As a life long Tolkien fan I was delighted with the movie. Yes of course there were lots of things "not in the book" but I felt the plotting of the storyline and judious use of the appendices from The Return of the King coupled new material ( e.g. the rabbit chase with Radagast) made for a gripping two hours plus which never lost my attention.

I had heard the beginning was slow but beg to differ. The setting up of the storyline was nicely done with Erebor being magnificently imagined and the attack of Smaug a real seat gripper. The humor in he movie surprised me on the upside. Some of the LOTR humor though not without some great lines ("that still only counts as one" being a favourite) was some times a bit hammed up. The dwarves humor captured the sense of this being a children's book and in my view all the non-Thorin dwarves are all given engaging personalities. Thorin is well imagined and is given a depth of character that is deeper that the book. In the book he is a slightly grumpy character. In the movie his heroic side is nicely played.

Low points were few are far between. The troll scene I felt a little weak but then again in the book the trolls chapter is very much a kids' story version of trolls. The goblin chief was entertaining but not exactly scary. He certainly was easy for Thorin to deal too ( again as in the books the goblins as opposed to orcs are more kids' story characters). I personally find Galadriel a pain in the proverbial. She must lead a boring life . What does she do when she is not being noble and ethereal?

High points for me. I not sure any reviewer has not said Martin Freeman is not perfect as Bilbo and the riddles in the dark scene is top notch. Thorin is excellent and I predict Smaug will be a knockout. Probably the best scene was early on was Dale. Great incidental detail that epitomized the work that has gone into giving the trilogy a great start.

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