I didn't come out of this film head over heels like I had hoped to be. I was hoping for it to be a more linear telling of The Hobbit. I feel like Peter Jackson cheapened the entirety of The Hobbit, throwing in all of the extended storylines and all the business at the beginning. I feel like Jackson is so desperate to overhwhelm the rest of the world with the same love for Tolkien that he has that he overdoes it and almost completely misses the point. I thought that the beginning of The Hobbit was supposed to be where we see just how simple Bilbo's life is and that we have absolutely no idea what to expect from the world outside The Shire until Thorin & Co. arrives. Instead, the beginning of the film is filled with a mess of all of this backstory and these great ancient tales. In short, Jackson is a show off and I feel like it detracted from the experience I had hoped to have.

(SPOILER)I hate, hate, hate, hate haaaaaaaate that we caught a glimpse of Smaug not once but TWICE before his time in the story. Absolutely mortified. The first time, it must have been thirty seconds into the start of the film! Why, why would they do that! The second appearance was more in line with traditional cinema, but it still bothered me because we had already seen him once before. Why wouldn't they save the best part? I don't understand.

I liked it for what it was. I liked the story and (most) of the events that happened and I would have liked it a lot more if it stood on it's own without having been based on a book. Martin Freeman's performance was astounding. I had just hoped for something more along the lines of the book without a bunch of extra crap added, but I suppose that was too much to ask for because Peter Jackson doesn't do "simple" when it comes to Tolkien.

Additionally, there is absolutely no need for three films to tell this story. Could have been done in two, imo.