User blog comment:Rhilowe/The Hobbit (likes,dislikes,review) NO SPOILERS/@comment-5895009-20121230235539/@comment-71.170.36.18-20121231154622

It did remove a lot of the "gritty feel" that LotR had. I think The Hobbit book itself was very different in feel from, especially, the latter two LotR books - much more innocent. And, rightly so, the film keeps most of this. However, I appreciate the balancing act of the movie between the book's atmosphere and the need to bridge it with the LotR movies' feel. Fortunately, when I first read the books, I read The Hobbit before the others, which helped lead into the new mood of LotR (The Fellowship makes a nice transition between the Hobbit and the others). If I had read them the other way around, I would have been surprised by the great difference in tone.