Saw a midnight showing last night (this morning). Kept my 16 year-old and 14 year-old sons, plus missus, thoroughly entertained for the entire three hours. For me though there was too much that was in line with that dreadful final 30 mins of ROTK (and more dreadful singing too!!).  

Some of the Dwarves just look like humans to me and a lot of the CGI was ropey. Goblin Town was very good, as was Gollum. And the battle scene flashbacks were superb. 'Fraid the new 'albino Lurtz' and talking mountain trolls were meh though imho.  

Still it didn't seem like 3 hours by any stretch and once the adventure starts it was fun. It follows 'King Kong' in that sense if you know what I mean.

Just my humble opinion...

The GW minis though do match the goblins, trolls, dwarves etc absolutely spot on.

just back from the Hobbit. 3 hours 5 mins including humongous amount of adverts.
Continuity from LoTR film good, good background history fill-in which doesn't appear in the book but makes the bigger picture fit better.

Albino goblins meh. Generally useless as they should be. Albino Warg carrying Azog - lots of defective gene therapy going on.

Radaghast the Brown made to be made fun of but no slouch in combat.

Stunning scenery. Riddles in the dark scene excellent.

Several sequencing changes, eg Gandalf not in goblin 'front porch' cave when the rest get captured. Bilbo loses his buttons in a different place....

Stuck in trees scene becomes falling timbers scene which wasn't necessary me thinks.

Still fantastic, go see, would go and see it again.

Mark

Just home from watching the movie.

What can I say.... wow..... WOW..... WOOOOOOOW!!!!!!

Unbelievable.

It’s nothing like the books (which I`m grateful for), because the book hobbit is full of childish wit, double quips, bright coloured fairy tale dwarves and all the elements of a great and classic novel. The film, however, is a mature and highly successful attempt at reaching the fans of the lord of the rings movies with more of the same. If you liked lord of the rings - you`ll like the Hobbit. If you LOVED  lord of the rings you`ll absolutely LOVE the Hobbit. If you hated lord of the rings or were indifferent, you`ll feel pretty much the same way about this movie.

In my opinion, Peter Jackson has done an amazing job at giving us an incredible prequel to the rings trilogy, one which enthrals and entices the viewers to want more (which they will get in part two when it comes out). Much like the Star Wars prequels did for that space opera, PJ`s The Hobbit provides the loyal fans with enriching snippets of earlier times, while successfully maintaining the balance between the book and the cinematic adventure; I absolutely love the foreshadowing of things to come in the rings trilogy. He achieves this with great skill and loyal dedication to the book... or rather books, as the story borrows heavily from unfinished tales and some other works from JRR and Christopher Tolkien`s archive. The whole thing is a perfectly formed tale to excite and tantalise even the most sceptical follower... although I`m sure there will be some who will complain it’s not what they were hoping for.

Personally, I didn`t know how they were going to make the Hobbit come alive, and as a member of the Tolkien Society, I was looking closely for flaws (such as the scouring of the shire which pj left out of the rings entirely); but the movie goes one better, it doesn’t attempt to recreate the book; instead it gives the viewer a modern retelling of a classic tale, sublimely welded to fit seamlessly with the lord of the rings movies.

Six

Start giving it a star rating out of five lads.
You know....1 star ....AWFUL...up to 5 stars ...BRILLIANT.
All the comments seem very positive so far.
You may change my mind about waiting to get the DVD until it drops drastically in price !

Cheers - Phil.

I've seen it, $5 for 24fps 3D.

Looks awesome.

Great song. Great action scenes. Great scenery. Great jokes. Does not feel stretched at all. A very fun movie to watch.

"Every great story deserves embelishment."

Well played Jackson, well played.

But then again, last time I read the book was 4 or 5 years ago.

Booked to see it Christmas Eve. I thought the LoTR films were great so high hopes.
I'll mark it out of five as Techno suggested.

Saw it on Thursday. For me 5 Stars! 

I've every intention of going again over the Holiday period if I get the chance.

I loved it and (apart from the 30 minutes of advertsing crap at the start of the "programme") the time just flew by.

I'm a long-term Tolkien fan who has all the books and regularly re-reads LOTR. I enjoyed Peter Jackson's LOTR as a film trilogy, but was disappointed with ROTK. For me the Hobbit Part 1 was a much better film.

