Moments of magic, but not enough for 3 hours

Rating: 6/10 (14 December 2012)

I've been a fan of the Tolkien books since my father read us The Hobbit when I was 5. Granted that a movie does not need to faithfully reproduce the book, but I think this film was best when Jackson stayed close to the books (Hobbit and Silmarillion) and worst when he added gratuitous stuff to suck in the teen-boy audience (the bad-cowboy-movie subplot with Thorin vs the white orc).
The depiction of the dwarfs didn't make sense. Some were Disney-style grotesques (e.g. Dwalin, Bombur); some, the ones we were supposed to identify with as characters, were just little handsome humans (e.g. Thorin, Fili, Kili).
On the other hand, there were some passages of magic. Smaug attacking the Lonely Mountain. Bilbo's meeting with Gollum, Barry Humphrey's amazing performance as the Goblin King. The dwarfs trashing Bilbo's larder and then juggling his crockery - that was fun. Hmmm... maybe too few moments in 3 hours...