I walked out

Rating: 2/10 (27 December 2013)

This movie really blew it for me. Here is why, in increasing order of distastefulness.
1. Not taking the time to properly tell the many little stories in the book. This is too bad, because they were good stories. Beorn, Mirkwood, Elf fires, Bilbo and the spiders, Bilbo and the dragon, etc. are all abbreviated or simply left out.
2. Developing sub plots which were only alluded to in the book. These added depth to the world around the story, but fully played out they are irrelevant and obsessed with the LOTR plot. Radagast, the Necromancer, etc. are distractions, and doubly so with their relentless focus on premonition of events from the next 3 books. This also assumes that the director has more interesting stories to tell than the author did. He does not.
3. Adding characters and plots that were never in the book. The Pale Orc, Legolas, Tauriel, dwarf/elf romance, etc. These force the plot to change, distract from the story, and are weak compared to the original. Again the director demonstrates that the author was a better storyteller than he is. Plus, this allows for cringe-worthy scenes such as the one where the hottie-kungfu-elf-she-warrior saved her love interest dwarf from a morgul arrowhead with magic spells and herbs just in time to kill a bunch of orcs who ninja-style invaded lake town.
4. Doing another Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom style roller coaster ride. This was cute in the 80s, but is simply insulting at this point in time, and particularly in this story. Does one of the great stories of the 20th century really need a roller coaster ride to make it interesting? The moment I saw the dwarfs sliding down to waiting coal cars, I realized that I'd had enough. This was where I walked out shaking my head.
I'm sad about this movie because I loves these stories, and I doubt they'll ever be told in film again. This was almost as bad as the John Carter movie!