(Note: I'll let the mods in question decide how spoiler-iffic this is ... the book has been available for more than 70 years.)

"The Hobbit part 1: an unexpected journey" opening night observations:

-How good to see Ian Holm, Elijah Wood, Ian McKellan, Hugo Weaving, Christopher Lee, Andy Serkis, and Cate Blanchett again.

-Galadriel looks even more lovely, if that is possible.

-Saruman looks even more wise and devious, if that is possible.

-Scenery as usual is stunning.

-Galadriel and Elrond have new crowns.

-Thorin Oakenshield has a brighter Galadriel-light in his eye highlights than Galadriel does. Was this intentional?

-The dwarf with the axe in his head wasn't as noticeable as I'd thought. If I hadn't read about it in advance, it might have slipped past me. Part of that also is that the action was very swift.

-Some of the old Dwarves looked a little too like a caricature with heavy, heavy makeup, whereas the youngest Dwarves looked a little too human or Elvish with so little makeup. It's hard to find a balance, maybe.

-Bilbo's new actor nailed it.

-Thorin's actor nailed it.

-They make a good team as the prissy, whiny jerk and the bitter, condescending jerk who soften each others' sharp edges.

-Balin's actor nailed it as the fellow who has seen it all and keeps on plodding anyway.

In order of the plot:

-The Kingdom under the Mountain is (mostly) superb. There were a few small scenes of twee, but nothing achingly so.

-The Kingdom of Dale is reminiscent of Gondor. Maybe that can't be helped, as it was made of stone. Based on the geography, I expected Dale to be more Polish/Slavic.

-The film claims that Thranduil had an army on the scene when Smaug came but refused to use it. Compare to the books where the Elves weren't in the area. (Recall that it took Thranduil 3-5 days to get help to Lake-town, and that was a lot closer.)

-Thranduil does look like the father of Legolas, with the exception that I don't recall Legolas riding a reindeer. If reindeer have horns that look like the leaves of a table.

-The Arkenstone was ... odd. Odder than a disco glitterball. Think the Marvel film "The Avengers" ... something as bright and erratic as Loki's shimmering blue Tesseract and scepter-bulb, and you've got the general idea. I always figured the Arkenstone should be a spherical diamond with a touch of inner light. (Which makes sense if it drifted through the path of Maedhros' Silmaril during its formation, then came up in the Erebor kimberlite pipe. The Erebor pipe produced the Arkenstone; the Khazad-dum pipe produced mithril.)

-How Thorin got the surname Oakenshield is explained and illustrated, but the order of events is reversed. In the books, Thror and a great army win Moria but cannot hold it, so his people go to Erebor. Then Thror goes to Moria alone after losing Erebor to Smaug, and dies alone. In the film, Thror and the survivors of Erebor make their one and only journey to Moria, where they fight and win (pyrrhic victory) the Battle of Dimrill Dale/Moria. Thror dies during this great battle.

-In the book, Dain Ironfoot gets credit for killing Azog, a dangerous Orc/goblin. In the film, Dain is portrayed as a coward who won't help Thorin even though Dain has an army at his back. Also, nobody kills Azog.

-I guess that means a change of origin for Bolg, which unless they can think of something worse than his real origin might be just as well. The LOTR orcs don't do dynasties. Can you imagine Lurtz with a son? A son who would care enough to avenge him? A son he didn't eat? Didn't think so.

-Azog is portrayed as an albino, with an albino wolf. He also has a Captain Hook thing going, using a weapon where his missing hand would be.

-Gandalf doesn't give Bilbo as hard a time in the film when they meet, but his scary eyeball in the window makes up for that.

-Gandalf doesn't scratch the paint on Bilbo's door, which in the book used to exercise Bilbo inordinately.

-The dwarves arrive in time for supper rather than brunch.

-They eat Bilbo out of house and home. The book mentions that he has multiple pantries and that while they cleaned out the goodies, there was more than enough for Bilbo to have breakfast and second breakfast the next morning.

-Bilbo doesn't shriek like a teakettle; he justs faints.

-The contract is not his idea. This is a big deal in the book, as his insistence on a written contract establishes his "business manner, usually reserved for people who try to borrow money off him." This business manner returns in the book when he confronts Bard and Thranduil, explaining in impeccably polite language that he thinks all three kings want a sound spanking.

-The Dwarves sing when they toss the plates.

-They sing in the darkness about their land "far over the Misty Mountains tall."

