I loved The Hobbit, give it five stars and the critics can kiss my azz. Slow and boring? Subtlety must be too much for a lot of people to handle. People like that need to watch more Micheal Bay movies. Nuff said.

 It was good, but there is the distinct lack of urgency that LOTR had.  That said I enjoyed it.  I'm not sold on the 48fps 3D, though.  It may have been sleepiness creeping in on me at 3am when the movie was over but the 48fps and 3D was making my eyes hurt on the way home.  It worked well in spots, but a lot of the time it oddly sped up the motion in the film, which is odd since most of the time when raise the frame rate, it slows the action down.  I'll have to see it possibly in 2D 48fps or at least in another theater to make sure it wasn't just something off in the projection at my theater.  It just had the very sort of quicktime type buffering going on in spots.

I'll be checking it out in Imax on Saturday.  I think it's regular 24fps 3D, though the projectionist at the theater told me months ago they'd had it in 48fps 3D Imax, but according to the Imax site, it's regular 24fps 3D.

 Talis- Well said. I feel the same way about certain movies, and especially these ones. 

Redhairs- LOL . I decided to stop watching midnight showings after Avengers. I realized it's just not worth it. And when ur so tired and sleepy, it just takes you out of the movie and you don't get to appreciate it like you should. But that's just me at my aging self. Im looking forward to seeing it this weekend. Glad to hear the Maniacs say they loved it so far though.

 violator - I wasn't sleepy while watching the film.  I was engaged the whole time.  Just wasn't sure if the eye strain I felt driving home at 3am was from the 3D, the 48fps, sleepiness or a combination of all 3.  Multiple viewing are a must in this case to judge fully whether the 48fps is actually good or kinda meh.

I like the 48 fps tech.  To me it really added a lot of clarity to the 3D that even Avatar did not have.  IF I was James Cameron I would film the next Avatar movies at 48 fps.

The clarity and detail in the images was amazing.  Not sure if it was the 3D or 48fps or the combination but I noticed a lot of times the the movement was heavily sped up.  Usually at faster frame rate will low down an image when played back at the regular 30 or 24 frames.  That may just be an effect of actually viewing the 48 frames at that rate rather than the conversion.  It was a little distracting.  But the image quality was amazing!

 Rob, the studio wasn't the one who decided to do 3 movies. It was PJ and crew, who did it for artistic reasons. It's been we'll documented.

OMG, ok that PJ proved himself again. That was masterful. WTF are the critics talking about too long, that moved just right. Yeah it's slow at the beginning but the storyline has to be set and introductions made. I thought every single minute was worthy of being on the film.

HFR yes it may take you a while to adjust but let me just say that  I LOVED IT. The clarity and crispness is something I have never seen outside HD tv programs. It's like watching those earth nature documentaries, in other words it's life-like. And the 3D has no blurring or shadowing  AT ALL. Anyone that got headaches or eye strain but wants the 3D may love this format.

I loved the orcs, goblin men and all the special f/x shots of trolls and beasts because they looked just amazing. I was taken aback at how sharp the pictures and the f/x shots were.

I was planning on seeing this again in regular 3D but now I've decided to go again for the HFR format because I don't know if it's going to catch on. Hopefully it'll find a niche and some movies dedicate a few screens for this gorgeous new look which I know won't be for everyone

Not as good as any of the LOTR movies, but not far behind.  I really enjoyed it and I can't wait for round 2 next year.

I agree DarthBob but mostly because the scope and epicness of LOTR is so much bigger. But this deserves to sit right along side LOTR.

Right now I'm happier than ever that GDT left the project and PJ took it over. It just feels like it should, that it's the same world, storyline and storyteller. Some of the shots and techniques that are the same from LOTR just makes it all fit together seamlessly and should make for one great movie marathon once this trilogy is done.

This film is definitely an A in my book. I didn't expect this to excite me as much as LOTR but dang it I was wrong. Can't wait to see it again tomorrow