Really cool interactive map of Middle Earth.

My wife and I saw The Hobbit this past weekend. It wasn’t horrible; it wasn’t great. Many people had a problem with the video frame rates but that didn’t bother me at all. I thought it looked okay, although a little blurry at times and my wife could see pancake make-up on one of the actors.

By my count, we got through three scenes in the book in 2.5 hours. It was stretched too far for my tastes. A three-part movie for a 200 page children’s book? I thought two-parts would have been fine.

But again, I was mostly entertained until they get trapped with the goblins. The Goblin King reminded me too much of Jar Jar Binks in the Star Wars episodes that must not be named. A bizarre, silly caricature. Goblins in the Lord of The Rings trilogy were fierce creators, albeit ones who died quickly and easily. In Moria, they didn’t have conversations with the Fellowship. They just tried to kill them. In The Hobbit, it was a slow, involved discussion scene, which kind of ruined the movie for me.

I’ll see the next two installments, probably even at the theater. But it won’t have the same meaning to me as Lord of the Rings and may, very well, go to the mental trash heap with those Star Wars episodes I mentioned before.