What if we Sit on them and Squash them into Jelly?

Rating: 10/10 (19 January 2015)

That's what I would like to do to the Trolls who are attacking every positive review in here (probably using multiple IDs). We'd have quite a glob of squished IMDb trolls, maybe enough to satisfy even the Three Trolls of Trollshaw.
Peter Jackson once again visits Hobbiton and takes us with him, this time for real, as they have left the Hobbiton set standing. In my mind only Jackson could have made this, just like only he, an unlikely Director, could have made the first (Or rather, Second) Trilogy. Is "The Hobbit" a 200-page book? No, actually it is more like 986, at least in i-Books. Regardless of book length on paper or in Bytes, what is forgotten is that "The Hobbit" is simply one very small part of a much larger story written by Tolkein which included "The Hobbit", "Lord of the Rings", "The Silmarillon", and several collections of "Lost Tales". If you are not interested in the whole of Tolkein's Awesome Creation, then maybe these trilogies are not for you. As this story never really begins, and never really ends, I can live with these very short in perspective sorties into Middle Earth that these films afford us. Jackson has handed us a window into Middle Earth, a doorway in fact. We can either enter and enjoy it as it is, or spend our time using multiple IMDb accounts trying to drag this film and the others down. Me, I prefer to enjoy them, and write about why I enjoyed them.
First off, I don't think Two Hours and Forty-Nine Minutes are enough. And in fact, the extended version is over three hours. And that is almost enough, at least for this first part.
We are given an illustrated history of how the Dragon "Smaug" (Benedict Cumberbatch/Khan) took down the town of Dale while getting at the Dwarf Kingdom of Erebor for it's Gold, and the unhappy history of Thror, the King Under the Mountain, and his son Thrain, and grandson and subject of this film, Thorin Oakenshield, named for the Oaken Branch he used while fighting the Orc "Azog the Defiler". This all given to us by Ian Holm as "Old Bilbo", in a note to Frodo (Elijah Wood, looking very much as he did almost 15 years ago).
This gives us something to grab onto, since The Hobbit is the same story as Lord of The Rings. It gives us a continuity as Old Bilbo reminisces of a time 60 years past - At which point Bilbo meets Gandalf, who looks basically the same as he did in Lord of the Rings - When he was still Gandalf the Gray. Enter 13 Dwarfs led by Thorin, who "Blunt the Knives and Bend the Forks" while eating all of Bilbo's food - Of which Bombur doesn't use a knife, eating blocks of Cheese whole.
One thing these films have more of, and even more in the extended editions, are the delightful Songs of Middle Earth, mostly in the same form as they are in the books, even a few from Lord of the Rings that we missed in those films.
As far as young Bilbo is concerned, Martin Freeman portrays a much different Bilbo at first, and as the films proceed the mannerisms start becoming more like Old Bilbo. I was expecting 13 Dwarfs much like Gimli, but we never saw any Young Dwarfs in Lord of the Rings. Apparently they look very Human until they start digging for Gold and their noses grow. These are all relatively Young Dwarfs save Balin, and they show his progression from being younger in Flashback.
This was Middle Earth as it was before the end of The Third Age, there was more Magic, this was reflected in the look of Elves and of Rivendell, even of Orcs, Goblins, and Trolls, all riding Wargs. By the time of Frodo, much of this magic had been subdued.
By my second viewing I was better able to see which effects and characters were practical and which CGI, there are a lot of practical shots and Miniatures. What we are offered here is a level far beyond Lord of the Rings, it works because that is how the story is.
After the party gets abducted by the Trollshaw Trolls, the film veers away from the book somewhat, expanding the role of Radagast the Brown (Sylvester McCoy). Or merely telling us more than is told in the book, not necessarily adding more than is in The Hobbit, merely foreshadowing things to come in Lord of the Rings- such as The Release of The Witch King of Angmar and the rest of "The Nine", further trying the loose ends of Lord of the Rings.
There is one little thing about Stone Giants, I thought this had been made up and added, in fact, Gandalf talks about it briefly in the book. Once we get into Goblin Town and Bilbo meets Gollum, it is the heart of the story, "Riddles in the Dark". Maybe Guillermo del Toro had something to do with the look of the Stone Giants, feels like his handiwork. To be Continued.