The Hobbit Movie Release Date and Review: AP Says Hobbit is Lame

Culture

Fresh off a string of controversies, including a potential boycott by PETA for alleged animal mistreatment and a lawsuit from J.R.R.Tolkien’s estate, Peter Jackson's The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey — the first installment of The Hobbit trilogy (and prequel to the legendary The Lord of the Rings) to be premiered on December 14 — is facing its first reviews ... and they're not so kind. 

The Associated Press' review, "'The Hobbit' suffers from story bloat," says Jackson's The Lord of the Rings prelude is "stuffed" with Hollywood's latest technology that both "dazzles" and "utterly distracts" (queue the 48 frames-a-second projection rate that it's reportedly making people literally sick). 

The AP continues: "[The Hobbit] it's also overstuffed with, well, stuff. Prologues and sidestepping backstory. Long, boring councils among dwarves, wizards and elves. A shallow blood feud extrapolated from sketchy appendices to J.R.R. Tolkien's "The Lord of the Rings" to give the film a bad guy."

To be fair, the folks at the AP admit the limitations of reviewing an epic trilogy solely based on its first installment. However, it's possible this film — with all its criticism and controversy — may well be suffering from 'David and Goliath' syndrome: a mediatic (and sometimes idiotic) illness that prompts "haters to hate" movies only because they are huge blockbusters (and conversely love small-budget productions which they see as the underdog).