Confused, delighted and disappointed all at the same time

Rating: 5/10 (24 December 2013)

This is a very strange film in many respects. At times, marvellous and at times truly annoying!
I wonder if P.Jackson has listened too much to his critics and tried to emulate LOTR. The hobbit is a different film, targeted at a different audience. Naturally, it will not have the same excitement as LOTR, but then that is partly the risk you have when you stretch a short book across three films.
(MAY CONTAIN SPOILERS -START) As a result, Jackson has had to make up several sub-plots and characters. You can decide yourself if you like this. But what infuriates me, is the fact he is literally copying, particularly quote for quotes from LOTR. If I had wanted to watch LOTR again, i could have, so why do this here -
e.g. the elven king saying --"do not give him hope when there is none" thorin saying "what say you!" (this is trademark aragorn line!) the way gandalf gets locked up and witnesses an army brewing
and there's just so many of these copies lifted from LOTR..Arrgh!!
Like other people have said before me --the film is very loosely based on the story and understandably some bits are rushed as they are slow in the book and would be quite tiresome to watch ie the forest and the spiders, but there are parts which i am perplexed for whys he's strayed from the book such as Baird (who should be captain of the guard) and lack of coverage of Beorn the Bear.
there are parts fabricated, such as the effect of the ring. and the strength of Sauron whom is ridiculously stronger in the hobbit then LOTR and the dwarfs mocking the dragon on a never-ending chase. (SPOILER END)
overall, this is much more action packed than the first (as most of the intros are out of the way) but certainly less true to the book.The effects are fantastic again, Bilbo definitely under-used, but it builds up a nice story for a finale end.