-In the book the Dwarves trash Bilbo behind his back. It's Gloin, Gimli's father, who breaks the rules and challenges him to his face. In the film, Thorin says to his face that he thinks Bilbo can't do the job. Gandalf tells Thorin to stop being a baby.

-Bilbo doesn't sign the contract until late in the film. In the book, he didn't have to; it was as much a bid as a contract.

-Bilbo's look of regret when he realizes the dwarves left without him is retained from the book, and believable.

-Gandalf doesn't nudge Bilbo out of the door. ("But!" / "No time for it." / "But!" / "No time for that either. Off you go." It is not there, and is much missed.)

-Bilbo tells people he is going on an adventure. In the book, he links adventures to both danger and disgrace. Pardon the metaphor, but in the book Bilbo would no more tell people that he is going on an adventure than he would go streaking around Bywater. It's just not done, dearie!

-The dwarves place cash bets on whether Bilbo will join them. Gandalf collects, as do the few dwarves who trusted his instincts.

-Fili and Kili are prounced Filly and Killy, rather than Feely and Keely.

-Bilbo's motives and methods for confronting the trolls are changed. Fili and Kili see trolls taking their ponies, send Bilbo ahead, and sound the alarm when the Burglar fails to retrieve their ponies. Also, the ponies must be mutes; they don't scream their pony heads off and wake up the whole mountainside.

-Every dwarf comes in fighting the trolls, and yes, they do fight like mad when cornered. The trolls grab Bilbo and threaten to draw and quarter him unless the dwarves surrender. The look on Thorin's face when he orders the others to drop their weapons bespeaks thoughts not lawful to be uttered.

-Half of the dwarves are on a spit over the fire.

-Bilbo tries to stall the trolls by giving them tips on the correct way to cook dwarves. This stalls the trolls nicely (replacing Gandalf's ventriloquism), but as Bilbo seems not to have noticed, it didn't stall the fire over which the dwarves were roasting!

-The trolls do indeed seem very human-like, unlike the LOTR trolls. At least they don't use names, though. (They are credited with the Bert, Tom, and William names in the credits.

-Gandalf brings out the sun a little early by splitting a rock that shades the troll-den. The effect when they turn to stone was well done.

-Thorin doesn't want to take Orcrist when he learns that Elves made it. Gandalf tells him to stop being a baby.

-The Dwarves are attacked by wargs and riders, before they reach Rivendell.

-Twice.

-This happens in the books ... zero times.

-Bilbo gets his first kill against a warg. In the books his first kill is a giant spider in Mirkwood (in the next movie, supposedly).

-The point is made several times that someone is stalking Thorin and company. Thorin insists that they told nobody except other Dwarves. Whoever it was who did snitch is never explained.

-Radagast. Sigh. Radagast! Tolkien created him as a sort of St. Francis of Assisi figure. Granted, Francis was a touch different, but I'm pretty sure he wasn't ditzy. Saruman says it comes from Radagast having eaten too many "special" mushrooms.

-Also, when St. Francis needed to go somewhere, he used a horse, or at least a donkey or mule. Radagast, an angel of Valinor gets ... a bunny sled. I think the bunny sled was added just to see if they could do it. (The film-makers, that is.) Not even a dog-sled, mind ... a bunny sled.

-Besides, the book version of Fellowship of the Ring says plainly that when Radagast went looking for Gandalf, Radagast had a horse.

-Radagast finds many dead and dying animals in his realm. As he uses magic to try to save a baby porcupine, his home is attacked by giant spiders. When he puts forth his power to save the animal, the spiders retreat. He follows them to their lair and realizes that they came from Dol Guldur to assassinate him.

-Major cool points, though, to Radagast for braving Dol Guldur without backup, fighting a Ringwraith without backup, and bringing a Wraith-sword to Gandalf as proof that the Necromancer is not some Uncle-Andrew-of-London playing at magic but a real Jadis.

-The Dwarves are rescued from the second non-canonical warg-and-rider attack by Elrond's Elves. Everyone except Gandalf and Bilbo are ticked: the Dwarves for being rescued by Elves, the Elves that the Dwarves are orc-magnets, and the orcs for displeasing Azog the Albino.

-Elrond's lieutenant could be one of his sons. If he isn't, he looks like one. Alternately, it could be Figwit. I didn't catch his name.

-Elrond is orc-hunting. In the books, his sons do that; he's a stay-at-home dad and a schoolteacher, so to speak.

