I had my doubts, but it was surprisingly great!

Rating: 9/10 (15 December 2012)

I kept up with all of the news and production videos leading up to this movie. I had my doubts about how this movie would turn out. Peter Jackson did change the time-line a little and a few of the events were altered also. But all in all, the movie was very enjoyable for me.
Many people put a lot of stock in visuals. But visuals by themselves don't make a movie good, at least not in my book. Having said that, the visuals were awesome; they're even better than the ones in LOTR. Erebor looks AMAZING! Now for what I didn't like. The White Council scene. Many people have protested it's inclusion in this movie. I didn't mind the idea of having the scene, but I didn't like the execution. I know that Saruman is technically the head of the order of wizards but what kind of hierarchy do they really have? Gandalf seems like a school child getting a reprimand. I also wasn't impressed by the score. It feels like it was recycled from LOTR. While I liked the LOTR score a lot, I would have liked a more different score for the Hobbit. Another thing I didn't like was that Bilbo seems to do almost everything. Instead of Gandalf mimicking the Troll voices, Bilbo stalls them instead. And Bilbo actually saves Thorin in a fight with Azog. It just doesn't gel with the Bilbo I know from the book.
The best things in the movie are Erebor, Orcrist, Bag End, and the Misty Mountains song. Elrond's armor was also pretty cool.
Several people have complained about the pacing, but I thought that it was just right. Then again I do have a longer attention span than most people.