John Gesselberty

The movie is quite good. But, if you want the Hobbit, read the book. So much is drawn from other works and from brief references in the actual book and fleshed out by these movies. To make the rather brief Hobbit a trilogy, when LOTR was given only three movies to tell a much more complex story, just makes no sense, other than to make a buck.

This movie gets just about everything right. I came across it by accident, but was enthralled by it. Without giving away the plot, it is the riveting story of a family in crisis. There is so much love that it only tends to amplify the situation. The acting, the story line, even the subtle music brings it all together. You are drawn into the world of one man's mind and his struggle with what is and is not real. I highly recommend it.

Not one of the Muppet crew's better efforts. It is amusing and watchable, but the effort at parody of science fiction movies pales by comparison with their other movies. They relied heavily on cameo appearances, and the funk soundtrack was only effective for the 90s and aged quickly, unlike their ageless musicals. In concentrating on the story of Gonzo, they tended to ignore the classic Muppet characters that are their real strength. Those familiar characters became little more than the human cameos. It was easy to lose interest as the movie progressed.

A lot of potential unrealized. They had the cast. They had the story line. They had decent effects (actually pretty convincing dragons). But, the narrative drags and becomes tedious. It's worth a watch, but you can multi-task while doing so. Best line: "Only one thing worse than a dragon; an American."