Entertaining

Rating: 7/10 (23 June 2013)

I'm one of the biggest Lord of the Rings fans imaginable, actually I spent my entire youth in Middle Earth and some part of me is probably still there. You can imagine how much I looked forward to seeing hobbits, elves and dwarfs back on screen. Naturally I had to be a little disappointed about the Hobbit.
When watching the Lord of the Rings, it all seems natural to me, it really soaks me in, I'm part of that movie. The Hobbit was entertaining too, but I watched it as an outsider and didn't feel like a part of Middle Earth this time.
It is a lot of special effects - too much for me. In the Lord of the Rings, the orcs were played by real humans wearing costumes. They seemed to be so real and they were scary just as the black riders. In the Hobbit, the orcs and foes are animated, it's like in the new Star Wars movies. It touches you, yes, but you are no longer a part of it.
If you read the book you know how short it is and that there is no way of making three movies out of that material. So Peter Jackson and his team had to find some new aspects to it and take them further.
The Hobbit is no longer the center of the story. He is the main character, yes, but the new tragic hero is Thorin. He, the heir of the throne wants to claim back what is his. In order to make him stand out from the other dwarfs, he was given a look that reminds me a little of Aragorn. The difference between him and Strider is only that Thorin wants to claim back his heritage and Aragorn needs a few battles to realize he has to make a choice and take back the throne.
Also the Wizard Radagast who does not even show up in the book has his own story fighting the Necromancer which does not come up in the book, too. It's entertaining to see Radagast and Thorin (the hero) but it's not what you might expect from the book.
To sum it up: some of the scenes really are too long. Orcs hunting the dwarfs through tunnels - that's just unnecessary as well as huge stone monsters fighting. I guess it's supposed to be impressive but to me it's too much special effects.
The story is good, the actors are brilliant but the new hobbit-look is not as natural as the Lord of the Rings.