-There are no singing Elves.

-There is a flute-playing Elf. Just for an instant, I almost thought "harem." Just an odd vibe that didn't have a better word for it. They were teasing the Dwarves with the flute, though.

-The Dwarves are stymied by the vegetable fare, whining that they don't eat green food. They barbecue the romaine lettuce and do end up eating something, at least.

-Elrond offers to look at the map. Thorin doesn't want his dirty Elf-germs on his heirloom map. Gandalf tells him to stop being a baby.

-Gandalf is dragged to a staff meeting with Elrond, Saruman, and Galadriel. During this time, Gandalf and Galadriel repeatedly do the telepathic equivalent of passing secret notes between their desks while the teacher Saruman is lecturing.

-Unlike in the books, Saruman declares that Sauron can't come back; therefore whatever happened in Dol Guldur must have had nothing to do with him. In the books Saruman knows well that Sauron can grow back without a body, but that it will take longer. The film gives the impression that Saruman isn't stalling but really doesn't believe it.

-Of course Saruman doesn't believe it because he does not respect the source, Radagast. But when Gandalf produces the Wraith-sword, Saruman says he doesn't recognize it.

-The Dwarves, still ticked off at all Elves everywhere-ever-ever, slip out of Rivendell during the White Council Staff Meeting, with no ponies, no wizard, and no supplies but what they can carry.

-Galadriel detects their departure, confronts Gandalf, but doesn't snitch.

-The Dwarves wander into the thunder-battle in the Misty Mountains. This takes the form of actual stone giants punching each other in the head. They're bigger and tougher than Voltron could handle, but the Marvel Comic Avengers could probably take them.

-At one point the Dwarves realize they are not in an earthquake; they're in a stone giant's lap. They escape to find themselves on a stone giant's chest.

-The cave is quiet without any ponies. Bilbo tries to leave when he thinks everyone is asleep. When asked why by the watchman, he says he belongs at home. This wounds the Dwarves, because they don't have a home.

-The capture is more believable, what with a trapdoor in the bottom rather than the side. That is, any trap-door is a little unbelievable, but the bottom-drop allows the orcs to capture the entire party at once.

-Bilbo is overlooked in the melee by lying on the floor in a little ball. He is charged by a straggler orc. Both fall into a crevice, which is conveniently over Gollum's realm.

-Gollum hears the two drop and comes forth to claim the dying Orc as crunchable-lunchable. The orc struggles before Gollum bashes its head in. In the struggle, Gollum's ring falls out of the rags of his loincloth.

-Bilbo picks up the ring, pockets it, and follows Gollum, presumably because Bilbo can't fly so Gollum's way must be the way out. It is Bilbo's choked sound of disgust that alerts Gollum that there is more prey.

-The Great Goblin is ugly as all-get-out, but witty. If Orcs could read, I'd say this guy reads the newspaper, including the editorials pages.

-The Great Goblin says there's a price on Thorin's head. He tells a mini-me to slide down a zip-line to tell some other orc about the capture. This implies that The Great Goblin isn't really in charge here; Azog is.

-I could do without the Great Goblin having hairy nipples, though. If this bugs you, don't go to the 3-D showing.

-Which reminds me: Orcrist and Glamdring glow every now and then, when someone remembers that they're supposed to glow. Sting glows brightly, every time. When Gollum kills the Orc, Sting sputters and goes out like a light-bulb.

-Gandalf rescues Thorin & Co. with his usual flash-bang attack. The Dwarves fight their way out. (Compare to the book, in which Thorin and Gandalf do the fighting so that the others can escape.)

-The bridge fall was wince-inducing. Not just for the implausibility of it, but because Gandalf now doesn't get credit for killing the Great Goblin as in the book. The big guy dies by falling down a big hole instead.

-Since Bilbo was separated right from the start and never even got counted by the Great Goblin's troops, there are no scenes of any Dwarves carrying him.

-Gandalf never gets into an argument about looking for Bilbo, as nobody thinks he was left behind. Bilbo said he wanted to go home, and they are convinced that that's exactly what he did.

-The riddles-in-the-dark scene was excellent, but too short! This is meant in a good way.

-Andy Serkis turns in his usual enthusiastic performance. Both of his personalities, that is. Smeagol likes having someone to talk to, even though he agrees with Gollum that they will eat this fellow in the end.

