Honestly good, but not great

Rating: 6/10 (30 December 2012)

Don't hate me... and YES, I love this movie series, but I can say with all honesty that I was a bit disappointed with this one. It is certain that the die-hard fans that are rating it EPIC, 10/10 etc. If people are being honest, this movie was NOT exceptional. I don't think it held up to the same standards as the ones before it. The fight scenes were amazing with no question. The latest graphics/3D etc. were very nice, and added great eye candy. I have read countless reviews about how awed everyone is about the Hobbit and I keep asking myself how? why?, I think it is just what people planned to say it was awesome no matter what the film did. I don't believe that this movie was amazing. I liked it, but it was fairly slow and about an hour too long. I don't mind lengthy movies if it adds a lot more value to the movie, but if an hour was cut out of this one it wouldn't have made the movie worse. The extra hour didn't add additional story/plot to the movie, it was just that, an extra hour. The end was of course expected to leave you wanting more, which it did, but the point at which the movie stopped wasn't far enough in to the story to me (not for 3 hours worth of film). I give it a 6 because I thought it should have been as good as or better than the first few, but it wasn't. Compared to some of the other movies I am awed at the amazing reviews that don't match the film...