Very good, yet not as good as Lord of the Rings.

Rating: 9/10 (16 February 2013)

After about 10 years, the return of Middle Earth on the big screen could have been a lot worse, yet it is not as good as the Lord of the Rings. But let's be honest: few of us had expected it to be as good or better. When I left the cinema, I had a feeling that the 3 hours this film lasted were everything but wasted time. The storyline was good, the 3D effects really added something to the overall experience, unlike other 3D movies I have seen, and the casting was also good, especially Martin Freeman made a Bilbo I liked much better than Frodo in the Lord of the Rings. But the highlight of my evening was, without doubt, the scene with Gollum. If all the scenes in the movie were like that one, it would be just as good as LOTR. With all the special effects, Gollum's cave looked just too real, and so did Gollum himself. For a few moments I thought I was looking at a real-life conversation between a hobbit and another creature..Only the characters that were not in the book (especially Azog and Radagast), were a lot less good, they simply didn't add anything to the movie. I had a feeling they were only there to lengthen it up..