-Bilbo's temptation to kill Gollum and temptation overcome are well-played. The look on his face and the look on Gollum's face are gorgeous.

-The reunion scene being rushed, Bilbo doesn't get to prank poor Balin.

-The wargs and goblins immediately pursue. In the book, there is a long journey to tire out the heroes first.

-Azog the Albino leads the pursuit. The Dwarves promptly swarm the trees. These wargs don't know that dogs can't climb trees; they get about 3 branches up, on average. Bilbo climbs higher than that.

-The wargs then push down the pine trees. I realize that wargs are heavier than wolves, but I doubt even wargs are stronger than, say, Arnold Schwarzenegger in his prime. If the Hulk were in this movie, that's okay, but the wargs pushing over 5+ pine trees was just funky.

-As the trees domino, the Dwarves run to the top to get into the next tree. Maybe they're part squirrel? They all end up in the last tree, which teeters over a cliff.

-After they're falling off the cliff, Gandalf gets the idea to light the pine cones. None of the wargs catch fire, not really.

-Azog gives Thorin a taunting die-die-die look. Thorin being Thorin, he climbs out of the tree and charges across the burning field toward Azog. Azog spanks him really hard.

-When Thorin is defenseless on the ground and barely conscious, Bilbo climbs out of the tree, charges across the burning field, and notches his second noncanonical kill by slaying Thorin's would-be executioner (not Azog, just an orc-lackey).

-Seeing this, all of the Dwarves climb out of the tree, charge across the burning field, and fight really hard.

-The Eagles rescue them. They don't take them to their lair, but they do take them across the Anduin.

-Gandalf heals Thorin a little. Thorin cusses out Bilbo in G-rated cussin' language about how dummy-dumb-dumb that was, and I want to reach your brain/where is it currently located, etc.

-Bilbo says he realized that he has a home and they don't, so he wants to help them get their home back. (Cue *awwww*). Thorin apologizes. (Cue *awwww*).

-In the distance they see the Lonely Mountain. It doesn't look volcano-ey to me, more like earthquake-upthrust, but what do I know. As long as it has a kimberlite pipe, that's all that matters, I suppose.

-End of film.

...

Verdict: the book was a Bildunsroman, a coming-of-age story for Bilbo, not Gandalf-and-the-Elven-Avengers. I've always said that if padded material is any good, it deserves its own film, and if it's not good, it shouldn't be in any film. I still wish that Bilbo's story was contained in one film, but this wasn't as non-canonical as I dreaded. Wish it were better, glad it's not worse, and whatever else I'd think, I couldn't have done it myself.

I'm glad I saw the half-price matinee though.

I got to see the Hobbit at the midnight showing lost night with 2 of my brothers and my sister-in-law. I saw it in normal 2D 24fps.
Here is my mostly spoiler free review.

I will start off by saying that this movie is NOT the Lord of the Rings. And neither is it mean't to be. And seeing as that in my opinion the LOTR are the best films ever made, they couldn't measure up to them even if they were trying to.

That said I REALLY liked this movie. Peter Jackson was able to almost perfectly capture the adventurous, funny and slightly silly spirit of the book. There are some huge changes but none of them mess up the overall story being told.

Things I Loved:

The Actors:
Martin Freeman playing Bilbo was absolutely perfect! He wonderfully plays Bilbo's reluctance to be caught up on such a nasty thing as an adventure and his random acts of unexpected courage. And he is very funny.
Richard Armatige who plays Thorin is also great. He plays the brave, noble, jerk of a dwarf perfectly.
Ian Mckellan and Andy Serkis as Gandalf and Gollum are also wonderful, it was really great to see them again.

The Misty Mountains song gave me goosebumps when I first heard it in the trailer over a year ago and still did as I watched it in the theater.

The Flashbacks telling of the fall of Erebor and the dwarves attempt to retake Moria are amazing and heartbreaking. And also a really cool scene that shows how Thorin became Oakenshield.

The Dwarves in action: No matter how silly they might be while relaxing, once they start fighting you better stay out of their way.

Riddles in the Dark: This is probably my favorite scene in the entire film. Very funny and scary at the same time. Basically lifted straight from the pages of the book. And the sequence directly after this one as Bilbo spares Gollum is also amazing.

Out of the Frying Pan and Into the Fire: This entire sequence is in my opinion the best action set peace in the film. Very dramatic and we get to see some of Bilbo's heroism and a nice moment between him and a humbled Thorin.

