Few titles can compete with this sort of Epicness

Rating: 9/10 (2 January 2013)

This review is going to be spoiler free.
First of all, let me explain where i'm coming from: I absolutely love the original Lord of the Rings trilogy despite never actually reading any of the books (update: I just recently started reading TFOTR). Basically all above applies to The Hobbit as well.
I haven't read the book but I completely loved the movie. Even though it's not really my place to say, I feel I have to address some of the criticism regarding the choice to make another trilogy based on a book that is shorter than any single book from the original LOTR trilogy. Whether this decision is to be put on the shoulders of Peter Jackson or the publisher, it is undoubtedly a questionable decision. Personally, having seen the movie, I don't feel as strongly against it as I initially did walking in to the theater. In fact, I never really felt as if they were "filling out" with unnecessary - well, maybe somewhat - but definitely not boring parts. It gave a lot of backstory while not laying too much weight on things outside of the quest. Considering that the LOTR movies have always been about the journey itself and - more specifically - the circumstances and arbitrary things that the travelers encounter during their journey, this movie has reached that level of epicness - a level that some may consider only to be matched by it's predecessors. At the end of the day, this is what makes up the nearly-unmatched, incredibly fantastic feeling of an epic and grand adventure that is what we all have to come to expect from the Lord of the Rings and it's adventures portrayed through the vision of Peter Jackson.
Rating: 9/10
The Good: - All things essential to a tale of J.R.R Tolkien - the characters, the atmosphere, the setting, the environments, the dialog - The music is as always incredibly strong and yet another milestone for Howard Shore (though two things I feel you should know: 1. There is no kind of superepic tune that you will find yourself mumbling while sitting on the toilette - well maybe with the exclusion of the dwarf song about the lonely mountain. 2. The use of LORT theme is very little of any at all) - Martin Freeman gives a great performance (not perfect, but great). - Surprisingly I'm going to say that the 48 fps was actually quite spectacular and made the whole movie (especially panoramic shots and action scenes) look a whole lot crisper and simply more beautiful.
The Bad: - (I know it's old clichÃ© but............) It was to damn short. - There will probably not be any extended/directer/limited/what-ever-they-call-it-it's-all-the- the-same edition with additional scenes.