Being a fan of the Tolkien Novels and The Lord of the RIngs films, I thought the Hobbit was pretty good. One thing people tend not to understand is that books -- as they are written -- make pretty poor films. Look at the first two Harry Potter movies for instance; they're pretty much a direct translation from book to film... and they suck
. From what I understand, this will be the last attempt at making films (at least from Peter Jackson & company) in middle earth and they want to go all out with as much material as they can. I can't imagine a couple years down the line we'll get The Silmarillion part one or anything.
To me, what's always been so appealing about middle earth is the intense amount of detail, it's never really been just "an unexpected journey" but more like a history lesson on foot. It doesn't help, however, that they started with the more interesting, and much more exciting of the books first. Assuming you've seen the first trilogy (and at this point who hasn't?) it ultimately makes the hobbit seem a little anti-climactic. So it makes sense that they want to pad the hobbit and make it more of an epic (which it really isn't). I do like how they're trying to set up the Lord of the Rings films in the Hobbit and I hope it will make for a nice flow from movie to movie, changing what was once a 12 hour experience into a good old fashion, 24 hours.
Oh, and I saw it in 24-fps because 48 sucks dick.