I know people in general think the start of this film-basically everything prior to the Misty Mountains-is too slow and padded beyond what it should. I disagree. I think the first hour, hour fifteen minutes of this film is of the same quality as the LOTR. I wish the rest of the Hobbit films were as good as cinema and as thoughtful as adaptation as the first half. Instead the Hobbit series gets very action-y and very Hollywood after that point.
The central flaw of the series goes back to the texts they are working with. The Hobbit novel has two aspects of it that make a post-LOTR film awkward. First the final quarter of the novel is *exceptionally* dark and this darkness isn't really set-up in the novel. Second, the Hobbit text doesn't flow organically into the LOTR. (Tolkien himself rewrote a key chapter after LOTR was published) Jackson and company had to decide if they were going to adapt the Hobbit or try to rework the material to flow better with their wildly successful film series. They chose the later for mixed results.
The films are overextended-especially action scenes-and the Hobbit text gets mangled. But the films work well enough on their own terms and as preludes to the better LOTR that they are worth owning.
This is in large part because the formal elements of filmmaking-but in particular the design work-are all top notch. Likewise the cast-McKellen and Freeman are their characters-paper over a lot of the warts of the screenplay.
The central flaw of the series goes back to the texts they are working with. The Hobbit novel has two aspects of it that make a post-LOTR film awkward. First the final quarter of the novel is *exceptionally* dark and this darkness isn't really set-up in the novel. Second, the Hobbit text doesn't flow organically into the LOTR. (Tolkien himself rewrote a key chapter after LOTR was published) Jackson and company had to decide if they were going to adapt the Hobbit or try to rework the material to flow better with their wildly successful film series. They chose the later for mixed results.
The films are overextended-especially action scenes-and the Hobbit text gets mangled. But the films work well enough on their own terms and as preludes to the better LOTR that they are worth owning.
This is in large part because the formal elements of filmmaking-but in particular the design work-are all top notch. Likewise the cast-McKellen and Freeman are their characters-paper over a lot of the warts of the screenplay.