How can such a charming story be made out to be so boring?

Rating: 4/10 (27 December 2014)

Peter Jackson has turned the charming story of The Hobbit into three movie-length sessions of boredom that not any amount of CGI can rectify. The first hour or so, with Smaug's attack of the town should have been thrilling, but I found myself looking at my watch... Actually that happened several times during the movie. How is it possible to create a movie of so little emotional involvement out of Tolkien's wonderful myth?
And what about the tragic comic mis-timing, particularly in the character of Alfred? And Thorin seemed to be channeling Mel Gibson as William Wallace....
True enough, the battle scenes are epic, but having seen one, haven't you seen them all? And the pop psychology inserted (via Tauriel) when Fili died rang a very strange note. Why not simply stick with Tolkien's sparkling writing?
The music was great, New Zealand looked wonderful, and the cinematography in general was fantastic. But movies are about characters that you care about in stories that grip you.