An Unexpected Journey, or the morning after

[Aganzir]

First off a warning: this thread is for discussing the film after seeing it, so it will contain spoilers.

I went to the premiere last night. I had very low expectations, so I was positively surprised, but I can't really decide which one was better, or worse, The Hobbit or the LOTR trilogy. As the Telegraph critic cited in Three Times The Hobbit thread said, it is like butter scraped on too much bread.

I liked the beginning - the fall of the Mountain, Bilbo and Gandalf's meeting (and dialogue), and the 13 dwarves (Fili ftw!). It would've been more beautiful if they had gone for an "In a hole in the ground, there lived a hobbit" beginning, but I certainly didn't mind seeing the Lonely Mountain either.
I found the Bilbo & dwarves part pleasantly Tolkien-esque. It didn't stray too far from the atmosphere of the book, and even though the dwarves were silly at times, they weren't too much of a joke.

It was a good film until the appearance of the trolls. After that, it got confusing, as if that was the point up to which they had been following Tolkien and after that they wanted to spice things up of their own accord. I kind of understand the Azog thing because it gives the orcs a real reason to pursue Thorin's company - but "they killed our king" would also have been sufficient, and I got bored watching the orcs chase Radagast. And the rabbit sled, really? The elves coming to the rescue was also totally lame.

Rivendell was another confusing part. I seriously couldn't see what reason Elrond would have for not wanting the dwarves to get the Mountain back from the dragon. It's a freaking dragon! They're never up to good, and at least I would be grateful if somebody else wanted to do away with it. Basically what we got here was Galadriel and Gandalf plotting behind Saruman's back - at a time when he was still to be trusted - and no dwarves, except breaking furniture and leaving all of a sudden, leaving Gandalf behind just for the heck of it.

The stone giant battle lost its awe-inspiring quality because it was way too long. Does PJ want to send every hobbit home at some point? And before they met the Goblin King, I half-expected him to turn out to be Azog, and I'm happy that wasn't the case. He was a sympathetic fellow, really. But the battle and the escape were too long too. It would've been so much better - and scarier - if the pursuit had been more like how Tolkien wrote it. And when Gandalf and the Goblin King are standing on the bridge, you can't really help noticing all the similarities between LOTR and this even if you've been trying to ignore them before - the structure of the story is so blatantly similar (which is not the case in the books)! Gollum was okay though.

The final battle wasn't very interesting (or believable) either. Except when Thorin faced Azog, which was unnecessary and crude but still made me squeal a little bit inside. Did they only do it so Bilbo could save his life though? Sigh. And the eagles looked lousy.

I enjoyed it while I was watching it, and I am relieved it was better than it could have been, but it was badly cut and not very interesting - there's too much seemingly random stuff for it to be coherent.