The Hobbit

We saw it last night.  To give some perspective, I am a long time Tolkien fan, I read Tolkien as a child, I read Tolkien aloud to my children when they were young, I saw all three Lord of the Rings movies in theaters, and I have DVD's of them as well.  So I was going to see this movie no matter what.
   Criticism of movies based upon widely read books is tricky.  Many will trash a flick for the smallest departure from the words of the book, no matter how much sense the change makes from the standpoint of a movie.  Movies are different from books.  It's much harder for a movie to show a character's thoughts than it is for a book where the author can go on for pages expounding upon inner most thinking.   Whereas a single movie shot of landscape or interior or street scene can replace pages of descriptive text. 
   This movie has the sets, the costumes, the scenery, and many of the actors  that made the LOTR movies such wonderful viewing, and so true to the original.  It's long, three hours.  It only takes the story up thru chapter 6, out of 19 total, so there is plenty of room  for more movies before Bilbo returns to Bag End.  It moves slowly, scenes are longer than need be, too many scenes are flashbacks or side issues that don't move the plot forward. The movie bungles a couple of beloved scenes from the book.   Gollum mumbles his lines so badly that I couldn't understand the riddles he was posing to Bilbo.   My children have better table manners than the dwarves in the movie. 
   The widely hyped 48 frame per second filming made no perceptible difference to my eye.  We chose to see it in 2D over in Lincoln rather than 3D in Littleton.   Focus was softer than it ought to be for a movie.  I don't know whether this was the fault of the Lincoln projectionist or  the 48 frame per second process, or the 3D filming.
   Anyhow, it's enjoyable.  Take the kids.