It was a good movie, and while I really liked the character development with the Dwarves, my issue with the movie was that it couldn't make up its mind if it wanted to be The Hobbit or a Lord of the Rings prequel. Bringing back everyone from LOTR seemed almost desperate to remind us the film was a prelude to the LOTR trilogy and all the cameos actually made the film less effective IMO, like Elijah Wood's cameo, which served absolutely no purpose other than Peter Jackson winking to the fans "hey, remember this guy?! Oh, you do, well, just in case you didn't..." Even the music score was from LOTR. I guess I wanted The Hobbit to be its own thing. My other issue was the inconsistent tone of the film, it couldn't make up its mind if it was supposed to be a Disney movie or an epic mythology. Other than Gandalf and Gollum, old Bilbo should have been the only one returning, and even old Bilbo wasn't necessary.
I enjoyed the prequel-ness to it all. It does take away from some of the originality of The Hobbit, but I have to say my favorite scene was the meeting at Rivendell where Sarumon showed up. And that was not in the book at all. It was an eerie feeling to watch that already knowing the events to come. I look forward to learning more about the origins of Middle Earth and the One Ring just as much as I look forward to reliving the journey to Misty Mountain.
It was great. Better than the Fellowship imo (on a comparison of first movies). He took some liberties but it's mostly faithful to the book and the added extras were pretty cool.
Loved LOTR. LOVED them. Was "meh" on The Hobbit. Way too long and the stakes felt too low (and totally manufactured when the film tried to raise them).
It was better than any of the lotr movies for me, and I really thought it would be a pile of sh#t before I saw it.
I actually didn't mind them "milking" it into a trilogy. I thought they used the whole 3 hours very well. I wasn't a huge LOTR fan. But, being more into movies now, I'm excited about what's to come from this trilogy.
The Hobbit was not a long book. It should not be a long movie. And NOBODY from LOTR should be there except Gandalf and Gollum. I've been a Middle-earther for most of my life. I LOVED LOTR under Peter Jackson's direction (though the Eowyn love story was unnecessary and the Scouring of the Shire was omitted). I have had no interest in seeing The Hobbit simply because if it's being milked into three parts- or even just two- there's things in there that should not be.
Don't forget it's more than just the Hobbit. It's using materials from other sources from Tolkien to bridge the Hobbit and LOTRs...as well as his own stuff it seems.
