Warning: Spoilers, you fools!
It's not that it's too long - nearly three hours worth of storytelling is perfectly acceptable for a good movie - it's that it quite simply hasn't got enough stuff to fill such a big gap. So, instead, it pads itself out with long lingering looks or dwarves singing or slow-mo fight scenes or shots of mountains... You see, The Hobbit is a short book really, compared to The Lord Of The Rings, and it's a 'small-scale' story. There's plenty here that would be cut if the plan was a two-film tale as opposed to the trilogy we've got ahead of us - and it'd be cut because it's no good. It's filler, not killer. Dull. Maybe it worked in the book but on the screen it's just there because it is. But, somewhere in there, there's a few bits and pieces that make you go all wibbly inside and remind us why LOTR was such fun!