The last shot of the film, a great tease.

Things I Didn't Love:

A scene with a falling bridge is really dumb and was pulled directly from PJ's King Kong remake.

While I liked Rhadagast in a lot of his scenes I think the Bunny Sled was a bit ridiculous.

The gross humor is overdone a few times.

And overall I think the silly humor was overpowering in some scenes.

So overall definitely an awesome movie with a few annoying elements. And I'm eagerly awaiting the next film. A year is way too long to wait.

Since this was my most anticipated movie of the year I went all out and bought IMAX 3D tickets. The result was visually spectacular and immersive.

As for the film itself I loved it. While I don't think it needed to be split into three movies, the extra time did allow Peter Jackson to include several scenes from the book that would probably have been cut in most adaptations. Although the Dol Gouldur storyline has been altered a bit from the appendices (It was Gandalf- not Radagast- who searched there/Galadriel and Saruman were not in Rivendell at the same time as the dwarves), the primary storyline with Bilbo was pretty faithful to the book.

The returning cast is great and Martin Freeman is excellent as Bilbo and he is a much more likeable protagonist than Elijah Wood's Frodo. The dwarf actors are good too but, like their literary counterparts, they don't have much distinction.

The visuals were great (although I wish they kept prosthetics for the orcs instead of CGI), and I love the new designs for the Wargs. Azog the orc was awesome and I hope he lives on to the Battle of the Five Armies.

The movie felt like the extended editions of the Lord of the Rings in the sense that there was a lot of footage that pander to the fans that will probably seem irrelevant to the casual moviegoer who knows little about Tolkien. As a result, I think the fans of the LotR movies and Tolkiens novels will love the movie while the casual moviegoers will feel that 20-30 minutes could have been cut. I personally loved it, but I would reccomend going to the movie with people who you know already love The Lord of the Rings.

Since this is only one third of the story, I can't say for sure my exact feelings on certain alterations to the story (such as Radagast, Azog, and the White Council). I need to see how all of these additional subplots play out before I make a final judgement.

Overall, I'd say this a 9/10 film for fans and a 7/10 film for the average movie goer.

Josh said.Although the Dol Gouldur storyline has been altered a bit from the appendices (It was Gandalf- not Radagast- who searched there)

I believe Gandalf is going to go to Dol Guldor in the next film. There are scenes in both trailers of Gandalf wandering through Dol Guldor's Dungeons and fighting something. But I guess they were put in the trailer before the decision was made to split it in to 3 films, so they're just going to stick it in the next one because of time constraints.

I was very lucky in that my local theater (Actually, two, MAYBE three near me; I didn't look that far) got HFR, and it was IMAX to boot. So I got to see the film in PJ's ideal specifications, with the exception that our sound system wasn't Dolby Atmos. So that was very cool.

It's a looooooong movie and there's a lot to say about it, so I'm going to just post random thoughts here.

- I thought it was very good...not AMAZING like I had hoped, but very good. I attribute that completely to the fact that the movies got split up so late in post production. It was mostly an editing thing, which brings me to...

- I've heard the pace of this film described as "leisurely", "scenic", and "drawn-out". After seeing the film, I now realize that it's just polite-speak for "YOUR EDITING DECISIONS STINK, PJ!!!" Not going to lie, the movie was more than a little padded, especially at the beginning. Hard to believe that's the biggest criticism I have of the film, but it's true. I felt like I was watching the EE version, which is fine in and of itself, but I didn't want to see the EE, I wanted to see the full-blown theatrical version. I never saw LotR in theaters and I DID see the EE versions of those first, and while the first two were fine, there was something off about RotK that I couldn't quite put my finger on. After finally seeing the theatrical version of that film, I understood why...the RotK EE is just too long, too drawn-out to be a really good cinematic viewing. The theatrical version works so much better because it just flows and you jump from point to point without any filler in the way.
Regarding the Hobbit 1, I felt there was a LOT of filler, especially in the beginning. The pace improved considerably about halfway through, but you can't deny that the beginning just DRAGGED. I mean, when you're spending what felt like 10-15 minutes with FRODO, that's a problem. (I realize it wasn't really that long, but I was actually rooting for Frodo to just LEAVE so I could get to young Bilbo, which is odd!).

