I never came around to read the LotR books before watching the movies and I actually haven't done that until now (so maybe shame on me), but I did read 30-40 pages of the Hobbit. And it seems, like almost everyone of those pages turns out to be in the movie. It's a big scene and it feels like Peter Jackson put almost everything in it. He apparently also put other Tolkien related stuff in it.
Which he must have done, because how could you make 3 movies/parts out of one book? That is smaller in size than the original Rings trilogy that is. But what about the movie? It feels fun and it looks good (once you get used to the HD framing, which makes a few props look very plastic). Also the very HD 3D (or should I say the extra FPS) we got served made the movie feel like it was on fast forward. I think your eyes have to get used to that (in comparison to normal frames per Second that every other movie uses).
Apart from the technical point of view, this is a well made movie, but it never completely touched me. It is well played and it has the beginning of a great adventure, but it feels a bit over bloated. I will obviously watch the other parts too and I'm pretty sure they will up the ante
Edit: rewatching it a decade later, I realize I may have been a bit too harsh on the rating. I guess I do that with big budget movies. I can attest that I reckon I got used to the Higher Frame Rate the movie uses. Not that many movies have adapted that style (I reckon Avatar 2 will), but it is what it is. Technically you can fault the movie and the extended version was quite nice to see (so I guess it wasn't a literal rewatch - no pun intended).
