I found the film enjoyable 
. Shall be watching it again when it comes to WSC that’s for sure! 
. The only criticism I had was the place of the cliffhanger. I was expecting it to be at the start, or at least in the middle of the whole omg-tree-cliff-everyone-going-to-die bit. But hey, looking forward to the next one now!
I’m with you Rob. I went in with pretty low expectations and still left disappointed.
What I thought was wrong with it:
[list]
*]Far too long (it could and should have been an hour shorter)
*]The structuring of the film wasn’t very good so it didn’t really flow. It felt quite episodic and I’m not really sure that much had changed by the time we got to the end
*]The chase sequence (and some others) looked like they were from a computer game
*]Some of the returning cast weren’t putting in very good performances
*]The tone seemed to be all over the place (fun adventure or dark prelude of things to come)
*]The characters were a bit interchangeable (although I appreciate this problem is from the book)
[/list]
What I liked about it:
[list]
*]I though Martin Freeman fit the role of Bilbo Baggins very well
*]The riddles scene was very good and easily worthy of the Lord of the Rings trilogy
[/list]
After being considered below all other LotR films in terms of quality - who’d have thunk it?
Considering the effects of inflation and the extra box office you get from 3d tickets I think that’s still quite an underperformance. It’ll be interesting to see if the sequels decline or stay at about the same
Inflation-wise, this little gadget:
Tells us that the $1.19 bn that LotR: RotK made in 2003, is now worth $1.48 bn.
Factor price hikes into that and the Hobbit really hasn’t done too specially at all!
Yes - but we all know that Hollywood don’t understand inflation… And considering how bad the film was comparatively - I’d say it’s over-performing.
Whatever you think - I think that the fact that it has made this much money is definitely bad. The creators will get complacent and it’s much less likely that the next films will be any better as they have absolutely no incentive to correct the failings of the first film.