was one fight scene too many for my liking.
I can imagine a lot of people are fuming in anger at this review because of course we have the reputation of Lord of the Rings, Tolkien and Peter Jackson on the line. People may say 'but that's the story of the Hobbit!' Yes, that might be the story of the Hobbit, but so many things could have been done better. Less clichés, improved acting, fewer fight scenes or if not more creative ones, and maybe if possible a slightly shorter movie.
The Hobbit was a disappointment for me but I believe it's got it's good merits. I did enjoy parts of it. I don't think it will be as disappointing to the die hard Tolkien fans but if your like me and partial, not caring either way, it may not be what you were expecting.