A Hobbit leaves the comfort of the Shire to accompany a dozen dwarves and a Wizard on a quest for gold.

Fun, and with incredible effects, but way overly long for the story it gave. I could have done without the goblin song, and the rock giant battle, which I always took to be metaphorical, as it doesn't fit into the Middle-Earth mythology. I also don't know if the Azog story was necessary, though it added another dimension to the story.

A good beginning, but stretched way too thin.

I liked the movie again, but it's certainly not my favorite of all time. Too many scenes feel like filler. But the acting is top-notch, and I really like the song the dwarves sing, repeated even better in the end credits. The music really stands out, as I also enjoy listening to the soundtrack.

Definitely worth seeing, and full of action, but so many of the scenes seemed overly-long, especially the fights and the riddle-game. I still don't know why this book had to be turned into three movies. Still, the music was great, as were the effects, and there is a lot of really good stuff here.

The movie was faithful to the book, and was visually spectacular, like the Lord of the Rings. But I wonder, as I have all along, if they really needed three movies to tell this tale. This, the first, movie, feels padded. It was really nice to see the White Council, and some of the details expanded upon in Unfinished Tales. But I would have cut a lot of other material out. The first thing to go should have been the rock monsters, which I've always taken to be a fantasy way of explaining a thunderstorm. The fight in the goblin caves also went on for too long. People who didn't read the novel probably thought the riddles went on for too long, but I think it was about right (they already removed some of the riddles). The Trolls were fun, but I have trouble seeing how the debate lasted all night, as Bilbo hadn't even gone to bed, yet. I really liked the way Bilbo redeemed himself with Thorin at the end. Finally, why did so many of the dwarves look human?