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Now, read all of this before you fanboys start raging. Try and think of logical reasons on how I'm wrong.
Goofy Humor:
One of the film's real low-points is how cringe-inducingly goofy a lot of its humour is, often feeling strangely enough like a pantomime, indulging itself in witless sight gags and dialogue that feels horribly misplaced in a property that usually prides itself on its intelligence. Most of this occurs at the beginning when we're introduced to the dwarves; they have pratfalls, they make a mess in Bilbo's home, and they basically act like loons. Then there's the instance later on in Rivendell, when one of the dwarves is served up fresh greens to eat, appears disgusted, and asks "Do you have any chips?". It's supposed to be funny but it's a distractingly cringey line that just pulls us out of the story. Is the lightness of the adventure not enough? Does Jackson need to inundate us with these corny gags as well?
The Dwarves:
Given that there are thirteen dwarves in The Hobbit, finding an economic way to introduce them to us is paramount, yet despite his 169-minute runtime, Jackson apparently can't figure out a way to do it. When we first meet them at Bilbo's home, we spend a while with them yet we're not really allowed to distinguish between them or get to know their personalities, apart from the leader, Thorin, whose back-story is shown in a flashback. In fact, given that we know what happens to Bilbo, Gandalf and Gollum post-Hobbit, they're really the only characters whose fates we can actually get concerned about at least for those of us who haven't read the book yet when we can't even remember their names or know much about them, it doesn't promote that sort of investment.
The similar look of many of the dwarves also doesn't help all that much, and that, combined with the lack of character development really makes it hard to tell the difference between them. But then if they were developed, the film would probably be five hours long.
Contrived Narrative
Here's one aspect that at least in Jackson's version of The Hobbit really doesn't feel up to scratch as far as The Lord of the Rings is concerned. The story relies on an awful lot of convenience during key moments, usually during the middle of action sequences when Gandalf shows up and kicks ass (notably when he turns the trolls to stone, and again when he kills a fleet of goblins using his powers). Though some might see the term "walking deus-ex machina" as a bit flippant given that Gandalf is basically a God and he's treated the same way in Tolkein's novels, it does fast become predictable how often he seems to just swoop in and save the day when the chips are down, primarily because his absences really set this sort of thing up.
Also, in the climactic action sequence when the dwarves, Bilbo and Gandalf are stuck up a tree hanging off the edge of a cliff, a gang of giant eagles swoop in out of nowhere with no explanation given and save the day. The fact that it wasn't telegraphed in the slightest or even explained is a tad frustrating, but then Rings fans are so immersed in the universe by this point that they'll probably just roll with it anyway.
It's Too Damn Long
It's the most predictable complaint to make but it's also the most true, that The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey is just too freaking long. Running at a meaty 169-minutes, there are plenty of ways for films to justify such an expansive runtime, but Peter Jackson in no way achieves this; it takes 50 minutes for Bilbo and company just to leave the Shire, and given how much exposition and tomfoolery is indulged in before that, it seems clear that he could have got through this portion in around half the time. So much of the plot feels like filler at least speaking as someone not especially acquainted with the novel that the film could easily have run in at around a far more reasonable 120 minutes and probably not lost all that much as a result. The pacing is slack, which is part of the problem; it doesn't even feel that eager to get its story moving.
There's so much in the film that feels like it could have been left for the Extended Edition Blu-Ray, specifically a lot of the Rivendell sequence, in which we get pretty perfunctory cameos from Elrond, Galadriel and Saruman. It is a case of Peter Jackson indulging himself as much as possible, and also exploiting his fanbase's apparently insatiable need for as much material from this universe as possible, whether it's great or not. Will fans backlash? We'll have to wait and see.