The viewer is constantly reminded of what could have been

Rating: 6/10 (16 January 2015)

This is essentially a review of all three Hobbit movies. What could have been one excellent film based solely on the Hobbit book itself, was instead turned into three bloated, mediocre films. The Hobbit is NOT the Lord of the Rings, yet director Peter Jackson and team seem compelled to try to turn it into that kind of epic story, and they fail in the effort.
It's not all bad. Casting was great, especially Martin Freeman as Bilbo. New Zealand looks as beautiful as ever, and the FX are improved even from the LOTR films. Anyone familiar with the book, however, is constantly reminded of all the extra sub plots shoe horned into the Hobbit story in order to introduce characters and foreshadow events in the LOTR trilogy and, let's face it, stretch the story into three movies in an attempt to make more money. Some of the sub plots, especially the Elf, Dwarf, Elf "love" triangle, were frankly embarrassing.
At another point, one of the middle earth dwarfs says "You go ahead...I got this," which pulled this viewer right out of the movie.
I will always admire the work Jackson did bringing the LOTR trilogy to the big screen, but this shameless Hobbit money grab tarnishes that legacy a bit. There's a reason I have the extended editions of the LOTR films in my library. There are also many reasons why the Hobbit trilogy will likely not be joining them.