Tue Dec 25, 2012 7:30 am by Nyyrikki Tuoni
SPOILERS
I saw it yesterday morning, and overall I thought it was good as a loose adaption or standalone film with the novel out of sight, out of mind. However, out of the adaptions that Jackson has done so far for Tolkien's work, I think it was the weakest. I had several problems with the movie overall like I did about the Lord of the Rings Trilogy.
1. Bloated story/absurdity. They tried far too hard to drag out the story and add in action where it was not necessary. For example, even though the story with the Necromancer is just starting to be fleshed out, I felt like Radagast's inclusion in the plot was completely unnecessary, not to mention he reminded me of a hippie version of Jar Jar Binks....and that is not a good thing. They removed some silly parts, only to add other parts that were personally groan worthy like the Great Goblins death, falling down like 40 stories on top of a wooden plank, etc.
2. Azog the Goblin has been given a much bigger role as a villain than he had in the novel, namely by still being alive and given the role of a major villain in the movie as opposed to his son Bolg being a main villain near the end of the book and in the backstory. Jackson and Co has an opportunity to explore the bad blood between Bolg and Thorin considering the two races killed each other's leaders, especially with the knowledge it was Azog who killed Thorin's father.
3. The Eagles and Wargs don't talk. The Wargs are not that big of an issue, but having the Eagles seem like nothing more than animals for Gandalf to summon in times of need leaves a massive plothole in place for the Lord of the Rings....again. In the novel, the Eagles are shown to be capable of speech and intelligent and proud to the point they have their own "king". Also, it is mentioned the only reason they help Gandalf and others is that the King owes Gandalf his life for saving his life with healing at one point. This backstory helps explain with Gandalf cannot always just summon and tell the Eagles what to do whenever he feels like it - because they can refuse. It would be like one of us being constantly told to carry someone around on our backs. Eventually we would say "No" because we are not pack mules.
4. Far too much CGI and the golbins look too clean compared to the previous films. In the previous films, the goblins for close-ups and in limited amounts were comprised of great make-up and prosthetic work, but this time around, they are all CGI, and they look too clean compared to the dirty, flea-ridden goblins and orcs in the Lord of the Rings. Maybe they did that because The Hobbit is a much more lighthearted novel than the Lord of the Rings or wanted to portray these goblins as being different from the ones we saw in Lord of the Rings?