- I attribute the "filller" pace of the film to the fact that it and Hobbit 2 were split up so late into post-production. My gut feeling is that PJ had 2.5 movie's worth of REALLY good material, and had to pad somewhat in order to get up to an even 3. My hope is that Hobbit 1 took the brunt of the padding, because of the subsequent movies have the same pace and feel, it will be very hard to justify his decision to split the movies up. Sure, all the fleshed-out material was VERY cool, but it dragged the whole pace of the film down. There's a reason why director's cuts and EE's don't make it into the theaters...it's not always because some mean producer is making them trim the film down. Often, the material just doesn't fit.

- Regarding HFR, I thought it still needs quite a bit of finesse, but ultimately I really did like it. It was incredibly weird at first; it almost felt like I was watching Middle Earth on the History Channel. But then once you got inside the Lonely Mountain, it was just stunning. HFR combined with 3D combined with better CGI made for a freakishly-realistic experience...I literally felt like I could step into the screen and BE there. All the other locations shone in the same way. I've seen LotR multiple times, but I never grasped the full depth of Rivendell until now. It looked REAL, and that's the highest compliment I can pay as someone who is very "behind the scenes savvy" and is not usually faked out by matte paintings or CGI.
The place that HFR needs the most work was in character scenes...they did tend to look a bit glow-y. But I attribute that to the fact that this tech is VERY new and I'm sure that by the time Hobbit 3 comes out, PJ will have worked out the kinks. I've no doubt that HFR will become more common in cinema's eventually; it just needs some time to mature first.

- I never, EVER thought I would ever see an Orc and my first instinct would be, "AWWWWWW", but it happened. I'm pretty sure y'all know which one I'm talking about too; if not, I will be happy to explain. I kind of want to cosplay him for next year.

- No complaints about any of the acting or characters. Loved Bilbo, loved the dwarfs, loved the added/expanded character of Azog. Azrog? I forget. Anyway, he is one creepy Orc dude, and I like that they gave the Orc army a leader; a specific character that we can attribute as the villain. Remember, Smaug is a villain but he's going to be off'ed early into the third movie, if not even at the end of the second...I really think his defeat would be a good climax for the second film, actually. Anyway, he's not around for the Battle of the Five Armies, so they need SOMEONE to fit the bill as Evil Dude and I think freakishly pale Orc will fit the bill quite nicely.

- Music. Howard Shore had done it again; the Lonely Mountain theme is one of the most stunningly beautiful pieces of music I've heard in a long time. To be honest, when I was watching the featurette on post-production and they showed the orchestra in London recording that bit, I actually teared up; it was so good! My only nitpick about the music is re-use of old LotR themes. I get that he's going for tying everything together, and I like that, but for me, there is NOTHING more disconcerting then being pulled out of the moment in a film because you actively recognize the music. It was my biggest beef with PC, and it's a bit of a beef I have with the Hobbit. Luckily for me, that problem will be solved upon subsequent viewings, but still.

More later!

I finally saw this film today! Sadly, we got there late, so I missed the first ~15 min - I came in as Gandalf was talking to Bilbo in front of Bag End. Therefore, I have a good excuse to go see The Hobbit again!

Overall, I really enjoyed it. Some scenes were truly amazing, almost as beautifully adapted as anyone could have hoped. (though nothing's ever perfect). Other bits made me cringe and maybe want to smack Peter Jackson upside the head.

~ The whole Bag End sequence with the dwarves is delightful. A lot of fans have complained that the opening is too long, but I loved every second of it. Though... if they meant the opening I missed, perhaps they're right.
~ Rivendell was glorious. The scenes involving Bilbo and Company's arrival there are some of my favorites. Armored elves on horseback! Architecture and statuary direct from the First Age!
~ Riddles in the dark, of course, was splendid.

The things which annoy me principally are as followers:
~ All of those unnecessary and implausible falls, and almost everything about the Stone Giant incident.
~ Galadriel's blatant teleporting!
~ The lousy CGI work on Azog. He looked fake.
~ Bilbo rescuing Thorin at the end. Cheesy, predictable, and unrealistic.
~ I know it's a little thing, but Thorin's lonnng hair flowing in the wind as the eagle carried him away struck the wrong note. I wanted to laugh.
Essentially, everything adapted well was very good, some of the added/edited material was decent, but most of it was in poor taste.

Gymfan - Which orc?!

Josh, your comments regarding how fans vs. plain ol' moviegoers will rate the film are quite interesting, I think you're definitely right.

aragorn2, I agree re: the overuse of kiddie humor.

