Some background, it took us 6 hours and two movie theaters to see the movie (the first hour or so of which I watched twice). The saga of seeing the movie was almost more interesting that the film itself. That experience really colored my opinion of the film, so I'm going to need to see it again to get a better feel for it, I think :P.
The intro, with old-Bilbo and Frodo chatting. Way too long and uninteresting. Sure it gave the film continuity with the LotR movies... but really? It didn't need to be that long. Other than that, I liked or loved the rest of the movie.
Next what I liked well enough but was all weird feeling because it was different from the book:
It was seriously jarring to me when Biblo just fell into Gollum's caves instead of being dropped. I understand why they did that, and it probably made for a better movie... but... it was too different and weird. I didn't mind that they switched where Bilbo lost his buttons etc, just that they changed how he got separated from the dwarves.
I actually liked the inclusion of Azog and the orc bounty on the dwarves. It added interest and made a lot of sense within the world. Radagast was... as weird as I imagined and basically also made sense and it was cool to finally see him. I don't think they needed to include that big chase scene though - it just interrupted the plot with extra action. The movie had enough action without that silly bunny sleigh chase.
I'm not sure how I feel about the change in the troll scene. The battle was visually more interesting I guess, and letting Bilbo trick them instead of Gandolf was cool. Either way, it didn't bother or excite me.
And now for what I loved:
I love the way they did the Misty Mountain goblins! Perfect. I've actually been thinking for a while how they would reconcile the goblins of The Hobbit with the orcs of The Lord of the Rings. The goblin king was spot on (except for the way he died? Eh).
I also loved how they used the Gollum/Smeagol divide to make the riddle game make sense. Without Smeagol, why would Gollum want to play a game with Bilbo? It never really did match up in the books and the double personality thing fits perfectly.
I loved that they kept some of the songs. The dwarves singing "That's what Bilbo Baggins hates" and the far over the misty mountains songs, and the goblins singing as they get ready to attack. It maintained the camp of the book which is something I was very pleased with. I kind of wish that they had recorded the entire misty mountain dwarf song, but oh well.
I loved the meeting of the White Council and I am so excited to see more of Smaug. I also loved that they showed dwarf women escaping the Lonely Mountain. It's the little touches that make a movie.
tldr version: As a movie it stands on its own feet and was entertaining and fun, but unlike the LotR movies, it's not better than the book. It felt like it was the director's cut and could have been shorter - especially the beginning which kind of dragged. I'll still see it again, and definitely buy it when it comes out on collector's addition blu ray, but I probably wont also buy the DVD of each individual movie as it comes out as well (like we did with the LotR movies).
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