Overall I loved the movie. I never read the book. I saw the Lord of the Ring movies about 30 times. The actors and the story line in the beginning of the movie were very funny and engaging and it helped to compensate for the slow start. The fact that they showed some of characters from The Lord of the Ring trilogy brought back great memories and I sincerely had a smile on my face through out the movie. The HFR 3D technology is simply superb and so real, it was impossible to notice any issues or flaws with the CGI (Computer Generated Imagery) characters, they looked so real, it was truly well done. Can't wait for the 2 others Hobbit movies in the series...