Sorry about the late double-post, but I have a duty to perform. Namely, talk about the Tolkien book adaptations. I'm mainly going to focus on The Hobbit in this post, since it's more relevant right now, given that the movies are still coming out.
So...was The Hobbit a good movie? Yeah, for the most part. Was it good by comparison to Lord of the Rings? Hell no. It didn't even come close. But given the unusually high standard set by LotR, it was unlikely The Hobbit would have lived up to the hype regardless.
When The Hobbit does something right, it hits it out of the park. The Riddles in the Dark scene will probably go down as one of the most iconic scenes in cinema; it was the one part in the movie that everybody loved, and Andy Serkis once again gave an Oscar-worthy performance (and yet again got snubbed for his troubles). The scene itself was brilliantly shot, the dialogue stayed true to the book and both actors involved really got to show off their skills. It was a bit long, but other than that, it was easily the best part of the movie.
Another thing I liked was the portrayal of the Elves. For whatever reason, Elrond seemed much more likable here than he ever did in LotR (it might have something to do with the fact that Arwen wasn't a part of the story, hence no need for Elrond to hover over her every move). Cate Blanchett appears to be very well-preserved, as Galadriel actually seemed younger here than she did in LotR. She was also very warm, which was nice after seeing her so uncharacteristically off-putting in Fellowship. And of course, she does that cool spinning motion with her dress, which the cameramen showed off every chance they got.
Most of the Dwarves were pretty good. Seems like Thorin was a big hit with the ladies, which is good, because in the book, Thorin was old, greedy, arrogant, and just generally unlikable. I really liked Balin and Dwalin, who are both completely opposite of each other. Dwalin seriously looks like he belongs in a motorcycle gang. As for Fili and Kili, I can see why they made them the good-looking members of the group, for reasons that will become clear by the end of the trilogy. Bofur had a good moment with Bilbo when they were in the small cave, and you can tell that, for all of the pain Bofur's been through, he's still a good guy who hasn't gone off the deep end. Ori was probably supposed to be funny, but he was pretty annoying, in all honesty. I'm not against homosexuality, but an effeminate dwarf just seems wrong for some reason. Bombur was mostly just there for gross-out humor, it looks like, so no points for him. And...I can't really remember any of the rest.
As for the bad guys, I actually kind of liked the Great Goblin, even though I knew I shouldn't. He looked fairly good for an all-CGI character, if not on the same level as Gollum. The main problem with him is that he wasn't threatening. A standoff between this guy and Gandalf is ready to happen, but (1) the fight is over in like two seconds, and (2) the last time we saw Gandalf facing a single opponent across a bridge in an underground cavern, he was facing a freakin' Balrog. And even though Gandalf got better, the Balrog still, in effect, killed him. The Great Goblin? He's not a threat to Gandalf. He's practice. In the end, I guess it's somewhat better than in the book where Gandalf shows up and kills the Goblin before he even leaves his throne.
And...I know I'm probably getting myself into hot water here, but...I liked Azog. I thought he was really cool. I know a lot of people hated that he was being brought back from the dead for the sole purpose of giving this first movie its own Big Bad, but I thought he was great. His design looked very sinister, and he was actually more vicious than either Lurtz from Fellowship of the Ring or Gothmog from Return of the King. It helps that he's preying on Dwarves, characters who are much smaller than he is, enhancing his threat level (for instance, he's a huge threat for Thorin, whereas I don't know how long he would've lasted against Aragorn). However, I will concede that his CGI didn't really look so good, especially during the scenes at night. And almost all of the scenes he's in take place during the night.
And now, for the things I specifically hated about the movie.
The pacing. God, the pacing was awful. It took almost 45 minutes before we got out of Hobbiton. And the scene where Gandalf is talking with Galadriel and Saruman dragged everything to a screeching halt. The movie was just overall very slow and you had to wade through the mud to get to the good stuff later on.
The dwarves prancing and singing while washing Bilbo's dishes was just cheesy, and could've easily been cut. In fact, Ori and Bombur could've been excised from the movie completely, and nothing of value would've been lost.
Radagast. What. The. Actual. Hell. Who in their right mind thought that this doofus would be appealing to kids, let alone adults? The bird feces in his hair, those stupid rabbits pulling his stupid sleigh, the stick insect crawling out of his mouth, the hokey acting...everything about him is either revolting or goofy, and all of it sucks. For me, he ranks right up there with Jar Jar Binks, Mudflap & Skids, and Adam Sandler in every one of his roles ever, in terms of sheer wrongness.
The trolls. Not only did they not look good at all, they were also very goofy and not intimidating. And Bilbo getting sneezed on was just not necessary.
Finally, a bigger problem with the movie itself: the action scenes. A lot of them were just thrown in because there needed to be some action to spice things up, which wouldn't have been a problem if the pacing were better. The dwarves fighting the trolls was just there because there hadn't been any action since the movie started (flashbacks don't count). The Wargs attacking the Dwarves on the plains was, again, just there because the audience needed to stay awake. Also, Radagast leading the Wargs away from the Dwarves--yet somehow continuing to circle around in front of the Dwarves---wins the award for Most Nonsensical Chase Scene of the Year.
The Stone Giants looked cool, but that scene overall was just pointless, especially since we know that none of these Dwarves will die or be injured so early on. The escape from Goblin Town was probably the funnest action scene, but there was still something off about it. Maybe it's because I compare it to the escape from the Mines of Moria in Fellowship. The stuff added in that scene helped add to the tension, and the collapsing stairs scene was very intense. Here, though, the stuff added to the scene was just gimmicky and ran on the Rule of Cool, further emphasized when our protagonists somehow survive falling a mile down a ravine--and then having the body of a very large opponent splat directly on top of them. Are any of them hurt? Nope. They're all fine. Nothing more than a few scratches here and there. The final action scene was pretty over-the-top too, while also being very underwhelming. Not a good note to go out on.
And lastly, the Eagles somehow looked even worse here than they did in the first trilogy.
So, yeah. The Hobbit was okay, just not by comparison to what Peter Jackson has done before. I'd still recommend seeing it, though, if just for the Riddles in the Dark scene.
