WARNING - Spoilers!

I've now seen Hobbit 3 in both 24fps IMAX and 48fps HFR. Despite it being visually non-cinematic, I actually prefer the HFR version because you can see more detail, the action is smoother, the image sharper. You get used to the look pretty soon. The HFR doesn't suit every genre, but this trilogy that has so much over-the-top production design, HFR is worth a look.

Some observations about The Hobbit 3 & the trilogy in general:

•    The opening sequence of Smaug attacking Laketown was awesome, only undermined by a bit of lame humour with Stephen Fry. Stephen Fry is not a villain and the audience is not rooting for his death. The tone here should have been unrelenting menace from the impressive Smaug. This is a catastrophic blitz from a massive dragon as he strafes the wooden town. Throw-away gag humour is not needed at this point.
•    Alfrid (the deputy under Fry) is over-used "comic relief" and cringeworthy, dangerously close to becoming Jar Jar. Instead of one or two opportunities to tell us that Alfred is a slimy coward, Jackson gives us about seven. That's what editing is for! The humour wears thin. Bard cuts him way too much slack and Bard’s generosity is not justified by any redemptive (save the cat) moment by Alfrid.
•    Tauriel and Kili. Lilly does her best with the material and gives a great performance under the circumstances. Poise and elegance and cheekbones. But I don’t buy the ‘love’ story. It’s a pay-off that doesn’t work because it isn’t earned. Given that Tauriel is not canon and doesn’t appear in LOTR, perhaps her character should have been killed off, saving Kili or Legolas or Thranduil or someone.
•    Battle sequences: in short, fantastic. A couple of great moments e.g. the elves jumping over the in-formation dwarves in slow-mo, and the eagles swooping down on the second Orc army. Too little Beorn though. There's an extra 30 minutes coming in the EE November 2015. The actual hand-to-hand fighting gets pretty dull after a while, especially in this bloodless PG13 incarnation. Giant armoured Orcs seems to go down with just a tap.
•    CGI: overall it’s impressive what can be achieved given that 95% of this was on a green screen soundstage at Stone Street Studios. But nevertheless, there is an artificiality about it.
•    The boss Orcs (Azog and Bolg) have great physicality. Props to Lawrence Makoare, who was impressive in the original LOTR as head henchman wherever needed, and drove Bolg’s performance here. Bolg’s look with metal 'skin' grafts is imaginatively twisted. And when Azog dies, he looks completely solid.
•    The creature design of the giant trolls, (and 'sandworms'!), is great. As in Dawn of the Planet of the Apes, WETA’s creature work can steal the limelight from the humans. A few great gags, such as headbutting the wall and falling over, which got a laugh. Thranduil's steed collecting five orcs for a mass decapitation was also a hoot.
•    Thranduil – haughty charisma, high camp. Lee Pace did a good job, but the final resolutions with Tauriel and Legolas were unsatisfying.
•    White Council swing into action – finally. Galadriel cranks it up to 11, but like a computer game her ‘manna’ is depleted rapidly by a god-spell.
•    Dwarves: most of the company get no speaking lines. We still don’t know them after more than 8 hours. No excuse for that. For some strange reason Dwalin gets an emotional scene with Thorin, when he’s supposed to be the strong silent type. That could have been better given to Balin or one of the others. Kili declares he's not going to stand around waiting out the battle, while standing around waiting out the battle.
•    Thorin – Richard Armitage imbues Thorin with presence. Great baritone voice, great look, great heavy metal hair (enhanced by slow mo and wind machines) and armoured costume. But the way the character is written throughout the trilogy is terrible. Now he’s a dick, now he’s a leader, now he’s a dick again, now he’s a leader. Especially his schizophrenic relationship with Bilbo. Why are we sad when he dies? Why is Bilbo sad? Thorin spent most of the trilogy trash-talking Bilbo.
Too much dragon-sickness moments with Thorin and how/why does he suddenly overcome it? Why does Thorin seem to give up just before Azog is driving the sword in?
•    Legolas – ascending on falling stones? Really? He’s an elf so that’s how. Whatever. But what is Legolas doing when Thorin has his final fight on the ice with Azog? Legloas has just defeated Bolg on the horizontal tower just below the ice lake, and should be now free to assist Thorin. But Thorin is left to fight Azog for the next ten minutes alone. What’s Legolas doing during this time? Having a beer?
And after six movies, the writers finally think they have to contrive some sort of character arc for Legolas... so they suddenly make him hung up over his mother, with a one-line set-up and a half-hearted one-line pay-off resolution.
•    Martin Freeman. I can’t read him. He’s opaque or repressed. Bilbo never seems to be enjoying himself, even at moments you’d expect him to. I suspect Freeman’s range is not that great and judging from the behind-the-scenes, he’s treating the whole experience as a bit of a joke. There’s a scene when he’s sitting next to Gandalf who’s lighting a pipe, and it’s just a sustained blank look. I’m surprised Freeman passed his audition tests, if he was given any.
•    Mithril vest – why doesn’t everyone wear one? Seems pretty handy. Thorin sure could have done with one.
•    Ring – why doesn’t Bilbo wear the (what he thinks is an) invisibility ring all the time during battle? And into Dale.
•      The ending - it in no way wraps up as nicely as Return of the King. We could have done without the silly auction. Hanging up some souvenirs from the journey would have been better (allowing flashbacks). But there's more still to come.
•      The score - mostly just dissonant battle music. Like the movies themselves, a pale imitation of the original trilogy.
•      No one last glimpse of Gollum? No bridging scenes between Hobbit and LOTR as originally speculated. That would have been more interesting. Nice to see Ian Holm's Bilbo one last time, who has a more more expressive face.

In summary: it's a big-screen spectacle, with much to enjoy. But given the very high benchmark of the LOTR, the Hobbit trilogy ultimately disappoints, let down by poor characterization, bloat-scenes expanding a 300 page book into 8+ hours, and over-reliance on green-screen instead of locations.