Good, but different.

Rating: 5/10 (14 December 2012)

***SPOILERS BELOW*** Alright. The first thing I thought when I walked out of the movie theater was how disappointing it was. But now you're thinking, "Well then why Matthew G, did you give the movie an 8/10?" Let me explain. Despite having read the books I expected unrealistic things from this movie. Same director, same location so the movies should be similar. Wrong. The LOTR trilogy is epic, the story is about a great evil rising in the land and threatening all of its inhabitants. The Hobbit is simply the transformation of a few character to what we see later in the trilogy.(Bilbo, and Gandalf). In The Hobbit I think there was a great setup for Gandalf to develop later in the new trilogy. A Subplot involving Radagast (brown wizard) where he discovers a great evil developing turns out to be the Witch King gaining power, which in turn means that Sauron is recovering from his defeat. This should come to light in the second movie around when the rest of the crew, which I'm pretty psyched for if I must say. The pale orc was also an interesting bit, it seemed unnecessary until I realized it set up Thorin's acceptance of Bilbo, and Bilbo's emergence as the character we'll see in the rest of the movies. So it's necessary, but it just seems out of place- apparently it was taken from the appendices or the Similarion which included some extra juicy lore, so it's canon.
Visually the movie was stunning. I saw it in IMAX 3D 48fps. I found that the large view scenes were the most beautiful thing I've ever seen in a movie. With the end, Riddles in the dark, and Rivendale taking the flag for my favorite scenes. 48 fps may be controversial, but its inclusion with 3D gives an immersed feeling I have never felt in film before. That being said, at times it could be distracting (I partially attribute this to the fact that I was seated close to the front). Up-close scenes felt... weird, but the large panning shots Jackson loves doing looked better than ever. I'm excited to see where these movies go, Peter does not disappoint and neither do the actors. Strong performances by everyone, even though the dwarfs other than Thorin are (rightfully) kind of ignored. They still acted quite well.
I'm excited to see where Peter Jackson takes us in the future.