"The Hobbit" movie review

    Well, to get started, Peter Jackson's "The Hobbit"  was no Lord of the Rings, but it definitely holds its own. Like much of America, I was anxiously anticipating this movie's release, and the nostalgia that came with it. Unfortunately I had some reserves after seeing the first trailers for the movie and reading interviews. I was worried that because special effects are overused ridiculously these days, that The Hobbit would fall into the same trap. In the Lord of the Rings, Peter Jackson perfectly integrated realism and CGI, creating a world that was at times difficult to tell what was fake and what was an actual set that had been built by the crew. I regret to say that I had no problem deciphering the difference between what was real and what was fake in The Hobbit. I attribute the overuse of cgi partly to the fact that Jackson was hesitant to return to The Lord of the Rings and direct the Hobbit trilogy. Because the first three films were so time consuming and exhausting, he may have slacked off a tad by using oodles of cgi instead of building more sets and putting some real elbow grease into the project.
      The movie did not have the same feel as the other Lord of the Rings movies, and they put the characters into situations you wouldn't have even dreamed of putting the characters in The Lord of the Rings trilogy through. I thought Richard Armitage, the actor who played Thorin, was a little disappointing. I didn't take very many of his serious moments seriously. And for those of you who have read the book, I had wished that Thorin's great beard was a little more....well....there. And was the cgi Pale Orc really necessary? He wasn't in the book, and I was not fooled by the special effects even once.  Something everyone could do at the end of the Fellowship of the Ring was look at all of the characters and know them by name. I could not for the life of me look at each of the dwarfs in this movie and name them all after watching it for the first time. I saw this movie in both 3d and 2d, and I have to say I that I did not think that it mattered much which version you saw it in. There seemed to be quite simply too much going on in the movie at once. BUT, having said all of that, If you are still reading this review, (which may be questionable if you were a die hard fan of the movie with absolutely no issues with it) I would like to say that the CGI was the biggest problem I had with the movie. Other than that, this movie screamed the Hobbit, and no one else could have done it better than Jackson. Thank the Lord that Guillermo Del Toro did not stay on to direct this movie or we would have gotten another Don't be Afraid of the Dark, or some kind of strange shout out to his one hit Pan's Labyrinth.
      I Loved returning to Hobbiton and having our good old Gandalf back! The Music for the movie was amazing, provided by the always excellent Howard Shore. He provided us with a  new theme that we may all hum when our days get boring and lacking in adventure. Martin Freeman did a wonderful job playing Bilbo, and I cannot wait to see where the other two movies take us. The story has been superbly set up to make way for the next  movie in the trilogy.  Despite the overuse of special effects, this movie will deliver the joy and adventure that has been greatly anticipated for so long. Bring on The Desolation of Smaug!