As a fan of the Lord of the Rings trilogy I did have high expectations for the Hobbit, however my high expectations were somewhat reserved from having watched King Kong and Tintin
Peter Jackson did create a wonderful film franchise with the LOTR trilogy and set the bar pretty high for any subsequent epic movie.
The Hobbit is essentially a much lighter story since it was written as a children's book. There are elements in the Tolkien world which was brought into the film that did make sense and added to the typical adventures of good vs evil.
I have watched both 3D HFR as well as standard 2D format.
Both are enjoyable for different reasons;
You may get lost in the story while watching this new format of film making, High Frame Resolution is new and it does take a moment getting used to it. Some scenes are exceptionally beautiful and others look surreal, some people have called this surrealism fake, but again, i simply justify this by viewers not being used to this resolution.
The 2D is also stunning, reminiscent of the Lord of The Rings film we came to love.
The visuals are not as imposing and/or some would say distracting as the HFR version.
The storytelling is generally good; emphasis on only a few handful of the important dwarfs does help with understanding the story.
Freeman plays a good Bilbo, McKellen IS Gandalf.
Gollum is scary real, almost a little to real.
Our main hero is Thorin Okenshield played well by Richard Armitage who does look the part.
Cate Blanchett and Hugo Weaving also reprise their roles and do as fine of a job.
Radagast the Brown is brought in visually by Dr Who actor Sylvester McCoy who himself does bring elements of humour.
Overall, i did expect a little more, oomph.Could it have been it’s lost of innocence, brought by the success of LOTR perhaps. This I'm not sure. Some elements of the story seemed to have been
stretched out a bit too long and other parts gave me the sense of being a little to rushed.
It is a beautiful film, a grand adventure and definitely entertaining.
Perhaps not worth a Oscar nomination in the Best Film category but visually it was on par and better than any fantasy film prior.
8/10
