The Hobbit: Pretty much as expected

Rating: 9/10 (26 January 2013)

After the critical acclaim and commercial success of the Lord of the Rings movies, it was somewhat inevitable that the Hobbit would also be given the big screen treatment. It remained to be seen whether the smaller book, the prequel, would be exploited to the max by the producers, but as it turned out, this is what happened.
It is a little sad to report that the story has been sacrificed to the lust for gold, perhaps New Line execs all possess Dwarvish Rings of Power! The book is shorter and much lighter in tone than the LotR but the movie doesn't seem to know whether it wants to be a fairy story written for children or epic myth. The scenes I enjoyed most were of the former flavor, but it is understandable that the director, a lifelong Tolkien fan himself, should want to tie the film in as closely as possible with LotR, and indeed with some material also from Unfinished Tales.
Personally, I would rather the film had been a little shorter, and spread over two episodes at the most, not three.
I felt most of the changes made to the story itself worked rather well, for example, Gandalf freezing the trolls by breaking a rock to catch them by surprise. Some did not, for example, the stone giants almost killing the company rather than them being in the distance. Some of the additions worked, for example, the White Council meeting, some did not, for example, everything involving Azog and Radagast. The spying mission on Dol Guldur worked, (but I always thought it was Gandalf and not Radagast who did the spying).
The acting was good, Martin Freeman was agreeable as the hero and the Dwarfs were all engaging and likable (I couldn't pick out a favourite, but Balin stood out in the crowd). The book I felt did not develop the Dwarfs too well as characters, but the movie was more successful in bringing their characters to life. Hugo Weaving, Ian McKellen, Cate Blanchett, Christopher Lee, and Andy Serkis all reprised their LotR roles with no suffering of continuity.
My favourite scene was the party at Bag End, which was the correct genial tone for the movie as a whole, and should have been continued. I also particularly enjoyed the riddle game and the rescue by the Eagles. I did not like the CGI excesses in Goblintown, which put me in mind of the absurd dinosaur stampede in King Kong. I know the audience must suspend belief a little, but that scene was stretching it quite a bit! My teenaged offspring who saw it with me hugely enjoyed it, but they had not read the book. I know the book and the entire Middle-earth legend very well indeed and I must say this film was almost a success, but not quite. 9/10.