At times amazing, at other times lacking the depth of Tolkien's work.

Rating: 8/10 (15 December 2012)

Having read the book a few times I was quite excited. Having seen the film I was disappointed. The film at times is just incredible, when it follows Tolkien's lead, and disappointing when it strayed from the book, namely for action scenes. 8/10 is an incredible mark, but I expected more.
In the LOTR trilogy Jackson and crew strayed from the books many a time BUT it worked! However there it tended to be the case that they missed stuff out. In the hobbit film they take the scene from Tolkien's work and rewrite it in varying degrees or just invent something completely new. While sometimes this works, other times you wonder why they had to dream up something new.
What annoyed me in order of degree:

The scene where they are in the trees waiting for the eagles to come. In the book there is no fighting scene except for the fire that Gandalf throws down from on high. Also Gandalf does not call for the Eagles... they perchance happen to see the goblin hoards and investigate finding the dwarfs and Gandalf in the trees. The film adds in a fighting scene between Thorin and Azog (which Bilbo stupidly features), I presume to build up the coming battle between the dwarfs and Azog.

The eagles then come but unfortunately we get no dialogue between the eagles and the hobbit/dwarf fellowship. Once again the eagles are sidelined (just as in LOTR) as convenient Taxi's with no explanation of why the eagles left them where they did or insights into their life on middle earth / why they didn't ride eagles to the lonely mountain. The book answers these questions, the film creates problems.

Bilbo's use of the sword (unnecessary). Film: Bilbo had slain 2-3 foes. Book: Bilbo had slain none.

Bilbo found the ring because he fell from a dwarf who was carrying him in the dark DARK tunnels whilst being chased by Goblins. He had to hide from Goblins all alone and happened upon Gollum. In the film, Golllum happens upon Bilbo. However the scene following was incredible.

The trolls did not take their ponies... The dwarf crew were hungry and saw a fire, investigating it they were put in sacks by the Goblins. In the film we got an unnecessary fight scene that only dulled subsequent fight scenes.

There are about 4 additional fight scenes....

We could have had some more dialogue and more exploration of the people's of middle earth. The dwarfs spend 2weeks in Rivendell in the book. The film portrays an hour or two, barely an evening and cheapens the richness of Rivendell. In the book the dwarfs didn't want to leave Rivendell, in the film they didn't like salad!!! That scene is a disgrace to Tolkien's work. I'm sure some thought it funny, but if you know the books then you've been handed a stone when you expected a gem.

How the dwarfs came to be captured by the goblins. Not true to the story. Bilbo was also captured, but for some reason he is invisible before he gets the ring questioning the whole point of the ring in the first place.

The dwarfs are a little more developed in terms of character in the book and you certainly know who is who. In the film you'd be hard pressed to put a name to any of the faces other than Thorin, Bombur and Kili.

Lack of elves. When the dwarfs came to Rivendell they were greeted by many singing elves in the trees.

Saruman the white cannot recognise the blade... he looks like a fool. It's the equivalent of me showing Saruman a knife and a fork saying, "here is a knife and a fork" and him replying, "what proof do you have?" Honestly; SOOOO STUPID! He was supposedly a great wizard before the events in FOTR...

Overall, TOO MUCH fighting and cheapening/over simplifying of the source material. There weren't many real battles apart from in the goblin caves in the book to the point where the film left us. The film makes out middle earth to be more dangerous than the time Frodo sets out on his adventure. Frodo by this logic should technically have several foes to deal with in the first 40mins of his leaving the shire not just the black riders.

What I liked:

The additional scenes with Gandalf and the other wizards / necromancer. Does not feature in the book but really nice to find out what Gandalf is up to.

The songs

The jokes and riddles, mostly taken straight out of the book. Tolkien's lines were always the best

The actor playing Bilbo does a great job

The soundtrack except when they used the black rider theme to show Thorin Oakenshield charging at Azog at the tree scene. IT NEVER HAPPENED. Secondly, Azog is not menacing enough to deserve such music, the film however wants Azog to fill a "sauron" hole when there wasn't one in the first place.

Choice of actors, setting etc. Awesome!!

Talking elvish. Nice. Though at times it felt unnatural, but it was still nice!

I like the dialogue when Bilbo and Gandalf are involved.

CONCLUSION:
Great film! Worth seeing! If they just cut some of the fighting scenes it would have been more impressive, it seemed like every opportunity to have a fighting scene was milked and to the film's detriment. This took away the tension in fighting scenes, and cheapened the film as a whole. I like action scenes, two towers done a great job there, but the source material does not support it nor hold up to it so well 8/10.
Fighting scenes: 6.5-7/10 Dialogue scenes: 9-9.5/10