I loved the songs, too, Lady Arwen. And that one piece of score/choral at the end, as they're being rescued, was my other musical highlight.

The Old Maid - Ma'am, your review was intensely comprehensive and I agreed with nearly every point.

Elrond's lieutenant could be one of his sons. If he isn't, he looks like one. Alternately, it could be Figwit. I didn't catch his name.

His name is Lindir. So, yes, that's Figwit (if I remember right).

Radagast, an angel of Valinor gets ... a bunny sled. I think the bunny sled was added just to see if they could do it. (The film-makers, that is.) Not even a dog-sled, mind ... a bunny sled.

Ughhh yes. The first time I heard about this I literally did not believe it. After all, The Hobbit is rated PG-13. Let's leave the giant rabbits for children's movies, hmm, Mr Jackson?

Major cool points, though, to Radagast for braving Dol Guldur without backup, fighting a Ringwraith without backup, and bringing a Wraith-sword to Gandalf as proof that the Necromancer is not some Uncle-Andrew-of-London playing at magic but a real Jadis.

Yes! That was great. And I love your Narnian analogy, btw!

In the struggle, Gollum's ring falls out of the rags of his loincloth.

I like that description. I was wondering how in Middle-Earth Gollum had managed not to loose the Ring before!

Gandalf now doesn't get credit for killing the Great Goblin as in the book. The big guy dies by falling down a big hole instead.

To me it appeared that Gandalf severed the Great Goblin's jugular immediately before the bridge fell - at any rate he sliced across the Goblin's throat and it collapsed face-first.

The wargs then push down the pine trees. I realize that wargs are heavier than wolves, but I doubt even wargs are stronger than, say, Arnold Schwarzenegger in his prime. If the Hulk were in this movie, that's okay, but the wargs pushing over 5+ pine trees was just funky.

Actually, I found this departure almost believable - those wargs are large, and their combined strength has got to equal that of a grizzly bear, which are known to push over trees. Perhaps not trees that large, though.

Mod note: The use of spoilers is not required in this thread. It is assumed that people who are posting here have seen the movie or want to see spoilers.

To me it appeared that Gandalf severed the Great Goblin's jugular immediately before the bridge fell - at any rate he sliced across the Goblin's throat and it collapsed face-first.

Oh, was that his throat? When I saw that part all I could think of was, "I am disemboweled. My insides may in an instant become my outsides as I stand here before you."* Anyway, I agree in thinking that Gandalf gets the credit for doing in the Great Goblin.

EDIT: One of the things that had bothered me was the fact that the thrush started knocking and Smaug stirred... thinking about it in the context of three movies it seemed a bit early for the dragon to stir (though of course he also has plenty of time to roll over and go back to sleep) but I just found a sentence in Chapter 12 that mentions just that! So I withdraw that quibble.

FURTHER EDIT: I remember post movie speculating that Bilbo's mail shirt would have been intended for Thranduil's realm (specifically little Legolas, an amusing thought) but in the text it states that it is for one of the son's of Girion, Lord of Dale.

* The King of Attolia by Megan Whalen Turner

Re - Gandalf taking out the great Goblin:
It happened kinda fast, but to me it looked like this:
Great Goblin confronts Gandalf and Co.
Gandalf pokes the Great Goblin in the eye with his staff.
The Goblin laughs at this.
Gandalf slashes across the Goblin's stomach fat, leaving a wide gash. The Goblin falls to its knees and says "That would do it", whereupon Gandalf appeared to slice across its throat.
The Great Goblin falls forward flat.
The bridge falls directly after.

I did wonder about Smaug and the thrush, too. Glad to hear there's a canonical basis for it!

I had intended to wait to post until I'd seen the movie twice, but that hasn't happened yet so here goes:

On the whole, I loved the movie. It was fun, and exciting, and made me sad all-over-again that I can't go to Middle Earth. It was, I think, darker than the book, or at least darker than I remember the book being. I suspect that was on purpose as many of the fans read The Hobbit as children and saw it with the child's eyes. The movie made you see it through the eyes of an adult. I had a few minor quibbles, it's true, but overall I loved it.

