Poor show

Rating: 2/10 (14 December 2012)

I was a little sceptical going in as to how they could milk a 300 page book into three films (and long films too, dear God, this was long!). I'd read the book not too long ago, the first time since childhood, and I remembered it pretty distinctly and I have to say that Peter Jackson did an excellent job of filming every single last word of the first 5 chapters, and then some!
I felt it was a 2 star film because of the visuals, the scenery is stunning as always but the crisp, clean production rather than putting me into the action (I heard Peter Jackson interviewed and this is what he was going for) it just pulled me out of the film when spotting thee glaringly obvious cuts between actors and cartoon. The visuals were so clear and concise, to the point of really showing some bad CGI at points. I hate when the characters switch and you notice the switch between actors and cartoon, sorry CGI. But they did look cartoony. I didn't think that it should have looked like it was made by the Scy-Fy channel.
If he had a problem with the editing process, he should have slung it my way. 20mins for washing up is not needed. In the book, this time is used to introduce the characters but in the film they didn't do that, they just washed up and sang songs. Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs was not the film I paid to see.
Martin Freeman was brilliant. As was Andy Serkis. Gollum and Bilbo saved the film for me. That scene was the best thing about the whole film. It is a bad sign when I'm thinking of how long I've still got to go with a film when we're about 30 mins in!
I can't sit in a cinema for the other two films, I will need to see them on Sky or Blu-Ray. I just couldn't do it again. In my own home, when I can pause it and wander around to wake up my bum again is the way to go, I think.