Not "The Hobbit"

Rating: 4/10 (13 December 2013)

Did I read the right book? After seeing this last night I'm not quite sure Peter Jackson did. I get it. One small book, into three films, you have to elaborate. I was a stout defender of the three film decision and I stand corrected by all those who called it folly. PJ & CO. have not given us what they did a decade ago with Tolkiens The Lord Of The Rings. His reach exceeded his grasp. Let me be honest, the film itself is wonderful. Its fantastic and powerful and dynamic and bursting with action. Yet....somehow it is not anything at all like The Hobbit.
Take the beginning, after the prologue, Beorn looks ridiculous. He looks more like a centaur from the Harry Potter movies than he does like his description in the book. Meager time is given to him and his scene is droll and dreary. They could have started the movie off fun and lighthearted again like in AUJ with a great feast scene with Beorn's trained animal companions! Then we hasten (and by hasten I mean FLY YOU FOOLS) into Mirkwood, which is again HASTENED. No Elvish lights and dinners, no desperate and famished company, no magic river...
Then, we come upon the spiders. This, in the book, is a gigantic moment for Bilbo. His courage and bravery to (in the book) insult, distract and "sting" the spiders to save the Dwarfs is another of his turning points in the book. The scene you read is breathtaking and on the edge of your seat intense. What you see is similar...but the arrival of Legolas (somehow looking 20 years older) and his girlfriend Tauriel send the entire vision of Tolkien into disarray.
I will allow you, if you have not seen this, to explore the mind of Jackson yourself. I will say again that this is a great movie. If Jackson had called this movie "The Dwarfs and The Hobbit" or "How The East Was Won", changed some names and removed all copyright infringements this movie would be one of the best ever made. BUT! You have to take source material into account. If this was an essay on The Hobbit I would have given Peter Jackson an F. A 4 will just have to do though.