Alright, Lord of the Rings was made forever ago right? About 10 years ago to be guessing. We've been waiting all that time to get to the story that happened before that story. So naturally there are going to be a few issues here (this as happened before to another fantastic series). But even with some of these issues, The Hobbit and Peter Jackson don't fail to deliver a fantastic story.
So, first, in it's defense and in the defense of every book turned movie, movies tell the same tale in a vastly different manner and changes have to be made to allow for the different medium of story-telling (so don't act retarded when somethings change). I've read The Hobbit as well and my expectations weren't low. Since there were nearly as many days of shooting the film as LotR, I would expect the same amount of film-age. Some detractors have said, "But LotR was Three books! That's why there's Three Movies! The Hobbit was just ONE Book! Why THREE Movies!?" First, money, lets not kid ourselves. Each of these movies is going to break the 1 billion mark easy. Second, having read the darned book, there is a lot of stuff, I mean a lot of stuff that happens. The LotR trilogy is three fat books because there is a TON of TALKING and explaining and Bleh. In The Hobbit, Bilbo and the dwarfs do a ton of stuff, like not talk or build character cause they're too busy being awesome. There are also a lot of other things that happen that only get mentioned in the book but aren't shown or expounded upon that sound awesome. There is plenty of material for three movies...well, more like 2 1/2. If you want to see a bare minimum of film that still follows the book, watch the 70's animated Hobbit.
So the Movie itself follows the book quite well (with the above mentioned minor changes for film adaptation). The important events from the book are there and follow them quite well. The casting is superb. Not a single actor wasn't nearly perfect, if not straight up perfect, for their roles. Big thumbs there. The acting and writing for the script were also fantastic. There are a few things that are changed, but, they aren't staple parts and/or things and the manner in how they were changed adds to the movie, not detracts from it.
The big thing I need to talk about though is that even though there weren't a lot things in the movie that are in the book, one of those things was character growth and exploration. In the book, or at least how I saw in the book, the dwarfs weren't all that...deep. I mean, yeah they sing about how they want their gold back, but that's about it. In the movie, they hammer home the point that the dwarfs don't have a home and want to get there or at least make one for themselves. This makes the dwarven quest more noble and real. This had to be my favorite thing, overall, about the movie. I actually care about the dwarfs about as much as I care about Bilbo.
So I saw it twice, once in 3D and once normal. I can't say that the 3D had a big affect on me, so you needn't pay the higher price tag for it. But do Brace yourselves, it is a 3 hour movie. Eat and give yourself some relief before going into the theater.
The dice give the Grandaddy of D&D a 9/10. It gets a little campy in parts that I shouldn't feel happy about, I should feel afraid or sad for the dwarfs and also continuity issues that will/already-have arisen.
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