Phew. Reading this thread is exhausting work. There were many posts that reminded me of things I wanted to say about my experience. Here it goes.
My mother surprised my brother and I by taking us (along with a cousin and uncle) to The Hobbit on Christmas. I went in not knowing what to expect. Soon thereafter I was pleasantly surprised by the introduction. I really liked the backstory and old Bilbo starting his story. The part where the camera pans out from Bilbo reminded me of when Bilbo was writing "Concerning Hobbits" in the EE FotR. It was a nice element of nostalgia, reminding me why I decided to read the books in the first place. I think that my favourite part of the whole ordeal was Smaug coming, but us not actually seeing him. It was a nice bit of foreboding. I really enjoyed the dwarves in Bag-end. I was disappointed that Bilbo did not invite Gandalf in for tea, but the way they led into the dwarves coming worked. Martin Freeman made a very good Bilbo, not excellent, but then, we didn't really see a lot of him.
After the company left the Shire, the film quickly went downhill. With the exception of Bilbo messing with the trolls, I did not find the next hour of film enjoyable. When Balin told the Azog backstory, my mother turned to me to ask me if that really happened in the book. I affirmed her that it was Tolkien, not part of TH, but an interesting backstory to put in as filler. After that, I assured her that Azog had died in that battle and we didn't need to worry about him returning. One might imagine my surprise when Azog turned out to be a (or the) main character in the story. I found that inclusion galling. Every scene that Azog was injected into I found boring and superfluous. I didn't like how the orcs were chasing the company, and I really didn't like the big chase scene leading up to Rivendell. Gandalf deciding that the rock the dwarves were hiding behind was the entrance into the valley seemed too off-the-cuff to me, so did the random elf that greeted the company. Thorin's anger at Gandalf for taking them to Rivendell was silly, and felt wholly out of tune with Thorin's character.
Speaking of Thorin, my mother complained that he was too "Aragorn" and not enough of his own character. She and I both found his beef with Azog boring and unneeded. The film was all about Thorin and his history, and Mr. Baggins was hardly featured at all. I was very disgruntled at the lack of Bilbo. This whole affair was about Bilbo going on his adventure with the dwarves. The Hobbit was told from his point of view, and to not have Bilbo be the central character of the film really spoiled it for me.
Another thing that really irked me was how dark it was. Not in the lighting department (Riddles in the Dark looked like it was filmed in in a cave with skylights on a brilliantly sunny day), but in the mood of the movie. Dol Gildur did not look how I personally visioned it, but once inside, it scared me. I felt as if the mood of this film was gloomier and darker than LotR, but with more slapstick. I thought that it was gross when one of the dwarves was snoring and inhaling all of those flies at the same time, a point that my brother thought it hilarious to point out to me later. During the bulk of the film, I felt this nasty sense of foreboding, like some kind of evil was behind it. The feeling is hard to describe, but I was thoroughly creeped out by parts of it.
Mum continuously had to ask me what the hell was going on, and I honestly can say that half the time, I didn't know what to tell her, because I didn't know what was going on myself.
Radagast was really adorable. Not exactly how I imagined him in the books, but pretty close. I don't really know what he was doing in TH, I wondered how they were going to place him before I saw it. Now that I've seen how they've done it, I am satisfied. One more thing about Radagast, I never thought that it was possible for a human being to scurry, thanks to Radagast, now I know.
I went to the bathroom during our stay in Rivendell, honestly, I don't think I missed much. I caught the White Council scene.
The stone giants looked and felt completely different from my version of them, and I think that I have to agree with
Legate about them looking like Transformers.
I didn't mind the Goblin King. He sounded similar to how I imagined.
I enjoyed Riddles in the Dark, aside from all of the sword waving and the extreme brightness of it all. The lighting in Bag-end was darker than that of Gollum's cave.
I really disliked the ending. It made no sense for Bilbo to jump out like that. Azog was obviously a filler. When easily entertained people obviously notice filler, that is just going too far. They put in all of that fluff about Azog being bad and ugly, blah, blah, blah. Then at the end, it cuts to Smaug, as if to say "btw, we totally added a useless villain in here to make you forget about the actual villain of the story, but we'll insert the real bad guy right at the end to make you curious about the next movie. we're stealing your money...lol!!!!!"
The experience was bloated. My mother and my brother were both bored. I found myself wondering after Riddles about when it was going to be over. Bilbo's pantry had made me hungry almost three hours prior, and all I wanted to do was eat. I am a bored eater, and that it what TH made me feel like doing. The film was too long. When seasoned Tolkien fans get antsy in the cinema for a film to end, that is where you need to start cutting. I agree with so many sentiments here that this would have been great fun if someone had at the film with a pair of scissors. It would have made a nice two-parter.
There was something else I wanted to say, but I've forgotten it. I suppose it will come to me as I am trying to sleep tonight.
I'll come back to that later.
EDIT: I remembered what it was! Some bits were quoted almost line by line out of the book, which I thought was fabulous. Others, though, missed the mark completely and were a disappointment to not only my inner Tolkien nerd, but also my inner movie-goer.