Originally Posted by
Retalion
From a movie perspective, it was awesome. This was your stereotypical plot about your typical, weak protagonist coming up big and being a hero. I have no problem with that. Just don't do it to The Hobbit.
As some have mentioned above, this turned into a cash grab, and I really felt they could've put the whole book into one movie. I mean, they seriously spent the first hour STILL in Bag End.
Nevermind the reindeer rabbit and the brown wizard and all the other characters who aren't supposed to show up...I had the biggest problem with their "extra" scenes which recast Bilbo as a character who went from inept to heroic, because that's not who Bilbo Baggins is. Bilbo Baggins was NEVER heroic when it came to fighting in the book. He was this reluctant hobbit that was caught in an adventure on a spur of the moment reaction. You could argue that Bilbo Baggins has NO redeeming qualities about him. Everything he does is purely being in the right place at the right time, and he was also a character that for the most part kept the peace. So what's he doing throwing himself at a giant goblin? Makes sense in every stereotypical underdog hero movie, yes. Just not in The Hobbit.
I'm not against movies deviating from the book; I understand that it's necessary at times. However, Tolkien's masterpiece should not be treated like any other Hollywood stereotypical plot. I can live with the Brown Wizard and not Gandalf investigating the Necromancer. I can live with Bilbo falling off a cliff fighting a goblin instead of being dropped. Just don't throw in Bilbo tackling goblins and telling the dwarves that he's doing this "because I want you to get your home back", because that's NOT what the book was about. And don't get me started on this "bounty on Thorin" thing with the addition of this super big bad white goblin as antagonist thing.
I can appreciate all the work that went to pulling bits and pieces from other Tolkien works to extend the film (the Necromancer is actually mentioned in the book, albeit just in passing, and I really enjoyed the beginning, when they started the movie basically at the beginning of the Lord of the Rings before tracking backwards to The Hobbit). However, I just can't say I agree with how they did it. I see from the comments that a lot of people loved the movie (and most of my friends who haven't read the book also loved it), and I can see why. But being a book that I read when I was 9 (and heck, after the movie, I just HAD to go and spend the last 2.5 hours rereading it again) which had many fond childhood memories attached to it, as well as a book I've read multiple times for my degree, I just can't accept what's been done to it. It's like remixing Handel's Messiah in dubstep or something: It might sound and appear cool, but it takes away from the context of what made it great.