I hope to see it as 'normally' as possible. But on a side note, I can't believe we're here already, the release of the film a mere week away. Seems like only the other day this was mirred in legal action hell.

Whenever I hear Hobbit news these days I still expect it to be rumors about whether Jackson is returning. Those were a weird few months...

3D hurts my brain.

Empire magazine have given it four stars out of five while Total Film have went all the way and gave it the full five.

I'll be seeing it in 2D at 24fps cause ya know, it's a MOVIE!!  I'll probably see it in 3D at 48fps the weekend after next.  Maybe before Christmas.

I saw it on Wednesday at 48fps - yes, very 'TV' kinda look. Also, prefer to see 3D on IMAX to counter the shrinking effect you get with 3D, but the IMAX here isn't showing it in 48fps.

As for the story itself, 13 invincible dwarves run from west to east and brush off everything that's thrown at them. Some first impressions (but yet to see it on IMAX at 24fps)...

Pros: It's good to enter Middle Earth again. The Riddles in the Dark scene was great. The VFX were superb. Some score cues were okay, especially Misty Mountains song from the trailer. Lots of eye candy - every sunrise/sunset was majestic. Every mountain vista a wallpaper. Photo-real CG. No obvious compositing.
Cons: Action scenes too long, too many, and with no tension. Too many 'set pieces' i.e. dwarves throwing each other weapons and donking enemies at the same time to follow what's happening properly. Not sure if Martin Freeman has the acting chops to pull of the contrived character arc. Some weird editing choices at times. The movie still only covers a fragment of a story. With extended editions, this is going to be stretched to 9 hours! Rivendell scene abruptly ends. A lot of use of CG and sets rather than location shooting and real actors. All the baddies speak Cockney.

I have very little interest in seeing the Hobbit but I heard in a podcast interview with Andy Serkis that he directed second unit on the film. Which I thought was cool.