As one of the few people who loves the series but has never read the books, I found this to be one of the better movies in the series. Some of the movies have been very hard to follow from movie to movie and have introduced new characters out of nowhere and so they have not made any sense, but this followed along well from the last movie and made sense.
As far as the acting, scenery, cinematography, etc., goes, it was outstandingly beautiful and very well done. I just saw that movie last night and wouldn't mind going back to see it again today! The last scene is the perfect cliffhanger for the Part II film.