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Originally Posted by Serendipity
I found it pretty funny, especially since it was Barry Humphries doing the voice work.
For the tone complainers - LOTR had some minor pacing problems and it seems time has forgiven that. The Hobbit isn't as serious so you will have more kid-friendly/family focused humor. I don't know what people want. The beginning of LOTR back in The Shire is light hearted as well up until the ring comes back into play. These films are a showing of how everything was up to that point.
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Difference being that we expect Hobbits to be lighthearted and make jokes and dance and sing and generally make wee asses of themselves.
I don't expect Sauron or Saruman to make silly jokes or appear goofy. I expect villains and evil, especially in this universe, to be serious, scary, and perilous. The Goblin King, though he might partake in a small level of merriment, should temper that merriment with more serious, dour humor (which he does in his song, briefly, so I didn't mind that portion). "Bring out the Bone Breaker!" is funny and great, "That'll do it." is terrible. Two different tones and personalities for the same character.
Perhaps it wasn't so much the fact that he made a dumb joke, but the fact that he made a dumb joke right after Gandalf just basically gutted him ear to ear without any effort. It not only made the Goblin King unbelievable as a leader (How could he lead a whole Goblin nation if he was so poor at defending himself?), but also took some steam out of Gandalf, in that an opportunity was lost here to see Gandalf and the Goblin King duke it out, even if for only a minute.
Essentially, it deflated the entire moment. The dwarves and Gandalf work to make this grand escape and are confronted with this giant (approximately) 2 ton goblin leader, and he's dispatched with barely a blink of an eye between confrontation and execution. How is that exciting? How does that ratchet up tension, stakes, or engage the audience?
It doesn't. That's why the scene sucked, because all tension was removed from everything that occurred previously in the entire Goblin scene. Subsequently, we had the Riddles in the Dark scene which honestly would have been perceived better than it was had the Goblin scene retained its tension and menace.
I'm hoping the EE helps remedy some of this, though I won't hold my breath.