Saw it with my son in HFR 48fps £D and was totally blown away- looked incredible, at times like the actors were in the cinema with us. Also thought the film was fantastic. As Ive previously said in this thread Im not amassive fan of Tolkien, and enjoyed the LOTR films more than the books, and have to say, its the same now with the Hobbit.
I didnt mind the sequencing changes and the addition were good, and i liked the addition of the Orcs tracking Thorins company as it gave the film more urgency and a good degree of tension. Some of the set peices were incredible in 48fps 3d- the escape from Goblin town was jaw dropping.

Want to see it again.

My score- 5. See it in HFR 3d if you get a chance.

Saw it yesterday and thoroughly enjoyed it - time did not drag, parts genuinely funny, others genuinely moving.  Loved the effects, and the clarity of the imagery/photography.  Excellent entertainment.  Doesn't have the grandeur of LOTR, but then neither does the book.  Acting a bit of a mixed bag.  Liked Bilbo and the dwarves, found Gandalf too knowing and sanctimonious by half,  wasn't keen on having Saruman appear so obviously "evil".   Kate Blanchett was on screen far too little - she looked amazing!
4 1/2 stars

Mollinary

Saw it today and as I said I had high hopes.
I have to say I was a bit disappointed. There were a lot of fight sequences where I couldn't really see what was going on, just lots of movement. Dare I mention a lack of credibility in a film of this type? eg surviving some of the falls.
I thought in a film of that length the individual dwarf characters could have been played up a bit. They looked fun but I didn't really get the message on some of them.
Still an excellent film. Definately a must see.
4/5

Did you see it in HFR 48fps Albie because that was one thing that stood out for me- that all the fight scenes were incredibly smooth.

We saw the 2D version. I don't know about fps but it wasn't the clarity of the picture I meant.
As an example some of the fight scenes seemed to be general swishing of blades and random people falling down, or too close-up to see what was happening.

Only the 3D has the HFR option.

Went to see the movie today, was great!


Sadly the theatre only shows in 3D ecxept late in the evening, so had to catch that. I have a bit of problems with fast moving image (like in computer games), and get a little dizzy when i see stuff like that. Luckily it wasn't too bad though

All in all glad i saw it!

Finally saw it last week

4 out of 5 I think.

High points for me (in no order):

The opening 1/2 hour in Bag End.  This scene's much derided by the critics but i though this was really good and i'd have been happy with a bit more.  Even the 'Whistle while you work' singing didn't grate too badly.

Martin Freeman as Bilbo.  Inspired, subtle, elegant performance.  Again, i'd have like to see more of this; like to have seen Martin given time to develop Bilbo a bit more.

The fall of Erebor (and other flashbacks).  Brilliant, and heart rending.  Unlike the book this gives the film context as to why these dwarves are so keen to take on Smaug.

The 'politics' bits with the wizards and Elves.  Went back and watched the 3 LotR films this week and those foreshadowing bits really made me reinterpret parts of the original trilogy.

Gollum - vicious and homicidal in this movie.  Very interesting.

Radagast the brown - alright there were hippy, twee bits (What you didn't realise that 'pipeweed' is actually pot?!?) and Sylvester McCoy went full force for the comedy relief crown, but he made the character seem more a part of the forest than the CGI Treebeard! 


Low points for me (in no order):

Daft voices - the three trolls were incongruous.  the Goblin King was laughable...huge fearsome beast lumbers up through the crowd of mutant goblins, glares at the heroes and then basically says...in his best Kenneth Williams voice 'ooh 'ello!'   

Goblins - Why did they redesign them?!?!  Look like pervy, sweaty, naked mutants.  And the Wargs are now basically wolves.  Fine since the Goblins never actually rode Wargs (and i didn't like that the the LotR trilogy), but then call them wolves like they were in the book and be done with it.

Riddles in the Dark scene - fell flat for me...although i was distracted by the scum-bags noticeably talking about two rows behind me*, so i'm looking forwards to the DVD to rewatch this part in comfort. 

But...the thing that made it 4/5 rather than 5/5 for me was that the film was too epic.  the Hobbit is a small, claustrophobic, intimate little book.  The film should have been too, but instead it has the epic feel of LotR...and for me that, just sort of, jarred...a bit. 


* People who talk, make noise, or other distractions at the cinema should the flayed and dipped in salt.