Fans of Peter Jackson's "The Lord of the Rings" Trilogy will not be disappointed with this film.
The movie was very true to the novel, with added features like backstories to characters, details of the Middle-Earth universe to set the stage for "the Lord of the Rings." This movie was like "The Fellowship of the Ring" in a sense that it told more of the story and set it up for the future films in the saga.
Very well done over all however, some parts of the camera work were fast and blurry in certain scenes and it was a little bumming that a lot of the orcs/goblins were CGI instead of live action like in the "Lord of the Rings."
Now unless your 12-13 year old child has read the books or seen the other films, I would not recommend taking them to see it. Like "The Lord of the Rings," there are scenes of violence, scary creatures (goblins, orcs and wargs) and the scene with Gollum involving eating Bilbo if he lost the riddle contest and his intense rage about loosing the Ring.
This movie was amazing and this movie-goer is waiting on pins and needles for the next film.
Pros well paced, great story, great actors
Cons camera work is a little fast and blurry at points