Things I really liked:
~The dwarf songs! I knew from the trailer that they would sing the Misty Mountains Cold but I wasn't actually expecting them to do the one with the dishes.
~The troll scene was pretty funny, even if Gandalf didn't get to play as big a part as in the books.
~I love the flashbacks to Erebor. I never really thought too hard about Smaug's actual attack or the dwarfs panicked fleeing before. It was always just: "Oh, yeah, a dragon took over their mountain." The movie changed that!
~The actors were all brilliant.
~I liked the meeting of the White Council. I liked that it showed you the start of the change from the Middle Earth of The Hobbit to the Middle Earth of LOTR.
~I loved that they gave the dwarves more individuality. In the book they all seemed to be a massive cantankerous conglomerate. Here you could actually tell one from the other and they had more personality.
~I loved how they didn't show you all of Smaug. More suspense that way, and it'll be more impressive when Bilbo sees him for the first time.

Things I didn't like:
~Thranduil's moose. This bothered me WAY more than Radagast's bunny sled.
~The goblin king was grotesque. I know he's supposed to be that way, but...ew.
~Galadriel can apparate?! She and Gandalf were also a bit too friendly. Not nearly as bad as the trailers led you to believe, though, so that's a plus.

I'd agree with the prologue being too padded. I was sitting there thinking, "Can we get to the real story already?!?" That and the troll fight and the never-ending stone giants fight would be the things I would either edit down or eliminate altogether.

I don't mind Azog's presence at all. I've always felt like the Battle of Five Armies seems fairly random and an obvious plot device to wrap up the conflict between the humans, dwarves, and elves. Azog's obviously going to be the leader of the goblin armies in that battle, giving it a bit more of a cohesive place in the plot.

I still prefer Lord of the Rings Online's Radagast, who is very stately and elegant with lots of cute animal friends, but movie!Radagast was highly amusing. I've seen him compared to Jar-Jar Binks and I question whether or not those people have actually watched the prequels because Jar-Jar made me want to punch him in the face every time I saw him. I even liked the bunny sled. I could see movie!Radagast and Tom Bombadil hanging out.

Galadriel's teleportation bothered me too, but until PJ demonstates otherwise, I'm going to assume that she was projecting her astral form there or something similar. They did imply in the LotR movies that she and Elrond teleconference via psychic powers.

I'd have to say the one thing that irritated me the most/bothered and confused me was the references to the Witch-King during the White Council's meeting. They refer to the Witch-King being killed and buried in a magically-sealed tomb in Angmar. This makes no sense whatsoever given what we know about the history of the Ringwraiths in both the books and the movies. They seem to be implying in The Hobbit that the Witch-King and the rest of the Ringwraiths died as evil fully human men and then were resurrected by Sauron and given their rings. Anything else makes the Witch-King's arrogance over his perceived immortality so incredibly absurd that it ruins the character. Plus Eowyn's victory over him didn't leave a body, meaning a previous death wouldn't have left a body to be buried. But if Jackson is going the route of making the Ringwraiths something created during Sauron's time as the Necromancer, it doesn't fit with the fact that they're clearly very old and very well known in the LotR movies, not to mention it completely ignores the fact that Tolkien wrote that Sauron gave them their rings in the Second Age when he was handing out rings like cheap doorprizes.

I'm very pleased to say that I'll be going to see the Hobbit this weekend! I'd never in a million years thought I would, when the film came out, I said to myself, "Well, it's out...life goes on." And that was that. Turns out I was very wrong, Santa Claus shocked me and now we're going to sit in the cinema for a few precious hours of Middle Earth.
(Oh gosh, pun was NOT intended, I think my shock and joy is going to my brain. !)

Very rarely do we go to the cinema, but when we do, it's for something really really good that we've been wanting to see. (The last film I saw was The Voyage of the Dawn Treader, the film before that was Prince Caspian. )

I'm not really sure what we're seeing it at; 24 frames, 48 ... I don't know.
Well just have to wait and see!
So, I've stopped reading all reviews containing spoilers.
Does anyone have any suggestions?
And if anyone spotted it, could you give me a hint as to where Peter Jackson's cameo is? He said it was within the first 7 or 8 minutes, but I'd like to make sure I see it.

I hope everyone had a lovey Christmas and you have a wonderful New Year!

48 frames is 3D only and only available in a limited selection of theaters. If you check online, you should be able to find out if your theater is one of them.

I was slightly bothered by the use of different languages. For example, why did Elrond invite the dwarves to dinner in his own language which the dwarves couldn't understand? But I really liked Thranduil, even if the moose was an interesting choice of transportation. At least he looked so much like an elvish king should that I now have trouble trying to remember my former mental image of him!