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Jackson's vision of The Hobbit was fully entertaining and a fun film. I enjoyed it. Although there we some issues with some material which could have been left out, overall and excellent film and enjoyable.Jackson's Thorin here fits better than Tolkien's. Instead of a curmudgeonly greedy and rude dwarf Armitage's Thorin was a flawed hero. He was dismissive of Bilbo in the early going, which was spot on and came to embrace him (literally) at the end. I though the scene with Bilbo coming to his aid a bit over the top but not so much so that I didn't enjoy it. Jackson had to add it and I'm glad he did. I really think the end of film 3 is going to show Jackson's wisdom in having the audience more emotionally engaged with the Thorin/Bilbo relationship. The scene after the Battle of Five armies in the 3rd film should be absolutely emotionally pounding. I can't wait to see it.Freeman's Bilbo also outstanding. Freeman played him exactly as he should be. Clumsy with the sword (those scenes I just loved) and a reluctant yet curious adventurer. The Riddle in the Dark scene with Serkis's Gollum were great. There should be an academy award for that scene somehow. The scene where Bilbo finally makes a decision about Gollum while leaving the cave was done perfectly. This is going to resonate and make future viewings of the LOTR series better. Gandalf's talk to Frodo in Moria about the sparing of Gollum will be even better now. I did feel some scenes unnecessary. The rock giants didn't nee to be there. I know it was put in for fun and was a backdrop for Thorin's dimissiveness of Bilbo, that could have been handled elsewhere. Also although I know Jackson was tying the film to LOTRO with the bit between Frodo and Ian Holme's Bilbo, that also really wasn't needed. I think about 1/2 of this film could have been trimmed so I gave it some lower marks for editing.The whole film was entertaining though and I recommend the IMAX 3D format. I saw it in HFR 3D the next day. I enjoyed it but liked the IMAX version better.
