Well, I'm back.

chrismg, did the 48fps make you feel ill, or was it wonderful?

Neither? I could definitely tell something was different, but I definitely didn't get sick. I kind of wonder if the 3d effect made it better.

You know how you'll see a ChromaKey effect on an older show, and the image quality difference jumps out it you? It was like that, only the ENTIRE image had the slightly-too-real effect. I'd really like to see something non-realistic with the effect. Too bad Del Toro couldn't use it for Pacific Rim.....

Got back from seeing The Hobbit.

I enjoyed it. I think I would have preferred one good 3-hour movie that stuck to the book, as opposed to this weird hybrid trilogy Jackson is doing. It wasn't bad, it just wasn't The Hobbit.

I like the fact that The Hobbit the book is a fairly straight-forward adventure romp. I don't need all the ill-portants and hints of something more and a bunch of Middle-Earth bigwigs standing around talking about what to do about said portants.

Also, Glamdring (and now Orcrist) not glowing still bugs the crap out of me.

Beau and I got back from The Hobbit.

I liked the movie more than he did. He really was bothered by PJ spending way too much time at the beginning of the film in the Shire. He felt the movie could have been shorter by an hour. Beau could not believe that PJ spent 30 minutes on dinner! I think that is an exaggeration, but I think 30 minutes easily could have been trimmed and it would have been a really good movie. This movie felt like the extended cuts version and not a tight, theatrical release.

Vonnie, it has been a long while since I read The Hobbit, so if I am your guide, I think you should see the film. I was surprised by some of the things that occurred - like I didn't know what would happen next!

I agree with many of the comments above though. There is some repetition in events that was noticeable. In our movie, we had EIGHT trailers before the film. Only 2 of which were movies I wanted to see (Star Trek & Super-man) so I was feeling kind of done before the movie started. Then the movie had a slow start, so about 20 minutes in, I was kind of bored. But that subsided and I was pretty into the last 2/3rds to half of the film.

Beau does not like 3D, so we saw 2D and I was perfectly happy with it.

In sum, I enjoyed the film, but wish it had been a bit tighter. I think I will wish PJ had done the book in 2 movies, but oh well. Given the complaints about length I have seen in general on the Internet, I think I enjoyed the movie more than I thought I would.

Since I've never read the Hobbit, I wasn't bothered too much by any deviation therefrom, but I do have to admit I think we could have had a much tighter, shorter movie and still gotten everything we needed from it.

As for Bilbo's OOC bravery, since I didn't know it was OOC, I didn't mind it. And we saw that Bilbo was just as surprised that he achieved some of what he intended. The part I did feel was true to character was his slyness in dealing with Gollum and concealing the ring from Gandalf. But I only know that from the LotR trilogy.

I felt that the underground scene with the Goblins was waaaaay to long and the way the dwarfs all survived falling and falling and falling really irritated me. Physics does not work like that.

The same with Radagast's rabbit/warg chase. Another scene that would have benefited from some judicious pruning, maybe completely.

And as much as I think Thorin is pretty darn hot for a dwarf, I really didn't need all the yearning, hair flowing Fabio-like, riding the prow of the Titanic shots we got of him.

As it is, while I did enjoy the movie quite a bit, as I like a lot of action in my movies, I would have been nearly as happy to sit for 2-1/2 hours just looking at the scenery, because New Zealand is fucking gorgeous.

And also, for those of you who saw the 9-minute preview of Star Trek Into Darkness, my friends and I have all concluded that the reboot series is going to be known for the gratuitous shots of the prominent display of Pinecock (clothed) vs. Shatnerchest (bared). For those of us who enjoy these kinds of things, we have a new mantra, "all hail JJ's costume department."

Oh and btw. I was completely taken by the dwarf king's beard adornment. Totally awesome. I wanted to stop the movie to touch it.

Man, we didn't get any interesting trailers. The world's gonna end about 12 different ways, none of which looked interesting.

My trailers were crap too. No Star Trek, no Superman.

Yeah, we didn't have any Superman or Star Trek trailers, either. We did have Pacific Rim. Other than that, there was the new Will Smith sci-fi movie, the new Tom Cruise sci-fi movie, and Twilight with aliens, or whatever the hell that movie is.

There was also a commercial for a new reality show called "King of the Nerds" that looked as painful as one would expect.